Kente pattern generator
A cloth built from narrow strips, each strip a column of woven blocks. Choose how many strips run across, how tall the blocks are, and whether solid bands and seams separate them, and export a seamless pattern as SVG, PNG or CSS.
Open in the generator How it works
Cloth woven in strips
Kente is a hand-woven cloth of the Asante and Ewe peoples of Ghana. It is woven on narrow looms in long strips only a few inches wide, and the strips are then sewn edge to edge to make a cloth. Each strip carries its own sequence of blocks, so the finished cloth has the look of a patchwork of woven bars, checks, zigzags and diamonds in strong colors.
Traditional kente patterns have names and meanings, and cloths were long worn for ceremonies and by people of rank. The generator makes patterns in the spirit of the cloth and does not reproduce any named design.
How the generator builds them
Ornamatic lays out a chart of 24 by 24 cells and divides it into strips. Each strip is cut into blocks, and every block gets one of five weaves: bars, checks, zigzags, stairs or nested diamonds, in its own order of the three colors. The ground color shows through in some blocks, as in the black zigzags in the picture.
A solid band can run across the top of every block, and thin seams can mark the joins between strips. The chart repeats exactly, so the tile is seamless.
What you can adjust
- Strips — 2, 3, 4 or 6 across the tile.
- Block height — 4, 6, 8 or 12 rows.
- Bands — solid bands between blocks, on or off.
- Seams — thin joins between strips, on or off.
- Other blocks — a new draw of the weaves and colors.
- Colors — a ground and three colors; 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.
