Seamless Tiles with the Pattern Effect

There are all sorts of abstract tile generators available, some for free and some not. But you don't need another application. You've already got something right in Paint Shop Pro that enables you to create interesting seamless tiles: the Pattern Effect.

1. Open a new 24-bit image with File > New. The dimensions are up to you, but 128x128 or 96x96 usually works well. (For best tiling results, set Height equal to Width.)

   

2. Fill the image canvas any way you like. A portion of a digital photo works well, and so does filling the image canvas with the Picture Tube tool. For my example, I've used the Monarchs Picture Tube, with the Scale set to 50:

   

3. Apply the Pattern effect by choosing Effects > Reflection Effects > Pattern, using whatever settings produce an effect that you like.

   

   Warning: Not all settings on all image sizes will produce seamless tiles. You may need to adjust the following settings: Scale, Horizontal shift, Vertical shift. If you have trouble getting a seamless pattern, start with a 128x128 or 96x96 image canvas and try the Pattern settings shown above.

4. Optional: If the resulting pattern is a bit blurry, try sharpening it with Effects > Sharpen > Sharpen.

   Here's the resulting pattern for my example after sharpening:

   

5. Save the image as a BMP file if you want to use it as a Pattern, putting it in the Patterns subfolder of your Paint Shop Pro folder. If you want to use the tile as the background tile for your Web pages, save it as either a GIF or a JPEG.