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Stripes will always be a popular pattern style. In this tutorial I will show you how to create horizontal and vertical stripes pattern using Adobe Photoshop.

How to Create Repeating Horizontal and Vertical Stripes

In this tutorial I will show you how to:

  • Create a rectangle using the Marquee tool
  • Define a pattern in Photoshop
  • Create a digital paper template that you can easily change out the colors
  • How to use a color adjustment layer to easily change out the color of your pattern.

If you are new to creating patterns in Photoshop then check out our complete guide to creating patterns in Photoshop.

Creating your vertical stripes pattern

First create your document in Photoshop. For this example I use the dimensions – 200 x 200 px.

Next, you want to create your vertical line. There are a number of ways to create a line including the line tool, rectangle tool or the rectangular marquee tool. In the video I demonstrate using the rectangle marquee tool. To access the marquee tool you can use the shortcut by hitting M on the keyboard.

In the top option make sure fixed size is selected under style. For the sizes enter 50 px for the width and 200 px for the height to match the vertical dimension of the canvas. Click on the canvas and you will see the outline of selected pixels. To fill the pixels in with the foreground color use the shortcut – Option + Delete (Mac) or Alt + Backspace (Windows). You will then need to deselect the highlighted pixels by using the keyboard shortcut – Cmd or Ctrl + D.

Using the move tool align the vertical rectangle to the center of the canvas.

Saving your pattern in Photoshop

To save a pattern in Photoshop go to Edit > Define pattern. Another way to save your pattern is by using the patterns panel. To access the patterns panel go to Window > Patterns. At the bottom of the patterns panel there is a plus icon. If you click on this icon it will also save your pattern for you.

One way to test out your pattern in by using the pattern preview tool. Go to View > Pattern Preview and Photoshop will extend the view of your canvas both vertically and horizontally. In this view you can zoom out if you want to see it a small scale.

I like to test my patterns in a new document the size of digital scrapbook paper – 3600 x 3600 px.

From the patterns panel you can click on your newly created pattern and drag it into the layers panel. This will create a new pattern fill layer. When you double click on the pattern fill layer you have the option to scale your pattern. You can also change the rotation of the pattern, but I find that this takes a lot of processing power and slows down my computer so I prefer not to use this method.

To change the color of the pattern add a solid color adjustment layer. Position this layer below the pattern layer and it will be the background color. Duplicate this layer and change the color. Bring this new color layer above the pattern fill layer and right click and select create clipping mask. The pattern will now take on this color. Using color fill layers makes it easy to change and test new color variations.

Creating a horizontal stripe pattern

To create a horizontal stripe pattern you can rotate your initial vertical rectangle 90 degrees. To rotate an object you can go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees. Another option is to use the free transform tool (keyboard shortcut – Cmd or Ctrl + T) and enter the degree value in the rotation box from the top options.

Go to edit > define pattern to save your horizontal stripe pattern.

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Check out these other Photoshop Pattern Tutorials