How to Make a Repeatable Texture in Photoshop

Designers often need to create realistic textures -- such as rusty metal, leather or denim -- for a background image. When a design calls for a large piece of texture, you don't have to tackle the time-consuming challenge of making that texture full-size. With Photoshop, you can design a small image pattern which then repeats seamlessly on the page.

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Sampled image of texture

1. • 1
     Launch Photoshop, and then select "Open" from the "File" menu. Navigate through the folders in the dialogue window to find a small textured image you like, and then click the "Open" button.
   • 2
     Select the Crop tool from the Tool palette. Place the cursor in the upper-left corner of the image. Hold down the "Shift" key and drag the cursor across the image. Release the mouse button. This crops the image to a square.
   • 3
     Select "Image" from the main menu, and then scroll down to "Image Size" and note the width and height in the "Pixel Dimensions" text boxes.
   • 4
     Select "Filter," and then scroll down to "Other" and select "Offset" from the sub-menu. Adjust the slider for "Horizontal pixels right" and "Vertical pixels down" to exactly one-half the pixel dimensions of the image size previously noted. Click the radio button next to "Wrap Around," and then click "OK." Select "Layers," and then "Merge Layers" to flatten the four images created in the offset process.
   • 5
     Select the Clone tool from the Tool palette. Click the Brush menu from the menu bar and adjust the size of the brush to suit the image. Move the "Hardness" slider to the left to create a soft edge for your brush. Adjust the "Opacity" and "Flow" fields to 85 percent.
   • 6
     Press "Alt" and click the cursor on an area to sample that portion of the image. Move the cursor to a new portion of the image, such as dark division marks or seams between the images. Click the mouse to "paint" the sampled image over the areas you want to eliminate. The goal is to make the offset images look organic, not overlapped.