Tiling Background Sampler Additional Resources

This page offers some links to other sites where you can find tiling backgrounds, and some for software that can be used to construct tiling images.
• Links to Software
• Links to other image collections
• Links to color utilities
• My Tiling Backgrounds Sampler

First, here are some rules for employing tiling images are web page backgrounds:

1. Don't use a background image that is too big. The people that visit your page don't want to wait forever for a 200K graphic just to fill the background.
2. Keep the background unobtrusive. Most web page background images should be muted, so that the text of the page can be read.
3. Use contrast wisely. Make sure that the text of your web page, especially links, contrast with the background image. Choose colors so that they coordinate rather than clash.
4. Avoid unsightly artifacts. Use tiling images that don't show visible seams or weird dithering effect.
5. Be consistent. If you use a certain tiling background image in one page on your web site, use the same image, or a similar one, on related web pages. Make the visual distinctiveness of your background image work for you!

There are sites with more information about choosing and using colors in the miscellaneous links section at the bottom of this page.

Tiling Image Software

MetaCreations | Home - makers of KPT Texture Explorer and Seamless Welder

Sausage Software - Reptile - totally cool tiling image generator

Java Kali Home Page - Java applet that lets you make cool images

Image Sites

Wacky Backgrounds - Nice medium-sized tiling patterns sorted by family

Texture Station - Tiling backgrounds, textures, desktop wallpaper

Ian's Natural Patterns - beautiful tiling patterns and other images by Ian Alexander

The Tile Page - Tiling Patterns for Online Artists

Absolute Background Textures Archive: 3100+ Free Tiling Background Textures

Dr. Zeus' Textures

Texture Land - collection of weird textures and a color utility

Pixel Foundry Background Archives - big selection

Backgound images and tiling graphics

DiP pixelware - A Texture A Day - Introduction

CGSD's RealTexture Library

Julianne's Background Textures

A+ Art Free Clipart Icons Backgrounds - big collection of tiles, icons, etcetera

World's Largest One-man Backgrounds Library

Free Original Tiling Backgrounds - Brought to you by Freebies! Plus

Color Resources

ColorCenter - general web color utility page [requires Javascript]

Victor Engel's No Dither Netscape Color Palette

Palette Man - color utility and collection of color combinations

ColorMix - innovative color mixing utility for the web

CoolText - interactive site for making buttons, labels, and bullets