Chinese lattice and ice-ray pattern generator

Patterns from the windows and screens of Chinese gardens. Choose the ice-ray, an irregular network of cracks, or the diamond lattice with single or double bars, fill the panes with color or draw only the bars, and export a seamless pattern as SVG, PNG or CSS.

Open in the generator How it works

Irregular panes of pink, yellow and blue separated by thin cracks

Windows made of wood and light

Chinese carpenters have built windows, doors and screens from thin wooden bars arranged in a lattice for centuries, and the lattice became an art. Light passes through the panes and throws a pattern of shadow on the floor.

The ice-ray pattern (bingliewen) imitates ice cracking on a pond: straight bars meet in irregular polygons, never in the same way twice. The same crackle appears in the glaze of some old Chinese ceramics. The diamond lattice (lingge) is its calm opposite, a strict grid of diamonds, often drawn with double bars and small studs at the crossings.

How the generator builds them

The ice-ray is a periodic network of cells: points are scattered across the tile, with the edges wrapping around, and each pane is the area closest to its point. The regularity setting evens the panes out step by step, from chaotic cracks to a honeycomb. The cracks continue exactly across the tile’s edges, so the pattern is seamless.

The diamond lattice is built from diamonds of the height and width you choose. With double bars, a second diamond is drawn inside the first. Panes can be filled with the palette, in a checker of two colors, with the bars cut through in the background color.

What you can adjust

Pattern — ice-ray or diamond lattice.
Draw — filled panes with joints, or only the bars.
Ice-ray — the number of panes per tile, and the regularity of the cracks.
Diamond lattice — the height of the diamonds, single or double bars, and studs at the crossings.
Bar width — from fine lines to bold bars.
Colors — any palette; a shuffle for new cracks.