Subtle Patterns Plugin – Free

update: The link in my article still works. Subtle Patterns has changed it’s format to a paid plugin, individual patterns are still available. Due to the pay to play nature of the photoshop plugin, they’ve removed links to the collection download. 

I wanted to share a resource I’m completely infatuated with: Subtle Patterns. This website aggregates free to use subtle patterns, and shares user contributions to the rest of the community.

The best part of this website? They don’t make you jump through hoops to get their files! No sign-up, emails, or other crap no one really wants to deal with (why do you think my comments are registration free?). Even better, they have every pattern available for free, in a master pattern file. The default photoshop patterns suck (pardon me), and loading up this free subtle patterns download  really gives you a great choice of patterns to integrate into your design work.

I had a user email me with some questions on installing subtle patterns into Photoshop. It’s really simple, just follow these steps:

1. Follow the link above and download the subtle-patterns SubtlePatterns.pat.zip file
2. Open the archive (zip) and extract (drag/drop) the SubtlePatterns.pat file into your file system
   • Note: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CSX\Presets\Patterns is ideal
3. Open Photoshop and click ‘S’ to open your stamp tool
4. Switch to the pattern stamp tool if Clone Stamp is active by holding your mouse button down on the Stamp tool icon
5. Activate the pattern dropdown in the top ribbon, usually below the help menu
6. In the top right corner of the window, there is a gear icon – clicky clicky
7. Pressing load patterns will open one final dialog
8. Locate your pattern files and load them through this dialog
9. Enjoy the Subtle Patterns Plugin – Free Download

Backup Link In case the github link goes down.