The Ultimate Collection Of Free Photoshop Patterns
Photoshop users can save themselves a great deal of time and end up with better results by taking advantage of readily available freebies, such as brushes, patterns and shapes. With the wide variety and (often) high quality of resources available, whatever you need or are looking for is in most cases already available somewhere. The only problem is that the vast quantity of freebies can make it difficult to track down what you need. Hopefully this collection of excellent Photoshop patterns will help.
The resources featured here are all available as downloads in PAT format, which can be placed in Photoshop. In addition to this format, there is also a number of quality resources online for creating or using patterns in other formats that can be used by any program, not just Photoshop. As with any type of freebie, always be sure to check the license or requirements set by the creator.
Skull Patterns
Two skull patterns from Go Media using an image from one of its vector packs.
Carbon Fiber
A carbon fiber pattern.
Patterns from PunkSafetyPin
This set of 15 patterns from a deviantART user offers more than 30 other packs of patterns.
Grunge Pattern Set
Nine large and high-quality grunge patterns.
Dots Pattern Set
Eight dot patterns of various colors and styles.
Hexagonal Patterns
Seventy-two black-and-white horizontal and vertical patterns.
Skulls and Hearts
Three different gray, white and pink patterns.
Charcoal Demask
One seamless pattern.
Victiorian Dreams Textures
Ten textured patterns of different variations.
Paisley
A set of eight stylish paisley patterns.
Checkered Patterns
Three different patterns featuring a checkered design.
Different Texture
A swirling flourish pattern.
Scanline and Screentone Patterns
A big collection of 27 different patterns.
Spiderman Pattern
One tileable metal pattern.
Patterns from DesignSpice
A set of 10 repeating blue patterns.
Zig-Zag Pattern Set
Eight colorful zig-zag patterns.
Scanlines1000
A set of 21 transparent patterns of scan lines.
Patterns by Raimyu
A set of 20 patterns of different kinds.
Squidfingers Pack
A huge set of 108 different patterns of all kinds.
Textured Stripes
Six patterns of textured diagonal stripes of various colors.
Floral Patterns
A set of 17 patterns with different floral styles.
Tile Patterns
A large set of 36 patterns of tiles. Brick and wood patterns are also included.
Animal Print Patterns
This set includes 18 different animal-fur print and skin patterns.
Grungy and Dirty Patterns
Seamless, big texture patterns. There are 27 in the set.
Micro Patterns
A big collection of 54 patterns.
Vector Patterns
Twelve attractive patterns in this set.
Wallpaper Patterns
A total of six patterns (two different sizes of three patterns).
Dots and Stripes Patterns
Ten patterns, four of stripes and six of dots.
Floral Patterns
Includes 28 patterns, plus PNG files for each.
Cards Pattern
Eight different variations of the pattern are included.
Handmade Paper Patterns
A set of seven patterns (the same pattern in seven colors).
Patterns by Camilak3
A set of 17 patterns that include stars, butterflies, hearts and paw prints.
Web 2.0 Pattern Collection
A huge set of 133 patterns in various Web 2.0 styles.
Seamless Patterns
Six different patterns to choose from.
Wood Pattern Textures Set
This set includes 19 wood patterns with different shades and styles.
Plaid and Checkered Patterns
A total of 25 patterns are included in this set.
Lace Patterns
This set contains 19 seamless lace patterns.
Noise Patterns
Ten seamless noise patterns for adding texture.
This set includes eight brick patterns.
Composition Patterns
Five patterns of notebook paper and a composition book.
PS Patterns Pack
A set of three different patterns, including squares, dots and hearts.
Fire Patterns
A set of 20 high-resolution fire patterns.
Chevrons Pattern Set
A set of eight patterns of different shapes and colors.
Fiber Paper Pattern Set
A set of 10 patterns of different colors with a textured look.
Patterns #22
A set of 30 colorful patterns.
Spring Fling
This set includes 36 pink and green patterns.
Stripes Patterns
A set of 30 disturbed stripe patterns.
Line Patterns
This set contains 25 colorful patterns of lines.
Bourbon Stripes
A set of 12 stripe patterns, both vertical and horizontal, with different color combinations.
Hearts and Boxes
Three patterns in a hand-drawn style.
Related Resources, Tutorials and Articles:
How to Install Photoshop Patterns
If you’re unsure how to install and use the patterns featured here, this article explains the simple process.
Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Custom Patterns
Hongkiat has a tutorial that demonstrates the steps in creating a simple repeating pattern.
Creating Patterns in Photoshop CS2
Veerle demonstrates how to use Illustrator and Photoshop to create a seamless pattern.
