Patterned backgrounds are a very popular finishing touch for many websites. While it seems that diagonal stripes are in this season (especially for Web 2.0 sites), there are so many other options from elegant to whimsy, preppy to proper. The following sites have some really fabulous patterns to choose from:
1. Squidfingers - 158 absolutely stunning background patterns by Travis Beckham.
2. DinPattern - about 50 patterns (and it looks like more will be added) that are beautiful eye candy. There is even a live preview option to test out the backgrounds as you browse.
3. Kaliber10000 - currently there are 927 pixellated patterns on their site, many of which are user submitted.
4. 44Suburbia - 61 very sophisticated patterns
5. Pattern4u - another site jam packed with unique backgrounds and patterns - there are well over 100 different patterns to choose from.
6. Pootato - many of these patterns are more simplistic and can be used in Photoshop and other graphics programs. Looking for some cool Photoshop brushes? Pootato has them too.
7. iStockPhoto - clearly one of the best resources for fresh, new backgrounds of every kind.
8. One Pattern - while their patterns are not free, you purchase them in collections for less than $20 a set.
9. 3Quarks - very subtle paper like backgrounds
10. CitrusMoon - the CitrusMoon site hasn’t been updated in years, but the backgrounds are free and many of them are still beautiful
11. TartanMaker - want to have fun and design your own tartan plaid background? Tartan Maker is an interactive tartan plaid maker.
12. StripeGenerator - craving the current Web 2.0 trend? Make your own stripes background with Stripe Generator.
13. Background Maker - this was addictively FUN - click on pixels and watch your background come to life before you very eyes
Just a tip - you might want to set aside a nice block of time to browse these sites - there is so much to look at that it becomes a giant time vacuum. Have fun!!
This post is part of Thursday Thirteen. You can find more TT entries at the TT hub.
Related posts:
- 13 Sites for Unique Textures
- 13 Steps to a Blog Redesign
- My 13 Favorite WordPress Resources
- 13 Things Every Website Needs
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15 Comments»
jenn
4. October 2007 | 07:07 hI will be checking those out soon.
Happy TT!
jennifer
4. October 2007 | 08:01 hI love this post and have put it in my bookmarks.
My 13 is up on
Working at Home Mom
Marsha
4. October 2007 | 11:57 hThanks for the tips.
Aaron Weiche | Prime Blog
4. October 2007 | 13:39 hChar - Great list. We have recently been loving the iStockphoto (#7) offering as of late as well!
DeMerchant
4. October 2007 | 13:40 hBackgrounds are a pain, but finding headers is the worst… tips?
Char
4. October 2007 | 13:40 hAaron - glad you like it! iStockphoto is such a great resource for any designer - I always look there first.
Katie
4. October 2007 | 17:58 hI never thought of iStockphoto for backgrounds. Duh. I only think photos when I go there. That is the best tip of all for me. Thanks!
Joni
5. October 2007 | 00:27 hHi, Char! Thanks for compiling these resource sites. I needed them.
Donna Gunter
5. October 2007 | 09:49 hFantastic list! Thanks for publishing it!
skarld
6. October 2007 | 00:34 hBackground Maker was lots of fun. I have used StripeGenerator to create a background image on my site. By creating stripes on a daily basis and adding them to their gallery, I was even able to generate a few visitors to my site.
Paul Enderson
6. October 2007 | 01:34 hSuperb - thanks Char! I spent a couple of hours yesterday, trying to find good sources for tiled backgrounds (to suggest to Britster members once the site goes live). Don’t think I’ll need to search for any more now though!
Angela
6. December 2007 | 15:40 h44 Suburbia has closed up shot apparently. That’s too bad because from the look of the graphic on the front page I think her stuff would have been fun to take a look at.
I really enjoyed Din and Squid and make sure to bookmark those Char! Thanks so much! I’ll have to try some of them out to go with that new tutorial that you put up about how to tweak the background on wordpress.
Matthijs Hofstede
10. January 2008 | 04:45 hThanks for this post. Making patterns in Photoshop is great but it takes up a lot of time testing and changing them. You saved me a lot of time!
Anna Debreno
21. February 2008 | 09:55 hWow, many thx for these wonderful links. I really enjoy Onepattern.com for their wonderful vectors. They make pattern swatches you can use and modify with happyness in Adobe illustrator, save my time !!
MAC
6. March 2008 | 05:07 hWow a fantastic lists ever!! you have saved lots of my time, now i can make a anything without need to testing and changing them. thank again