How to Layout a Pinstriping Design

A pinstripe design need not be for clothing and can make a great background pattern.

Pinstriped designs are traditionally associated with suits and clothing, but do not have to adhere to the regular gray background and thin white stripe. Experiment on your computer with different thicknesses of stripes set at varying distances apart from one another and vibrant colors to create a design that will look perfect in the background or the foreground.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Photoshop (or other photo-editing software)

Instructions

1. Open Photoshop (or another photo-editing software) and double-click on the background layer within the Layer palette to unlock it. Choose a background color by selecting the top of the two colored squares at the bottom of the main menu. A color picker palette will appear, allowing you to scroll between all of the colors and chose a shade of each in varying strengths or intensity. Fill the whole of the background by selecting the "Paint Bucket Tool" from the main menu and clicking within the canvas. The whole area will be covered in the selected color.

2. Create a new layer by selecting "Layer," "New Layer" from the top menu. It will appear above your background layer in the Layers menu on the right-hand side. Select the "Line Tool" under the shape selection in the main Tool menu. Options will appear at the top of the workspace to allow you to select specifications for the weight and style of the line. The weight refers to how many pixels wide it will be and the style allows you to create effects such as drop shadows or gradient colors. For now, just change the weight of the line depending on how thick you want it to be. Drag the mouse from the top of the canvas to the bottom, holding down the "Shift" key to ensure that the line remains straight. Release, and the line will appear in the desired thickness.

3. Copy this line and paste it so that you have several copies of your line. Each copy-and-paste will put the new line onto a new layer. Select each layer in the Layer palette to move and edit each line individually. As you edit your lines, the layers palette icon will reflect the size and position on the canvas for ease of recognition.

4. Edit the thickness of the lines by selecting "Transform Path" from the edit menu. Anchors will appear around the line, and it can be pulled around in width and height as desired. To move the position of the line, select the "Move" tool from the main Tool menu. To edit the color of the line, double-click on the right-hand side of the corresponding layer in the Layers Palette. Options will pop up to change the style of the layer, including the color. Select a color using the eye dropper tool as prompted. Arrange your pinstripe design until you have the desired effect.

Tips & Warnings

• Any of the layer styles can be changed at any time by double-clicking the layer in the Layers palette. This can include bevel and embossing, adding drop shadows and adding a stroked outline to your pinstripes.

References

• Adding shape layers to images in Photoshop