©Cathy's Corner - Patterned Background Tutorial (Part I)

This tutorial was written using PSP7, but should work in fine in PSP6. You will learn how to make a seamless, patterned background, such as the one I used on this page. I'm sure I learned the basic technique from another tutorial, but I wrote this tutorial strictly from memory.

This part of the tutorial will show you how to make a background from a graphic image.

WARNING: I find tutorials with lots of visuals much easier to follow so I use a lot of screen shots in my tutorials. This one is no exception, so please be patient and give the page time to load - you won't be sorry!

*** PART III ***

1. Open a new image 200x200 pixels with a transparent background.

2. Open the image of your choice. Make sure your grid lines are on and set to 50 and 50, and that you have Snap to Grid active. (You can find this by clicking on "View".)

3. I chose a flower from Mark Charneski's Fresh Flower Scans. I used a picture of a Begonia, as shown below.

(This is the picture I'm using, resized to 25% of original.)

4. Look at your image and find an area that you think would work well as a seamless background. You want to use a section 100x100 pixels. (Don't worry - if your first choice doesn't look right when you're done, just go back and choose another area.) I decided on the highlighted area surrounded by yellow in the graphic below:

5. With my grid lines on, I can tell that the area I chose was 250 pixels from the top and 150 pixels in from the left. PSP8: Click your selection tool and choose Custom Selection. PSP7: To select this area, double click on your selection tool , and enter the following numbers (Left and top numbers from above, then add 100 for the right and bottom numbers):

6. Copy this area (Ctrl+C.).

7. Go to your 200x200 blank graphic and paste as a new layer (Ctrl+L).

8. Using your mover tool, slide your image into the upper left corner. With Snap to Grid on you will "feel" your image "snap" into the exact corner.

9. Right click on Layer2 in your Layer Palette box and choose duplicate.

10. Click on Image/Mirror, your image will look like this:

11. Turn off the visibility for Layer1 in your Layer Palette box.

12. Right lick on Layer2 and choose Merge/Merge Visible.

13. Right click on your Merged layer and choose duplicate.

14. Click on Image/Flip, your image will look like this:

15. Make sure the visibility for Layer1 is still turned off and merge the other two layers.

16. While the above image would probably work, I did a little more tweaking.

17. I duplicated my merged layer, rotated the new layer by 90�, then lowered the opacity on this new layer to 50. I ended up with this:

(Much nicer, don't you agree?)

18. Turn off the visibility for Layer1 and merge your other two layers. (Right click on one of the other two layers and choose Merge/Merge Visible.) A nicer pattern, but a little too dark.

19. Make Layer1 active and flood fill with white.

20. Lower the opacity on your merged layer to about 50, and you end up with this:

21. Merge all layers, resize by 50% and you have a seamless background.

Back to PART I