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Show HN: I built 48 lightweight SVG backgrounds you can copy/paste

https://www.svgbackgrounds.com/set/free-svg-backgrounds-and-patterns/
264visiwig | | 53 | HN
Frannky | parent | next
I am very confused by the comments, they seem too excited for this... Are they real or paid bots? If they are real, kudos to OP
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lukan | parent | next
They all seem to come from quite old HN profiles, though. So if someone managed to overtake old HN accounts for manipulation .. I would assume it would be for a more lucrative target?
postsantum | parent | next
I wish I was able to be excited over svg backgrounds. How different life would be..
visiwig | parent | next
Hey thanks, I didn't pay for bots, unsure how to prove that though.
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j45 | parent | next
There’s likely folks who discovered to that svgs could do many amazing things, except the tooling didn’t seem to be readily available.

Now when I see someone build something working with SVG, I check it out to see how it might compare to another way of doing it.

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{"deleted":true,"id":47432802,"parent":47432549,"time":1773877356,"type":"comment"}
Frannky | parent | next
It may also be that I am just comment AI paranoid, but yeah, I find myself a lot guessing if there's a person behind a comment or not
mikodin | parent
Unclear but I will say upon opening the site I was sparked with joy and excitement to use them
wackget | parent | next
These are great. Please consider adding a visible <textarea> with the CSS instead of relying on "click to copy" buttons. For security reasons, some users/browsers disable access to the clipboard which means there's no fallback way to copy the CSS.
visiwig | parent
Solid point, I used to do this, and it wouldn't be hard to go back or add a show code button so users can copy the CSS as text.
BoppreH | parent | next
Those are excellent! The orange shingles are my favorite. Though I think some of them are not working on Firefox; the blue and green vortices are rendered as a single blue rectangle and a single green hexagon.

I wonder how people are using them in a way that is not distracting to the main content. I've found that high-frequency patterns (small details with sharp transitions) can be a bit distracting, but I haven't found a good solution that doesn't compromise the beauty of the backgrounds.

echoangle | parent | next
I think it’s kind of common to have the background for the whole document and then have an overlay with a solid color (and maybe less-than-100% opacity if you’re daring) on which the main content with all the text is shown. This works best for browser that are full screen on PC screens of course where you want to limit text width anyways. On mobile or narrow windows, you don’t have a lot of space to show the background.
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lelanthran | parent | next
> Though I think some of them are not working on Firefox; the blue and green vortices are rendered as a single blue rectangle and a single green hexagon.

Move the sliders

visiwig | parent
I took a look at FireFox and I think it's working, but not obvious that you need to slide the top range slider for the full effect. It would look better if I reversed the effect, I'll have to rethink that.
hju22_-3 | parent | next
The notice about having "access" to the backgrounds is sticky, and takes up one third of the screen on mobile with no way to remove it . . . Why?
andai | parent | next
You have access. Enjoy!

Edit: upon further investigation, access isn't something that's just thrown around willy nilly! It usually goes for $120/yr!

visiwig | parent
Fair point. Once you click a thumb to preview the button, it becomes the UI to manipulate the backgrounds. I'll take a look and rethink the setup.
jjwiseman | parent | next
I find it odd that there's a custom of blurring or obscuring exactly the thing I'm interested in when I show interest in it by mousing over it.
karlshea | parent | next
Hey thanks so much! I actually found your site a bit over a year ago while I was redoing my portfolio and used one for my header.
visiwig | parent
You're welcome. Glad you found something useful!
gerdesj | parent | next
Not one of these efforts emulate <blink />. I want my money back.
yesthisiswes | parent | next
These are awesome! I’d love to use some of these for my solitaire game.

Weird thing when I preview one of the backgrounds then scroll down the page on mobile the images disappear. I have to refresh the page to view all the backgrounds again after selecting one.

I wonder if you should add names for the patterns so we can pick favorites?

visiwig | parent
Hmmm, that doesn't sound right. Do you mind reaching out to me via the contact form and dropping any more details such as device/browser? BTW, each background does have name, but I hide that on mobile since real estate is limited.
throwaway2046 | parent | next
These are beautiful, thank you for sharing. I really like the one with the triangles, was it inspired by Rule 30?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_30

visiwig | parent
No I've never heard about Rule 30, I would have been nervous to click that link if it wasn't leading to a Wikipedia article, phew, but the concept is quite cool and inspiring. Thanks for sharing that with me!
visiwig | parent | next
Each one can be copied as inline SVG or CSS using the background-image property with a data URI. Most are under 1KB.
ksymph | parent | next
Hmm, the parabolic ones seem to be broken? Both on FF and Chromium, they just display as an outline of a single shape on a black background.
lelanthran | parent
> Hmm, the parabolic ones seem to be broken? Both on FF and Chromium, they just display as an outline of a single shape on a black background.

Move the sliders.

rcarmo | parent | next
These are pretty nice, congrats
democracy | parent | next
it's great work man - been using your backgrounds for long long time now!
visiwig | parent
Much appreciated, always nice to hear that :)
aerhardt | parent | next
This is very cool but hasn’t it been around for like a decade?
visiwig | parent
Good memory. I launched in 2018 (8 years ago) and have been adding more graphics over the years -- doubling this specific collection / freebies.
dormento | parent | next
This rocks. Thank you!
visiwig | parent
Glad you think so, you're welcome, enjoy!
pseudosavant | parent | next
I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff, but I'm usually disappointed after clicking the link. These on the other hand are excellent, and that they have configurable options like stroke, color, etc is gravy on the top. Thanks for sharing!
visiwig | parent
Thanks for the kind words! I've played around a lot with SVG and love how you can change various attributes to achieve cool effects.
thekevan | parent | next
This is top notch, great work!
dylanhouli | parent | next
Great idea man, must be pulling in some good SEO traffic as well.
Frannky | parent | next
Like this user has a comment history of hyping show HN
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visiwig | parent
Yes, I was lucky enough to find a keyword domain that was available. Would recommend :)
3duardol1m455 | parent | next
this matches my experience exactly
starkparker | parent | next
What's the license?
visiwig | parent
The license can be found here: svgbackgrounds.com/license

Summary: You can use graphics in personal or commercial projects, you cannot use the graphics as the primary integrity of your product, you must provide attribution (svgbackgrounds.com/attribution)

And before anyone rips off my head, attribution can be placed inside commented out code, so it doesn't need to take away from your design.

shah4as1 | parent | next
this is exactly what i needed
visiwig | parent
Glad I shared at the right time :)
Theodores | parent | next
What is your authoring tool for SVG?

The SVG code is well written. It is neither Adobe bloat-spam-slop and neither is it overly SVGOMG'd.

For picky SVG people you could have some easy way to present the code. Only a minority value quality SVG, artworkers do not look at SVG code and coders just see SVG as 'assets' from the artworker. SVG therefore has not evolved to a full art form.

visiwig | parent
Hey great eye. I generally design in Illustrator with a plugin by Astute graphics that allows me to reduce unnecessary anchor points, run the exported SVG through SVGOMG, and then spend solid time hand coding each background in VS Code with the SVG extension by Jock that let's me see a live preview. Then on the actual site the customizer script I wrote will catch some attributes that aren't needed and remove them, but it's far from perfect.