How to make a Chevron pattern in Photoshop

Updated in July 2017 for Adobe Photoshop CC

The chevron pattern is one of the most popular patterns out there. You can use it on everything from wall decor to fabrics or stationery, and it looks great on blog graphics or social media images. In this quick and easy tutorial, I will show you how to make a chevron pattern in Photoshop.

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I’m very new at this and very nervous, so please excuse my mistakes ?

Here’s how to create a chevron pattern in Photoshop. Scroll down for the written tutorial.

How to make a chevron pattern in Photoshop

Open Photoshop and create a new document. We are going to start with a small square tile. I’m using a canvas that’s 100 x 100px at 72ppi. Set the background contents to transparent.

We are going to use the Custom Shape Tools to create the chevron. Select the Custom Shape Tool, and from the toolbar, select Arrows.

Make sure that the Fill color is selected and the Stroke is removed. Select the chevron arrow from the Arrows menu.

Click on the canvas and enter the width and height of your canvas. For a repeating pattern, the chevron should have the same size as the canvas.

Using the Move Tool (V), make sure that the chevron is centered and zoom in to see if there are any white spaces at the top or bottom of the arrow.

Let’s rotate the arrow. Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90° Clockwise.

To save the pattern, go to Edit > Define Pattern.

Give your pattern a new name and save it.

How to make a chevron background

Now I want to show you how to use the pattern, so we are going to create a chevron background.

Open a new document. I’m going to use a larger canvas that’s 6x6in at 300ppi. If you want to use it for your web graphics, use a lower resolution, like 72ppi. Set the Background Contents to Transparent.

Select the Fill tool, select Pattern from the toolbar that’s at the top of your canvas, and select your new chevron pattern from the drop-down menu.

Just click on your canvas to fill it with the chevron pattern.

How to recolor the chevron pattern

We have a black chevron pattern with a transparent background. Let’s add a solid color background. I’m going to use the Fill tool again to add a background.

First, create a new layer by pressing the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers panel (Ctrl+Shift+N). With the new layer selected, go to the Fill tool, choose the Foreground color you want to use and click on the canvas.

Now go to the Layers panel and drag the solid color layer under your chevron layer.

To recolor the chevron, I’m going to use an Adjustment layer and a clipping mask. With the chevron layer selected, click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer button that’s at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Solid Color.

Use the color picker to select a new color or choose a color from the Swatches panel.

This will fill the whole layer with a solid color. Use a clipping mask to recolor the chevron pattern. Just select the solid color layer and go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask (Alt+Ctrl+G).

Here’s the new pattern:

If you want to choose another color for the polka dots, just double-click on the solid color layer in the Layers panel and choose another color.

Tips: Instead of a solid color layer, you can use a gradient or a texture. Just add the gradient or texture layer above the chevron layer and use a clipping mask.

If you want multiple colors like in the featured image, just use the Fill tool and click on each row to recolor it.