Use textures
Add textures from the left toolbar, adjust blend mode and opacity, replace texture layers, and clip textures into shapes.
Textures add grain, grunge, and other surface detail to a design. Open the Textures panel to browse them, apply one to your artboard, then adjust how it blends, mask your design with it, or release it into a regular image layer.
Open the textures panel
Open a design or project.
Select the artboard you want to add a texture to.
Click Textures in the left toolbar.
Use the Textures and Backgrounds tabs to browse by category, such as Grunge Textures, Paper Textures, or Crack Textures. Most used sits at the top of each tab, and See All expands a category. You can also type a keyword into the search bar.
Add a texture
Select an artboard first, then click a texture in the Textures tab to add it there. It's added as its own Texture layer, nested inside that artboard in the Layers panel.
If no artboard is selected when you click a texture, it's added as a regular image layer instead of a texture layer, so it won't get the Texture section's controls described below. To turn it into a texture afterward, right-click the image and choose Use as Texture.
A texture you add from the Backgrounds tab works differently: it becomes the artboard's background image instead of a texture layer. See Adding backgrounds for that flow.
Adjust a texture
Select the artboard (or its Texture layer in the Layers panel).
In the Texture section of the right panel, choose a blend mode to change how the texture mixes with the design underneath it. Options are grouped into sets like Multiply, Screen, and Overlay, Lighting & Shadows (Soft Light, Hard Light, Color Dodge, Color Burn, and more), Color Properties (Hue, Saturation, Color, Luminosity), and Special (Alpha Mask, Erase).
Adjust the percentage next to it to control the texture's opacity.
Mask your design with a texture
You have two ways to clip a texture so it only shows within your design's shapes, instead of tinting the whole artboard. Turn on Mask Texture, in the Texture section of the right panel, to mask the texture to your design's shapes. Or set the blend mode itself to Alpha Mask, under the Special group, for a similar effect based on the texture's transparency. Textures in the Alpha Mask Selection category are built for this.
Release a texture
Click Release Texture, at the bottom of the Texture section, to turn it into a regular image layer. Once released, you can crop or reframe it, erase parts of it, vectorize it, or add a border or shadow, and its blend mode and opacity move to that layer's own settings instead of the Texture section.
Find a similar texture
Hover over a texture thumbnail and click its ••• icon to open a detail card with the texture's name and category. From there, click See more like this to browse related textures, the heart icon to add it to your likes, or Add to Project to add it without dragging it onto the canvas.
Expected outcome
Your texture sits in its own layer nested inside the artboard, blended and clipped the way you set it up. Selecting the artboard or the Texture layer shows its settings in the right panel, and releasing it turns it into a regular, editable image layer instead.
Troubleshooting
My texture is covering elements I want visible.
Turn on Mask Texture, or set the blend mode to Alpha Mask, to clip the texture to your design's shapes instead of tinting the whole artboard.
I added a texture and it's not showing up as a Texture layer.
Check whether an artboard was selected first. Clicking a texture without an artboard selected adds it as a regular image layer instead of a Texture layer. Right-click the image and choose Use as Texture to convert it.
I don't see the Texture section in the right panel.
That section only appears when the selected artboard has a texture applied, or when you've selected the Texture layer itself. A background image uses a separate Background Image section instead. See Adding backgrounds.
Common questions
What's the difference between a texture and a background image?
A texture from the Textures tab adds its own layer nested inside your artboard, with a blend mode and opacity you control from the Texture section. A background image from the Backgrounds tab becomes the artboard's background instead, with its own settings in the Background Image section.
Can I apply a texture to just one element instead of the whole artboard?
Not directly. A texture is nested inside its artboard rather than tied to a single element. Use Mask Texture or the Alpha Mask blend mode to clip it to your design's shapes instead.
Can I move, resize, or rotate a texture once it's applied?
Not as a texture layer. Click Release Texture first to turn it into a regular image layer, which you can then transform like any other image.
What happens when I release a texture?
It stops being a texture layer and becomes a regular image layer. You get the full set of image tools, Reframe, Edit Area, Erase & Fill, and Vectorize, plus border and shadow options, and its blend mode and opacity move to that layer's own settings.
Related articles