

Subtle Patterns - benologist
http://subtlepatterns.com/

======
krogsgard
Subtle Patterns has been around for a pretty long while now. It's a great
site. My designer colleagues use it quite a bit.

The only thing I wish it did was show the pattern size by default in the
description. Some of them show it, but not all. And in my experience they vary
a good bit.

Also, on the Github page, there is a .pat zip of all the patterns which makes
it even better <https://github.com/subtlepatterns/SubtlePatterns>

~~~
lukeholder
The reason why this is hitting HN again is because his domain was stolen and
he has been able to recover it.

~~~
benologist
Actually I just submitted it because it's very cool. Share this mysterious
story with everyone?

~~~
theone
Here you can see the details about that incidence.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4531819>

~~~
delinka
Does anyone have any concrete information on what happened and how it was
resolved? At that link, I only see HNers saying that it definitely wasn't
domain expiration that was the problem, but no more information beyond that.

~~~
addandsubtract
On his twitter[1] he says the domain was hijacked. Couldn't find anything else
on the topic.

[1] <https://twitter.com/subtlepattern>

------
aw3c2
What license are the images? There is a license mention on the bottom of the
website but to me that seems to cover the website only, not the downloaded
images. It would be great if each zip would include a proper license.

~~~
cowsaysoink
The github repo[1] says they are under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[1]: <https://github.com/subtlepatterns/SubtlePatterns>

~~~
TillE
ShareAlike means they're unusable for commercial applications. I suppose you
can still use them on a website, but I'm not sure how much of the website
you'd also have to make CC-BY-SA.

Their FAQ implies a more liberal license, though:

<http://subtlepatterns.com/about/>

~~~
adrianN
No, ShareAlike means you have to distribute them under the same licence.
Unless there is a NoCommercial, that doesn't mean you can't sell them, you
just aren't allowed to change to a more restrictive licence. IANAL.

------
JonnieCache
For something less subtle see <http://www.patterncooler.com/>

Don't miss their ultraswanky svg editor thingy!
<http://www.patterncooler.com/editor/>

~~~
niyazpk
Also this: [http://www.colourlovers.com/patterns/most-loved/all-
time/met...](http://www.colourlovers.com/patterns/most-loved/all-
time/meta?page=1)

------
yenoham
I had thought he'd given up on the site the other day, and just started using
the git repo instead. Glad it was just a blip instead.

Hopefully he'll blog about what happened.

~~~
atlemo
Hey, Atle Mo here – founder of subtlepatterns.com.

What happened was that some guy some how managed to hijack the domain (ICANN
is still working on a report to see what happened). He said he got it legally,
but "would be willing to sell it back for €2.000. Right. So I sent in all the
documentation I had to the legal department of Instra, where he moved the
domain. They gave the domain back to me right away, and like I mentioned,
ICANN is still working out a few things, but it will be back to my full
ownership hopefully within a few weeks. I can still access the admin site, so
it's business as usual. I'm thankful for all the support I got from Twitter
users, email etc. Cheers!

~~~
iSnow
Congratulations for getting the site back. And if I may use the opportunity, a
heartfelt "thank you" for providing this resource. It has been ultra-helpful
in the past for quick prototyping of good looking web pages.

------
mrchess
Nice to see they got their domain back.

~~~
manmal
That's the actual reason someone posted it here, right?

~~~
randall
I believe so. Iirc, someone had somehow hijacked a transfer of it.

------
vindicated
It's a real gem, especially for someone who isn't as aesthetically astute,
like me. I used it on a couple of websites I've been working on recently.
[1][2]

[1] <http://tweetfad.com/>

[2] <http://db.uwaterloo.ca/dmc2013/>

------
bobbles
Is this your site?

The first texture looks like it's broken because there is no border. I thought
it wasn't loading at all, but it was just the exact same as the background on
the site.

Edit: nevermind.. I must have clicked directly on the preview button when i
changed focus or something.

~~~
benologist
Sadly no, a friend of mine gave me the link to look at because I was testing a
new layout on my api docs page that had a lot of white background.

------
gere
Sorry to go a little off topic, but I'm wondering if someone remember a
background pattern/texture generator posted here on HN a few months a go. I
lost the bookmark. I only remember it has a dark background. Thanks.

------
ipince
Wow... they're so subtle I completely missed them.

I thought the page was broken for mobile. And then it took me a second pass to
realize it was in fact not broken on desktop too!

------
olalonde
Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3091846>

------
Gravityloss
Some of these are quite strong and contrasty and very repetitive in a small
scale and thus slightly migraine inducing.

With the horizontal repetition they also mess with the angle of your eyes /
distance perception (as there are multiple transpositions where they correlate
perfectly).

I like subtle, very random and smooth patterns a lot.

------
mcormier
This is the kind of website that makes me want to go redesign a website for no
reason than to fiddle with these patterns.

------
wingerlang
I found a chrome plugin that tries the patterns on any website quickly. Pretty
handy while choosing something I guess.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cnhhinfdmnakglphga...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cnhhinfdmnakglphgajbakokcdhmdinf)

------
Lerc
Great, now I have to clean my monitor.

------
ojilles
Related, if you wanted to make your own patterns (and then perhaps upload to
subtlepatterns.com :-)) check out this iphone app:
<http://patternshooter.com/>

------
barrkel
I'm strongly reminded of the old Windows 3.1 tiled patterns.

------
jmharvey
"Back Pattern" flickers horribly when I scroll. Which makes me wonder whether
the other patterns will have a similar flicker on other displays.

------
nachteilig
It's really awesome that they thought to include retina versions. I really
hope this becomes the norm, esp. with bootstrap etc.

------
salimmadjd
I've been using a it for a while. Downloading their PSD patterns make your
design life a lot easier.

------
JacobIrwin
Thanks for posting this excellent free resource - bookmarked for definite
future use :)

------
madrona
I think I need a monitor with better color fidelity. Half of these look like
whiteness.

------
jpadilla_
It'd be cool to read about what did they have to do after it was hijacked.

------
zem
i don't know if it's my monitor or colour settings or what, but some of them
don't seem to do anything when i click the preview button (e.g. "straws" and
"swirl" from the current front page)

------
srik
They also include a "@2x" version for retina displays. Pretty nifty.

------
debacle
I really like all of these. They just feel good.

------
dutchbrit
Awesome to see it back again!

------
thejosh
dot_clean would come in handy before uploading files from a mac.

------
abrichr
Beautiful, thanks.

------
lurker14
These all make me think my monitor is dirty. Why is this a feature?

Also, why are they called "patterns" and not "textures"?

------
mylittlepony
This is fantastic, thanks!

------
iamjason89
these are great. thanks

------
iamjason89
these are a great set. thanks

