Pattern Introduction

Whether you have used Photoshop in the past or Illustrator while reading this book, once you start using the Pen, Shape, Rotation, and Liquify tools, you can create all kinds of geometric shapes and patterns.

Patterns can be very simple or quite complex. They are often meant to repeat so that they can be used in the cloth or fashion industry, on printed paper backgrounds for advertisements, and in other areas of the manufacturing industry. If you take the time to look around your house or in a magazine, you’ll probably see a lot of repeating patterns.

One of the great pattern designers whom I often think of is Maurits Cornelis Escher, known as MC Escher (1898–1972). He was a Dutch graphic artist who was known for his mathematics-inspired printed designs that reflected symmetry, perspective, and impossible landscapes. Though he was not a professional mathematician himself, he did collaborate with other scientists and mathematicians, and was very interested in tessellations, or tiling. Escher was inspired by older repeating-pattern mosaic works done by the Moors in Alhambra, Spain. Refer to Figure 7-1.

Though I’m sure it would take many years of study to achieve his level of work and understanding of geometry, if we look at very basic repeating patterns, they will often at their core use some very simple geometric shapes that we can later build upon to create our own inspired works.

Shapes that often work well with tessellation tiles, with no gaps or overlaps, include the following:

Equilateral Triangles: These can interlock well, and if you stare at the triangles long enough you might notice other more complex geometric shapes, like a hexagon and even a six-sided star. Refer to Figure 7-2.

Squares, Rectangles, and Diamonds: By varying the width and height of a square or a rectangle, as well as its color, you can alter the pattern to appear like cubes, herringbone, and plaid. Note how the diamond shape is very much like two triangles butted up against each other. Refer to Figure 7-3.

Octagons and Other Combinations: To build a tessellation, you don’t have to use the same geometric shapes. Some geometric shapes must work in combination to avoid transparent gaps. For example, octagons require squares. Hexagons could have additional strokes to make them more distinct, or you could do a combination of squares and hexagons, or squares, hexagons, and triangles. Refer to Figure 7-4.

The possibilities are endless. Escher himself was even noted to have said in his journals about tessellations that creating them, and patterns, could become an addictive activity. Here is a link that talk a bit more about Escher’s life and works.

https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Escher/

Imagine what would have happened back then if he’d had access to a computer and Adobe Illustrator.

Swatches Panel for Patterns

I chose some examples from the Patterns ➤ Decorative ➤ Decorative Legacy library, and they are stored in the Swatches panel when you click on them from the selected Library. You can access them from the panel’s Swatch Libraries menu icon. We will investigate this storage in more detail in a moment. Refer to Figure 7-5.

Once you have several stored patterns, you can draw your shape or path. Then, click on the swatch in the Swatches panel to add it to the stroke or fill currently selected in the Toolbars panel. You could also use the Control or Properties panels as you would with solid colors, and apply your pattern swatch to the fill color, stroke color, or both. Refer to Figures 7-5 to 7-7.

You’ll also notice that in some of these patterns, rather than solidly filling up the tessellations, blank areas are left so that some underlying color can show through. This can be very useful when you want to have alternating or solid colors show behind the pattern, as we will see later. Refer to Figure 7-7.

So, while it’s nice to use patterns supplied by Adobe Illustrator, you may be wondering how to build or modify patterns to suit the needs of your project. This requires using the Swatches panel and Pattern Options panel, which we will look at next.

Before I started working with the Swatches panel on the Artboard, I created a simple pattern using a few geometric shapes and overlapped them.

You can see these two starting patterns when you open pattern_start.ai. Save a copy if you want to follow along for practice.

You can, on your own, create a pattern if you want to use the various Pen and Shape tools that you learned about in earlier chapters. In this case, I used the Ellipse tool, Polygon tool, Star tool, and then the Pen tool to create a white triangular division between the points of the star. Refer to Figure 7-8.

Later, I used the Control panel to align and center parts of the shapes. Refer to Figure 7-9.

I then grouped the objects and selected my first pattern with the Selection tool. I Alt/Option-dragged a copy, then altered the colors by using the Control panel and selecting parts with the Direct Selection tool. Refer to Figure 7-10.