BgPatterns
A fun and useful tool for creating your own JPG file to use as a repeating pattern.
Stripe Generator
If a striped pattern is what you’re after, this tool will let you create your own any way you like it.
COLOURlovers
COLOURlovers has a great collection of user-submitted patterns for downloading in PNG format.
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Juan Medina
February 12th, 2009 7:05 pmSweet!
Damian Madray
February 12th, 2009 7:12 pmVery cool collection that designers can use in so many different ways. As always, Thanks.
eddiedesigns
February 12th, 2009 7:15 pmThanks SM for posting this. Excellent references. Love Squidfingers, BGpatterns and especially colourLovers.
D7
February 12th, 2009 7:15 pmNow that is what is really Ultimate!
A great thanks for the great post
Pliggs
February 12th, 2009 7:23 pmThose are fantastic. Thanks for compiling.
myPhotoshopBrushes
February 12th, 2009 7:27 pmGreat collection, thanks for adding patterns from our site.
an.gg.un
February 12th, 2009 7:30 pmbeautiful collection….
Kayla
February 12th, 2009 7:35 pmWow, great collection. Bookmarking!
raouf
March 11th, 2010 11:44 amhi how do you do ?
i like photo shop.
digiburd
February 12th, 2009 7:57 pmgreat collection as usual SM, I would like to see how some of these are used in SM readers designs and layouts… anyone?
Chris Wallace
February 12th, 2009 8:04 pmMost of these are not very good.
Bill Biwer
February 12th, 2009 8:06 pmWonderful collection. Nice touch with the resource sites and tutorials at the bottom.
Paul Marek
February 12th, 2009 8:13 pmThat’s one amazing collection of patterns, I’m going to be downloading all night now! Keep up the good work SM!
Christopher Jack
February 12th, 2009 8:15 pmPretty nice collection, thanks!
Brian Gottier
February 12th, 2009 8:19 pmI liked the photoshop tutorials. Thanks
nishant
February 12th, 2009 8:28 pmNice collection, is that Stripes Patterns link really working?
KJ
February 12th, 2009 8:44 pmas usual .. great post .. great stuff .. tks a lot :)
SuRi
February 12th, 2009 8:49 pmVery nice collaction I like it…:)
David Lano
February 12th, 2009 8:52 pmWow, excellent collection, thanks! :)
Tom
February 12th, 2009 9:13 pmincredible source!
DKumar M.
February 12th, 2009 9:25 pmMore freebies…. Nice !!
Miraclemart
February 12th, 2009 10:20 pmVery useful, where do you get all that stuff! ;-)
Bidg
February 12th, 2009 10:40 pmthanks for this collection. That what i was looking for.
Timo
February 12th, 2009 11:03 pmthis is great! I love reading the news and using the stuff of smashing magazine!
Ash
February 12th, 2009 11:04 pmFile not found on the “stripe patterns” link.
Nice collection.
Nakiloe
February 13th, 2009 12:04 amThey look beautiful but is there a way to convert pat files to png?
Suneel
February 13th, 2009 12:52 amAn awesome post as usual.
These patterns would really serve my small purpose. But, I wish their creators to be highly proactive as these things are superb.
Thanks for sharing these.
Simon Day
February 13th, 2009 12:58 amThis is a nice collection!
Oğuz ÇELİKDEMİR
February 13th, 2009 1:10 am“Stripes Patterns” link doesn’t working, could you please fix it?
mojitopl
February 13th, 2009 1:21 am… and thank You! :)
jumi Promotional Products
February 13th, 2009 1:30 amnice
fedegrafo
February 13th, 2009 1:58 amgreat links!
thanks for sharing …
idek
February 13th, 2009 2:08 amThx! Beauty pattern!
Creamy CSS
February 13th, 2009 2:09 amReally nice collection! Thanks ;)
Does anybody know where to find more WOODEN PATTERNS?.. Thanks for help!
Paul
February 13th, 2009 2:23 amNice collection. The tuts are usefull too! Thanks.
vellkan
February 13th, 2009 3:06 amMore, more, mooore! Excellent stuff, again :)
acida dulcinea
February 13th, 2009 6:07 amgreat! thanks a lot for the recollection!
sunil
February 13th, 2009 6:14 amneat!!!
jameson
February 13th, 2009 6:29 amIn the voice of Chandler from Friends….. Could Smashing Magazine be any more useful??
MattSepeta
June 2nd, 2010 10:23 amLOL.
