Art Nouveau Pattern

Make an Art Nouveau-style pattern from 10 motifs of our own: a whiplash curve, a mirrored whiplash pair, a lily, an iris, a peacock-feather eye, a five-petal flower, a vine with leaves, a curled leaf, an arched frame and a seed pod. The whiplash curve follows a stated curve: its bend grows as −2 + 8·s³ along its length s, so it starts with a small hook one way, sweeps the other way and ends in a tight curl that never runs into itself, and our tests measure the drawn line against that formula. Every stroke keeps the same width all along. Set the motifs as an all-over grid, a half-drop, mirrored panels (every second column flipped) or a border stripe, pick three colours such as cream on sage or gold on deep green, then download a seamless SVG tile at real size, a full-size PDF with a motif key, a 300 DPI PNG or a background PNG at an exact screen size. Nothing is uploaded.

100% private — everything runs in your browser. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

How to make an Art Nouveau pattern

1. Choose a preset, or pick a motif set and a layout.
2. Set the columns, rows and spacing (mirrored panels need an even number of columns), and the bar width for a border.
3. Set the motif size and the smallest gap between motifs.
4. Pick three colours: a ground, the main colour and a second colour.
5. Download the SVG tile, a background PNG, or the PDF; print at 100% and check the 1 in test square.

What you can use it for

• Wedding and event stationery, menus and invitations
• Book covers, end papers, labels and packaging
• Wall stencils, tiles and furniture painting layouts (real-size PDF)
• Laser, vinyl and screen-print planning (SVG tile)
• Gift wrap and scrapbook paper
• Phone, desktop and slide backgrounds (PNG at exact sizes)

The 13 presets

#	Preset	Motifs	Layout	Motifs per repeat	Repeat
1	Lilies and irises, cream on sage, all-over	Flowers	All-over grid	4 × 4	4.8 × 4.8 in
2	Whiplash curves, gold on deep green, mirrored panels	Curves	Mirrored panels	4 × 4	4.8 × 4.8 in
3	Peacock-feather eyes, irises and lilies, teal and gold on navy, half-drop	Feathers and flowers	Half-drop	4 × 4	4.8 × 4.8 in
4	Vine border, olive on cream	Vine with leaves	Border stripe	6 in a row	6 × 1.28 in
5	Garden: vines, leaves and pods, plum on blush	Garden	Half-drop	4 × 4	4.8 × 4.8 in
6	Irises, violet on pale green	Iris	All-over grid	4 × 4	4.4 × 4.4 in
7	Lilies, white on teal, half-drop	Lily	Half-drop	4 × 4	4.4 × 4.4 in
8	Five-petal flowers, rust on cream	Five-petal flower	All-over grid	4 × 4	4 × 4 in
9	Arched frames, black on gold	Arched frame	All-over grid	4 × 4	4.4 × 4.4 in
10	Peacock-feather eyes only, mirrored, green on ivory	Peacock-feather eye	Mirrored panels	4 × 4	4.4 × 4.4 in
11	All motifs, gold on charcoal	All 10 Art Nouveau motifs	All-over grid	4 × 4	4.8 × 4.8 in
12	Whiplash curves only, mirrored, plum on cream	Whiplash curve	Mirrored panels	4 × 4	4.4 × 4.4 in
13	Fabric scale: 15 cm lilies and irises on sage	Flowers	All-over grid	5 × 5	15 × 15 cm

Each preset only fills in the fields; change any setting afterwards.

The 10 Art Nouveau motifs

Motif	Symmetry and stroke (tested on every point)
Whiplash curve	stroke 2.96 % of the size, constant
Whiplash pair (mirrored)	mirrored left to right; stroke 2.98 % of the size, constant
Lily	mirrored left to right
Iris	mirrored left to right
Peacock-feather eye	mirrored left to right
Five-petal flower	same after a 1/5 turn; mirrored left to right
Vine with leaves	same after a 1/2 turn; stroke 3.16 % of the size, constant
Curled leaf	stroke 2.82 % of the size, constant
Arched frame	mirrored left to right; stroke 3.03 % of the size, constant
Seed pod	same after a 1/2 turn; mirrored left to right

All motifs are our own drawings. Page 2 of the PDF draws each motif used, large, with its symmetry and stroke width.

Background sizes (first preset)

Background	Pixels	Repeats across × down
Phone	1170 × 2532 px	2.54 × 5.49
Phone	1080 × 1920 px	2.34 × 4.17
Desktop	1920 × 1080 px	4.17 × 2.34
Large screen	2560 × 1440 px	5.56 × 3.13
Square post	1080 × 1080 px	2.34 × 2.34

Which tool to use

You want	Use
Flowing curves, lilies, irises and feathers as a repeat or border	Art Nouveau Pattern (this page)
Sunbursts, fans and stepped shapes in black and gold	Art Deco Pattern
Small flowers in ditsy, half-drop or tossed repeats	Floral Pattern
A motif cut as a stencil	Stencil Maker

To cut a motif as a wall or furniture stencil, try the Stencil Maker; for simple CSS backgrounds, the SVG Pattern Generator.

Frequently asked questions

What is a whiplash curve here?

A single stroke whose bend changes along its length by the formula −2 + 8·s³: it starts with a small hook one way, turns the other way in one long sweep and ends in a curl of more than one full turn. Because the bend only grows after it changes direction, the curl always stays inside itself. Our tests measure the bend back from the drawn line at every point and compare it with the formula.

Are the motifs symmetrical?

The lily, iris, peacock-feather eye, whiplash pair, arched frame and seed pod are mirror-symmetric left to right; the five-petal flower is also the same after a fifth of a turn and the seed pod after a half turn; the vine is the same after a half turn but not in a mirror. The single whiplash curve and the curled leaf have no symmetry on purpose. Our tests check every point of every motif.

Is the stroke really the same width all along?

Yes. Both edges of a curve are its centre line moved half the width along the normal, and every bend stays wider than half the stroke, so the inner edge never folds over. Our tests measure the width edge to edge at every point.

Will the pattern repeat without a seam?

Yes. A motif that runs over an edge of the repeat carries on from the opposite edge, so copies placed edge to edge join with no seam. Our tests compare the pattern one repeat over by sampled colour, for every preset.

Do the motifs ever touch?

No. Each motif fits inside a circle round its centre, and the maker keeps every two circles at least the gap apart (the first preset keeps 0.1 in between motifs on a 1.2 in spacing). If they do not fit, it says how large the spacing must be.

Is the tile the exact size I set?

Yes. The SVG tile is written in inches or centimetres (the first preset is 4.8 in square), and the PDF prints the pattern at full size with a 1 in test square. The motifs are our own drawings, not copies of the work of any artist.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Everything is drawn by JavaScript in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.