Now, select the patterns one at a time with the Selection tool and drag them into the Swatches panel. The New Swatch button in this case will not work, as it would only at the very least add a swatch color and not the actual pattern. Because the group object is multi-colored, the button is grayed out. Dragging the objects into the panel one at a time adds them to the Swatches panel, and you can then begin to edit them further. In my case, they were automatically named New Pattern Swatch 4 and New Pattern Swatch 5, as I had been creating other test patterns earlier. Refer to Figure 7-11.

Pattern Editing Mode

Now, so that you do not apply your patterns by mistake to the original, make sure you click off the pattern with your Selection tool to deselect all artwork.

You can then rename and edit your pattern when you double-click on the pattern swatch, which will enter you into Pattern Editing mode, with access to the Pattern Options panel. Refer to Figure 7-12.

Note

An alternative way to create a pattern with solid colors is to select an object and then choose Object ➤ Pattern ➤ Make. This will also add the pattern to the Swatches panel, and a message will appear, indicating that you will be in Pattern Editing mode and that changes will be applied upon exit. Click OK to enter the mode. Refer to Figure 7-13.

In my case, to enter Pattern Editing mode, I selected the blue hexagon pattern in the Swatches panel and double-clicked.

You know that you are in Pattern Editing mode when you see the New Pattern icon in the upper-left corner of your Artboard. Refer to Figure 7-14.

You can save a copy of the pattern, or work on the original. When finished, click the Done button to confirm your pattern in the swatch, or click Cancel to exit and not create or edit a pattern at all. For now, you will stay in Pattern Editing mode. At this point, the Pattern Options panel is available, which we will look at next.

Pattern Options Panel

Now we will look at the Pattern Options panel and see how it affects the current pattern. Refer to Figure 7-15.

Start by giving the pattern a new name so that you can identify it in the Swatches panel. I called mine Blue Octagon Star Pattern. Refer to Figure 7-16.

The first icon in the upper-left corner of the panel is the Pattern Tile tool. You can click this button to turn the tile’s bounding box handles on or off so that you can drag, scale, and adjust the starting shape’s distance from other repeating shapes. Refer to Figure 7-17.

Holding down the Shift key scales the spacing proportionately. Refer to Figure 7-18.

You could also drag out a new tile if you wanted the pattern to start tiling in a different location or to alter part of the path. Refer to Figure 7-19.

In this case, Edit ➤ Undo (Ctrl/CMD +Z) a few times or use the History panel to revert back to the original pattern state. Refer to Figure 7-20.

When you are done, turn it off with the Pattern Tile tool icon so that you can make other adjustments within the panel.

After the name change, the next option that you can set is the Tile Type setting. You can choose from several different grids or arrangements that adjust how the shapes fit together. Refer to Figure 7-21.

The options are as follows:

• Grid: The default. It provides evenly spaced squares or spaces within the pattern; however, it does not make for a very compact pattern. This is, however, ideal if you want to leave some transparent space around the octagon for background colors to show through. Alternatively, you could add another geometric square or diamond within the gap, using the rectangle tool to fill in the area. In this example, I will leave this area transparent and blank for now. Refer to Figure 7-22.

• Brick by Row and Brick by Column: Have a square tile and allow you to adjust the Brick Offset setting by degrees. The tiles are shifted vertically or horizontally, depending on what option you choose, as we will look at shortly. Refer to Figure 7-23.

• Hex by Column and Hex by Row: Create hexagonal tiles; these are the most compact of the patterns; however, you don’t have access to Brick Offset setting. Refer to Figure 7-21 and Figure 7-24.

If you choose the Tile Type of Brick by Row or Brick by Column, you do have access to the Brick Offset feature. I am using Brick by Row in this example. Refer to Figure 7-25.

• Brick Offset tiles are shifted either vertically or horizontally, depending on what option you chose in Tile Type. Currently, it is set to the default of 1/2. However, choosing another option like 1/4, 1/3, or 1/5 would give you a different gap and offset between the tiles. Refer to Figure 7-26.

In this case, I will leave it at 1/2 for now. Refer to Figure 7-27.