Dan Koperski
February 13th, 2009 7:25 amK10K has a nice gallery of pixel patterns that you could have included as well:
http://www.k10k.net/pixelpatterns/ If you haven’t, you should check them out.. :)
anon
February 13th, 2009 9:43 amFinally, thx. :)
Davin
February 13th, 2009 10:25 am“The Ultimate Collection Of Free Photoshop Patterns” till SM releases a new collection. Maybe the title should be “Another Awesome Collection Of Free Photoshop Patterns”.
Jesse
February 13th, 2009 10:25 amThe main problem with 70% of these is that they are bricked by attribution clauses in the terms of use. This doesn’t seem to be as big of a problem in many of the icon and font galleries.
Sometimes it is good to share just for sharing’s sake.. all of us designers post a few things here and there without restriction (except that someone doesn’t resale the collection), and we all have more tools to use in our work.
In 3 years, if I choose a pattern out of the thousands on my computer and throw it over an element in my design, I won’t be able to dig around and figure out who I am ‘required’ to link back to in order not to violate the copyright.
Plus, what bank, corporation, government agency or business is going to allow the designer to throw “Random square pattern barely visible in background of contact form by [link]PhotoshopPWNRdood[/link]“? They won’t, therefore the pattern is completely useless for downloaders.
I quickly check the Terms of Use on each set, see if there is an attribution or ‘ask permission’ clause, and if there is, I have to skip it. When I post my own freebies, I un-cuff them and let the community use them, knowing others will do the same and it will benefit me. These designers should do the same. If you want credit and money, then please just sell your work.. but don’t tease us with a free download that is anything but.
vu tran
February 13th, 2009 12:07 pmthank you for this awesome post
Nodashi
February 13th, 2009 2:49 pmThe Stripes Patterns link is broken :/
Selami Haktan
February 13th, 2009 3:31 pmthx for huge archive especially for Web 2.0 Pattern Collection its amazing!
i was seeking for a long time something like that
Jordan
February 13th, 2009 3:58 pmYou all are absolute saints. Lovin’ SM.
jing
February 13th, 2009 10:53 pmlove smashingmagazine more than my desktop :)
lalit
February 14th, 2009 2:27 amthanx for all the Patterns
Henriko
February 14th, 2009 4:39 amWow! Thanks you very much for sharing this! It’s a good damn jungle out there on the net – but Smashing Magazine makes it easy to find things!
You are my heroes!!
/H
Iqbal
February 14th, 2009 6:58 amWow! Wow! Wow! All great one of the Stripes Pattern Links are working any chance of updating called ‘Stripes Pattern’
Thanks
Andrei Gonzales
February 14th, 2009 11:58 am@Jesse:
Thank you for the common sense post. They should include it at the top of the article.
Diego
February 14th, 2009 1:37 pmniceeeee
Abrishca Digital Media
February 15th, 2009 3:45 amThis has to be the ultimate pattern resource going around…whatever you need, I’m sure you can find it here!
Badger
February 15th, 2009 3:15 pmCouldn’t agree with Jesse (#42) more. Great post.
So many times I have wanted to use a pattern or font or icon offered here on SM only to find its restricted in some way. Its awesome to see the level of thought and design skill that goes on, but I know that most of the ‘free’ stuff is anything but.
I can see the fear you may have that somehow your designs end up being stolen and used for what you didnt want it used for, but lets face it, people who do that arent going to care a jot for any permission you may put on it.
Protect what you really want to protect, but please for those of us who are design challenged, let the others fly.
abah indehoy !
February 15th, 2009 6:38 pmNICE INPOH GAN ! Kasih ijo2 nya gan …
Aravind M Potadar
February 16th, 2009 3:17 amWow!!! Thanks for sharing these kind of pattern collections. I’ve been searching for this. ;) finally got here
Nick
February 16th, 2009 4:23 amGreat Post, keep putting up buddies.
acidl33t
February 16th, 2009 9:32 amAwesome!
Thanks for sharing!
Harris
February 17th, 2009 12:20 pmToo bad there isn’t a good grass or clouds pattern.
archknight79
February 17th, 2009 5:15 pmreally nice collection
ronihind
February 18th, 2009 3:08 amI’m with you number 10…
Todd
February 18th, 2009 8:44 pmThe “striped pattern” link to “http://patterndepartment.deviantart.com/art/pd-stripes-pattern-54693766″ doesn’t work. Great collection otherwise.
aspiredmind.com
February 19th, 2009 1:39 amawesome!
