Paisley layers: patterns that build on your screen

Textile patterns are made in layers, one motif printed or painted over another until the cloth is full. Paisley layers in Screensavers by Zaweba borrows that idea. Dark paisley and floral motifs build up on the screen one over another, each covering about a quarter of it, and each arriving in its own way.

It is part of the night pack, so the palette is dark and the movement is slow. It is the most decorative screensaver in the app, more like watching a piece of fabric being made than watching a scene.

Seven ways a motif can arrive

What makes Paisley layers interesting to watch is that the motifs don't all appear the same way. A motif may be inked as an outline and then flooded with colour, like a pen drawing being filled in. It may unfurl, opening out from a curl. It may be block-printed, stamped down in one go as a printer's block would be. It may swirl in, drip into place, build from flipping tiles, or assemble from kaleidoscope wedges that turn and lock together.

Because each new motif picks its own way of arriving, you never know what the next one will do. That small surprise is what keeps the eye coming back.

Speed, coverage and fading

Building speed sets how fast each motif assembles. Slow is meditative, and lets you follow every stage of an inked outline or a dripping fill. Fast keeps new motifs coming and the screen changing.

How much each covers runs from 10 to 40 per cent of the screen. At 10 per cent the motifs are small and many, more like a busy print. At 40 per cent each is large and bold, and the screen changes more with each one. Around a quarter sits comfortably between the two.

There is a dark colour palette, which keeps the patterns rich and low-lit, in keeping with the rest of the night pack. And older layers can sink back, fading behind the newer ones so that the most recent motif always stands out clearly. Switch that off and the layers keep their strength, so the screen becomes denser and busier over time.

Choosing a look

Try the settings in the manager, where the live preview follows each change. Coverage makes the biggest difference, so set it first. Then decide whether you want the older layers to sink back, and finally adjust the speed.

A slow speed, a quarter coverage and older layers sinking back gives the classic look: one clear motif at a time over a softly fading background. Small coverage at a faster speed with sinking off gives a dense, all-over pattern, like a busy wallpaper being printed in front of you.

Preview full screen shows how it will look at real size, which matters for a pattern meant to fill a screen. Move the mouse or press a key and it closes.

Printing it to your screen

Use this screensaver builds it into your profile, without administrator rights, and opens Windows' Screen Saver Settings for the wait time and password option. Settings are read whenever the screensaver starts, so you can change the coverage later without rebuilding.

On several monitors you can have a pattern on each, one pattern stretched across all of them, or the main monitor only with the others black. A stretched pattern with large motifs can look striking on a pair of wide monitors.

Things worth knowing

If the screen looks muddy after a while, turn older layers sinking back on, which keeps the newest motif crisp. If it feels too slow to notice, raise the building speed rather than the coverage. And because Paisley layers is quiet and dark, it suits evening use and goes well with Growing foliage and Difference clouds in an Install several set. Reset to defaults is always there if you want the original look back.