• Setting the width and height is similar to setting the Pattern Tile tool icon, except rather than enabling the button and manually using the handles you can enter a number to increase or decrease spacing. Refer to Figure 7-28.

Clicking the Lock icon lets you scale proportionately and maintain width and height proportions. This area is only accessible when the Size Tile to Art option is unchecked. Refer to Figure 7-29.

If you made a mistake when entering the width or height, and you want to revert, click Size Tile to Art, which resets the spacing. And then uncheck it to disable it again. Refer to Figure 7-30.

• When Size Tile to Art is checked, you can use H Spacing or V Spacing, which adds or removes spacing between each shape in the pattern. A positive number spreads the space, while a negative number shrinks the space. You can also link the spacing so that you maintain spacing proportions as you scale up or down. Refer to Figure 7-31.

• Move Tile with Art, when enabled, allows you to move the preview pattern tile with the selected part of art; if unchecked, the tiles or art can be moved independently. Refer to Figure 7-32.

To undo, select Edit ➤ Undo right away, or use the History panel, so that your art is contained, then enable the checkbox Move Tile with Art and set your horizontal (H) and vertical (V) spacing back by disabling and then enabling the Size Tile to Art checkbox. Refer to Figure 7-33.

Now make sure the link is unlinked and set the V Spacing to -0.125 in. This makes the octagons even closer. Refer to Figure 7-34.

Tip

You can use the up and down arrow keys while in the Width, Height, H or V Spacing text boxes to edit more accurately the spacing without disrupting the artwork. Refer to Figure 7-35.

• Overlap is how the shapes or objects overlap when they are compressed together. Refer to Figure 7-36.

Overlap pattern settings can be the following:

• Left in Front

• Right in Front

• Top in Front

• Bottom in Front

And two options must be set at the same time. Refer to Figure 7-37.

Note

This type of overlapping may not be evident unless the shapes are touching, using the H and V Spacing. Refer to Figure 7-38.

• The Copies section has to do with the preview, or the number of copies that are on the screen, while you edit the pattern. This does not affect the final pattern layout. The default is 5×5, but you can set it to any number of copies from the dropdown list. Refer to Figure 7-39.

• Dim Copies to: Allows you to dim the preview pattern so that you can distinguish it from the original shape. The range is 0%–100% and does not affect the final pattern outcome. Refer to Figure 7-39.

• Show Tile Edge: Lets you turn on or off the tile so that you can preview the pattern as one unit. I leave it enabled so I can see the pattern. Refer to Figure 7-40.

• Show Swatch Bounds shows which areas will or will not be repeated in order to have a seamless pattern. Anything outside the bounds is not repeated, except in this preview unless it is required to make the pattern seamless. Along with the tile, the swatch bounds are saved as a transparent box guide within the pattern swatch. When enabled, it appears as a very fine dotted line. By default, I leave this setting disabled and hide the bounds. Refer to Figure 7-41.

Once the pattern is complete, you can review your settings in the Pattern Options panel. Refer to Figure 7-42.

If you want to close it, click Done in the upper-left corner to commit the changes and exit Pattern Editing mode. Refer to Figure 7-43.

Then you can apply your pattern to an object on the Artboard. In this example, use the Rectangle tool to draw a shape, and because the pattern is selected, and the fill is in the foreground in the Toolbars panel, that pattern should automatically be applied to the fill. Refer to Figure 7-44.

Scaling Your Pattern

Maybe you find this pattern to be a bit too large and would like it to be smaller.

Tip

You can also use the following steps in this example to edit patterns from Illustrator’s pattern libraries.

You can alter the pattern—either by double-clicking it in the Swatches panel or by choosing Object ➤ Pattern ➤ Edit Pattern—when you have the pattern swatch selected in the Swatches panel. Refer to Figure 7-45.

Note

Object ➤ Pattern ➤ Tile Edge Color refers to the color of the guide that appears when you are previewing the pattern. The default is medium blue, but you can change it to another color if you find it hard to see, or if it clashes with your pattern. You can use the Pattern Options panel menu to change this setting as well, and can also set the color from the dialog box color list or computer system’s color picker. Refer to Figure 7-46.

