In my last post How to define patterns in photoshop i outlined how to define patterns, but of course we want to know how to make good looking ones. This involves a couple of different line patterns and styling them.

Download My pack of pattens

Download my pack of line patterns here: Pack of line patterns
This download just saves you a bit of your time =]

Loading the patterns

To load the patterns, just go Layer Style (double click a layer) >> Pattern OverLay >> Click the pattern drop down >> click the arrow(pointing right) >> Load Patterns

Now choose the pattern you want.

Styling the patterns

There are some great ways of styling patterns just by using the layer styles and the paint bucket tool.

When you load the pattern pack, you will notice the backgrounds are transparent, this is so you can easily change the background color, simply use the paint bucket tool in the floating menu on your layer. This makes the background color change, with your pattern on top of it.

Changing pattern opacity for a better looking pattern, this is got to be the easiest bit of all. Just change the opacity in the Pattern OverLay style menu, low opacity here is usauly best but just play around with it.

Adding a gradient using layer styles is easy but the gradient will overlay your pattern so just turn down the opacity on your gradient style, and your done.

Easy as.

Defining pattens in Photoshop can be very useful, if you want to use patterns of your own. Defining patterns is actually quite easy and doesn’t take long. I have found patterns to be great space fillers mainly for website backgrounds, banners or even buttons..

Here’s a list of steps to define a pattern:

1. Make a new canvas by going File >> New
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3. Make the canvas size 6×6, it can be any height, depending on the pattern you want to make
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5. Now zoom in as far as possible
   
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7. Time to do some pixel art, remember the pattern needs to be able to repeat, so make it semetrical
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9. Here is my pattern, simple, but effective
   
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11. Now to define it. Simply goto the top menu >> Edit >> Define Pattern then in the popup box give it a name:
    
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13. Thats it! Now you can access and use your pattern in the layer styles (double click a layer) layer style:
    

Here is an example of my pattern, with a background color and the opacity changed etc..

And that’s it!