Sumara Rabbani
February 19th, 2009 11:54 amMane bau maja padi…Atla sundar chitra joine maru man gadgadit thay uthyu…Kyathi uthavya…Bijo kai kam dhandho chhe ke nai….Navra betha betha aaj karo chho ke su?…Amara gam ma kehvat chhe..” Navro betho nakhod vaare “….haru to biju kai sotado to kejo…….hoke…gud of luck……Billu barber joyu ke nai….Chhokra ne lai ne joi aavjo ho….
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
February 19th, 2009 1:39 pmpatterndepartment.deviantart.com
can’t update this. link & picture deleted. sorry.
Daniel Duvald
February 20th, 2009 3:44 amThanks!
What a great design ressource!!! Please keep up the great work – one of the patterns saved my day!
Kind regards
Daniel
DForm
Brant Schroeder
February 25th, 2009 1:10 pmThanks
Buy Adobe Photoshop
February 26th, 2009 2:04 pmThank you so much for sharing these patterns and all of the resources you share with the design community!
Rory Martin
March 3rd, 2009 12:58 amSome really nice textures here, ideal for subtle website backgrounds. These types of images can really bring to life a simple coloured gradient.
thanks for sharing…
Evan
March 19th, 2009 6:13 pmso happy i found this
Alex
April 18th, 2009 4:08 amOk, this can sound a bit odd, but how do you open a .pat file? I’m using PS CS4 and it won’t open it. No errors, no nothing, it just won’t open it.
Thank you,
Alex
blackessej
October 14th, 2010 10:32 amAlex, it did open them. Go Edit>Preset Manager and then select Patterns in the drop down…there they are.
zabulun
May 25th, 2009 5:01 amThank You
sudhir
June 4th, 2009 12:38 pmThanks….
its from bottom of my heart.
I am really speechless and happy with ur wok.
Once again thanks….
sudhir
AISHU
June 7th, 2009 5:56 amthey r good but i could not find water drop patterns in ur collection . pls send it to my mail if they r with u .
Dreamwolf
July 15th, 2009 4:03 amThese things are just so great. Time saving and just add some perfections to your work. If u a novice to photoshop, use these
FreeStyle
August 13th, 2009 5:30 amGreat PAtterns :D thx
Stoj
August 24th, 2009 8:36 pmWallpaper Patterns
A total of six patterns (two different sizes of three patterns). – that url is not working,
if anyone can get back to us or fix that link for that set, or find it on deviantart, that would be super good.
thanks.
Stoj
Mario
September 9th, 2009 8:52 amhttp://idesignpatterns.com is another great source for Photoshop patterns.
yaaaaaaaaaa
September 17th, 2009 9:34 ami want to make love to it
David Carson
November 2nd, 2009 1:56 pmThank you for sharing with us !
rajkishan
November 20th, 2009 7:13 pmI learn more photoshop guides
Keegan
December 6th, 2009 1:59 amThe whole design community owes you a big thank you for these…extremely useful and time saving. I use them all the time and really appreciate having sites like this to come to for tweaks and improvements.
Dev Duff
January 10th, 2010 11:11 pmGood list of patterns and backgrounds. Using a couple of them for my website.
Thanks for listing these cool patterns and backgrounds.
IL MaGo
February 7th, 2010 3:56 pmThank you very much
sincerely ! great collection
ricky
February 9th, 2010 11:39 pmTry and Feel pride, This is realy great.
adi purwa
February 19th, 2010 11:58 pmwow…
great… thx…
—-
Moksha
February 21st, 2010 1:09 pmreally nice list of pattern
Jason
February 24th, 2010 6:40 pmfeel like i just hit a goldmine.
elyaspour
April 2nd, 2010 1:06 pmok! :)
Martin Lucas
May 1st, 2010 8:33 amThanks, I was only looking for a couple of different stripes – ended up downloading loads of them!
Iris Creativo
May 31st, 2010 9:31 amLoved them!!
Thanks!!
steve
June 4th, 2010 10:16 amAwesome collection. The only problem (for me, because I’m not really a design god) is choosing the right pattern.
Thankx
Alan
June 17th, 2010 2:26 amExcellent stuff, some good patterns there to use.
David
August 3rd, 2010 11:48 pmGreat collection, nice way to add depth to a design.
njmehta
September 1st, 2010 6:15 amOnce again, Smashing Mag provides an awesome resource for designers (and wanna-bes).
Brushesbee
September 7th, 2010 2:19 amAlright, this is a huge collection, thanks!
Nadir
October 18th, 2010 8:50 pmAwesome list of patterns
Deedee
February 28th, 2011 3:48 pmthank u! ^_^
David
March 6th, 2011 1:08 amgreat collection, thank you!
Ariel
September 5th, 2011 12:39 amAwesome .. Love it