Adinkra cloth pattern generator
Stamped symbols on a grid of panels. Choose the stamps, how many panels fill the tile, how far each stamp strays from true and how worn the ink is, and export a seamless adinkra-style cloth as SVG, PNG or CSS.
Open in the generator How it works
Symbols stamped on cloth
Adinkra symbols come from the Akan peoples of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. They are printed on cloth by hand with carved stamps and a dark dye, in a grid ruled out on the fabric, and each symbol stands for an idea, a proverb or a value. Famous ones include the heart, akoma, the ram’s horns, dwennimmen, the concentric circles known as adinkrahene, and the zigzag nkyinkyim.
Ornamatic draws simple versions of five such shapes in that manner. They are generic stamps in the spirit of the cloth, and the generator does not set out to reproduce the exact forms or meanings of the traditional symbols.
How the generator builds them
The tile is divided into a square grid of panels, ruled with thin lines. A stamp is placed in each panel: concentric rings, a hollow heart, a pair of spirals, a zigzag or an eight-pointed star in a ring. Each stamp is turned and moved by a small random amount, as a hand-held block would be, and the ink can be worn, leaving small gaps.
The stamps can be mixed or all the same. The grid wraps around the tile, so the pattern repeats exactly.
What you can adjust
- Stamps — mixed, or only rings, hearts, horns, zigzags or stars.
- Frames — the ruled lines between the panels, on or off.
- Panels across — from one to five panels in the tile.
- Wobble — how far each stamp strays from true.
- Worn ink — small gaps in the printing.
- Other stamps — a new draw of the stamps and their wobble.
- Colors — a ground and an ink; any palette.
Export and use
Download the seamless tile as PNG or SVG, or copy a ready CSS background. The patterns you create are free to use, personally or commercially.
