Hello!
Have you ever wondered how to make a seamless tile graphic? or you haven't and this is the first you're hearing of it but now you're curious? or you've tried and it was hard so you gave up? (like I did many times.. and it's still confusing...)
WELL TODAYS YOUR LUCKY DAY because imma show you how.
Anyway, let's get to it!
Step 1 - Start with a square canvas.
Step 2 - import and layout your graphics
NB: make sure nothing is going off the edge of your canvas or you will have problems later.
now would also be the right time to put your background in ( i forgot so pretend there is a background in my screenshot please and thanks)
Step 3 (optional) - add a drop shadow to your graphics
select your layer, click the Fx button and choose drop shadow
here is the screen that will appear - you can change the angle, distance etc of your shadow to your preference then select OK. ( make sure you have preview selected for easier editing). Here's mine ( I got the background this time see?)
note that if you choose to use a drop shadow (or any other effect) you'll need to do it before offsetting (step 5) or you will have problems.
Step 4- merge visible
Before you do this, make a copy of all of your graphics and turn off their visibility. this will come in handy later.
now you'll want to merge everything you have on your page. Either merge visible or merge selected layers. I prefer to merge layers but for some reason, I wasn't allowed to this time...
Step 5 - Offsetting
select your layer, then go to filter>other>offset...
this only works if you have merged your layer - you cant offset multiple layers at a time. if you want to offset each layer one by one you can but it will take a long time so it's up to you.
here is the menu that will come up. make sure you have wrap-around selected and again you should select preview for easier editing. then you can choose the amount of offset you want. click ok
Step 6 - fill in the gaps
now you'll notice that there are gaps where the borders of your arrangement were.
Here you can go back to your individual graphics (the copies you made before you merged) and choose some to fill in the gaps. make sure that none of these additional graphics go off the edge of the canvas or you'll have problems lining up the tiles.
then add the same drop shadow ( or other effects) to this single graphic
Step 7 - Export and test
for this step, you can just do a simple png export. go to file>export>quick export as PNG.
then to test - if your device has an option for tile wallpapers then use that otherwise you can just open a new file on photoshop and import your newly exported PNG. duplicate it several times so you can see if they line up - top, bottom, and sides. hopefully, they will line up - if they don't, check that you've gone through all the steps correctly. if you still have issues then I'm sorry it could be my fault. send me a msg ad ill try my best to help - this still stumps me sometimes even when I'm certain I have it down.
you might notice that your tiles do line up but there are now big gaps (example below)
if this happens, you migh just have put your filler item in the wrong place. play around with the placement of your filler item until you're happy with the result:
Bonus tip:
you can see in my seamless tile that there is in fact a seam in the background graphic. if you use a solid colour this won't happen. but if you want to get rid of it you can use either of these tools below:
play around with them and see what happens! I didn't use them because I like the look of the seam (:
Good luck! and let me know if you have any more questions