OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Dot Grid Pattern Generator
Seamless Dot Grid, Halftone and Polka Dot Tiles, Free PNG
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How the Dot Grid Pattern Generator works
This dot grid pattern generator makes printable dot paper. A dot grid is the quietest of backgrounds: evenly spaced marks that guide a sketch, break up a flat colour or give a page some texture without competing with what sits on top. Pick a square or staggered grid, a halftone wave, random sizes or a sparse scatter, choose the dot shape and size, and save a seamless square tile or a tiled wallpaper as PNG. Nothing leaves your browser.
Dot grid pattern generator: six styles
Square grid places one dot at the centre of each cell, the layout of bullet-journal paper and most design-tool grids. Staggered shifts every other row by half a cell so the dots sit in a diamond lattice, which reads as polka dots rather than graph paper. Random sizes keeps the square grid but scales each dot between 30 and 100 percent of the Dot size, chosen by the seed. Wave scales dots along a diagonal sine so bands of large and small dots run across the tile, and Halftone multiplies a horizontal and a vertical wave so the dots swell in a soft blob at the centre of each tile, the look of a printed halftone screen. Sparse drops about forty percent of the dots at random for an open scatter. Regenerate picks a new seed for the random styles; typing an old seed back restores that arrangement.
Dot shape and size
Circles are the default; Squares give a pixel-grid feel, Diamonds a woven or argyle look, and Plus signs the crosshair grid used on cutting mats and drafting paper. Dot size is a percentage of the cell, so at 100 the dots of a square grid just touch their neighbours, and at 5 they are pinpricks. Dots across sets how many cells fit in the tile; the number of rows is the same, except in Staggered where an odd count gets one extra row so the offset pattern repeats cleanly.
Seamless edges
Every dot is placed at the centre of a cell and the tile is a whole number of cells wide and high, so the spacing across the tile boundary equals the spacing inside it. Dots on the edge row and column are drawn again on the opposite side with the same size, and the wave and halftone styles use whole periods per tile, so the pattern continues without a seam. The preview repeats the tile three across by default; set Preview repeats to 1 to inspect one tile.
Saving
Export a square tile at 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 pixels for a CSS background, a notebook template, a texture or a fill in a design tool, or a tiled wallpaper at 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 where the tile is repeated at the preview scale. Files are PNG, drawn on a canvas on your machine and saved straight from the browser.
FAQ
How do I make printable dot grid paper?
Choose Paper, Square grid, Circles, 8 dots across and a Dot size around 10, export a 2048 tile and repeat it across a page in any layout app. Each dot then sits about a quarter of a tile apart; scale the tile so that spacing comes out at 5 millimetres on the page.
Can I get a plain polka dot pattern?
Yes. Staggered with Circles and a Dot size of 50 to 70 gives classic polka dots. Cream and rust or Mint are the palettes closest to fabric prints, and a lower Dots across value makes the dots bigger relative to the tile.
Why does the halftone blob repeat in every tile?
A halftone gradient has to repeat somewhere for the tile to be seamless, and one period per tile is the only choice that fits a square tile. For a gradient that does not visibly repeat, export a single large 2048 tile and use it once rather than repeating it.
Can I make a halftone from a photo here?
No. This tool generates dot patterns from scratch with no input image, so the halftone style is a smooth mathematical wave rather than a picture. It suits backgrounds, paper templates and textures where a regular screen of dots is wanted rather than a converted photograph.
See also: all Generative Art tools, Images, Audio, Video & Screen, PDF, SVG, Simulations & Screensavers, Chart Makers, 3D Model Viewers, Drawing Pads, Mockups & 3D Making, Diagram Makers, 3D Science, Tracker Music.
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