Designer Seamless Texture

This tutorial is the fastest and probably the easiest for a beginner in Affinity software. Making a seamless texture is just making a small box design and duplicating it. I'm going to show you five parts; our ending product won't look the same but close. I have been working with Affinity Designer for a while now; I have helpful hints for those just starting.

The materials needed are a computer with the Affinity Designer software on it.

To get started, open a new project file. Start by heading over to File > New. It will display the details of the document. For this project make type as web, document units as pixels, page width as 1000 px, page height as 1000 px, and DPI as 72. Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a square holding shift. Under the transform tab, change the width to 250 px and height 250 px. Move the box to the top left corner of the document.

However, this next part is the most important. Select the square, which will outline it in blue. Go to the Symbols tab and hit the button that says, create with an orange symbol. Now it is time to duplicate that square multiple times until the squares fill the document without overlapping. Once that is done, highlight all except the original square in the layers tab; then right-click and group. Because the original square was made a symbol, whatever is changed will automatically change the duplicates. That is the fundamental basis of creating a seamless texture in Affinity Designer. Turn off the other squares to focus on the one that will be changing. To turn off the square, go to the layers tab and uncheck the box on the right side. In the end, check the box and, the whole texture will show.

Next, select the original square change the stroke in the top left of Affinity to 2px and black. That will outline the square. After that, change the fill in the top left to red. The second step was getting the colors right; the third step is adding rectangles. Click on the Rectangle Tool (M) used before, but do not hold shift this time. Drag out a rectangle horizontally, change the height about a fourth of the square, the width same as the square, and position it on the lower half of the square. Change the color of the rectangle to black, then change the opacity at the bottom of the color tab to 60%. Next, add another rectangle, shorter in height, width same as the square. Then make black and change the opacity to 90%. Finally, create a third rectangle going vertically, the height same as the square. Make it black and change the opacity to 80%.

The fourth part will require the use of the Pen Tool (P). That is located on the left side of the screen and looks like the tip of a calligraphy pen. To use the Pen Tool (P), click the starting and ending points, creating a straight line. Make three black lines, one horizontal and two vertical lines. Align the black lines anywhere, except inside the rectangles. Finally, make four white lines, two vertical and two horizontally. Position the white lines slightly in from the borderlines, making a white square.

The final part is to highlight; all the lines labeled as curves and rectangles in the layers tab. Hover over the original square and wait for a white rectangle to appear at the bottom; then unclick. That action just made all those rectangles and lines are a part of the symbol. To show the other squares, check the little box on the right side of the layers tab. In conclusion, the document should show a plaid-like pattern. The reason for it being a seamless texture is that it looks like it never stops repeating.