When back in Pattern Editing mode, you can rescale your shape. Use the Selection tool to drag a rectangular marquee around the pattern, and then use the bounding box handles and the Shift key to scale proportionately. In this case, it scaled the pattern tile as well. Refer to Figure 7-47.

To make just the pattern smaller, ensure that the Size Tile to Art and Move Tile with Art options are still enabled. However, due to the smaller scale size, some of the pattern may not correctly overlap with the current V Spacing setting. For your own patterns, you may need to adjust this spacing after scaling. Refer to Figure 7-48.

Once you have completed scaling the pattern, rather than destroying the original design and before exiting, choose +Save a Copy from the upper-left corner. Name the new pattern Blue Octagon Star Pattern Small. Click OK, and click OK again to the message that the pattern has been added to the Swatches panel. Refer to Figure 7-49.

So as not to distroy the orginal pattern, click Cancel to exit. Refer to Figure 7-50.

This creates, upon exit, a copy of your now smaller pattern. The larger pattern is still available in the Swatches panel.

To change the current pattern in your rectangle while it is still selected, click on the new swatch in your Swatches panel. Refer to Figure 7-51.

Tip

You can copy this rectangle as a Smart Object layer into Photoshop and do further editing or cropping there.

Like with solid swatches, when the rectangle is selected, you can use the Control panel to fade the opacity down from 100% to 30% for the shape’s fill and stroke. Refer to Figure 7-52.

This is often a good idea, especially if you decide at some point to place type over the pattern, as it will be easier to read. As well, a faded pattern may not be as overwhelming, depending on the look you are trying to achieve.

We will look more into opacity and the Transparency panel in Chapter 8.

Transform and Scale the Pattern with the Transform Panel

Regardless of which pattern you use, you may have noticed that as you try to scale the rectangle shape with the Selection tool, the pattern scales along with it. But what you really wanted to do was scale the shape and not the pattern. Refer to Figure 7-53.

Choose Edit ➤ Undo. Then, if you do not want patterns to scale with the shape, in the Transform panel choose Transform Object Only. Currently, by default, it is set to Transform Both. Refer to Figure 7-54.

You can now move the bounding box handles, and the pattern does not scale along with the shape. Refer to Figure 7-55.

If you only want to transform the pattern, choose from the panel’s menu Transform Pattern Only; however, you may get a warning on the Transform panel about what the transformation will affect. In this case, it’s the pattern fill of the selected object. Refer to Figure 7-56.

On this setting, besides using the Transform panel to scale this pattern, you could also rotate just the pattern. Refer to Figure 7-57.

Or you could even shear the pattern and set an angle. Refer to Figure 7-58.

Tip

Use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard while in the text boxes to scale, rotate, and shear the pattern. Also, you can set the reference point to a location other than center to affect the scaling within the shape. Refer to Figure 7-59.

To remove this setting, click the warning icon in the Transform panel, which reverts the setting in the menu to Transform Both. This will, however, not reset the current setting you applied to your pattern within the rectangle. Refer to Figure 7-60.

While generally you will use the default setting of Transform Both, as you can see, these options allow you to scale your shape or pattern separately, setting one or the other and not both at same time. The pattern can be reset if you click again on the same pattern in the Swatches panel.

Object Transform and Patterns

In Chapter 3, the Transform options are Move, Rotate, Reflect, Scale, Shear, and Transform Each. Within their dialog boxes, they have option settings to Transform Objects and Patterns separately based on which checkboxes you enabled or disabled, and you can preview the result at the same time. Refer to Figure 7-61.

You may prefer to use these options, instead of the Transform panel, to control the direction of your pattern as you adjust or create a copy afterward.

You can also use the Free Transform tool to scale, rotate, and shear the shape and pattern together. However, it does not appear that you can use the Free Transform sub-tools of Perspective Distort and Free Distort to alter the pattern, only the shape. Refer to Figure 7-62.

An alternative is to select the shape with the pattern and, from the main menu, choose Object ➤ Expand. In the dialog box, expand both the fill and the stroke and click OK. Refer to Figure 7-62.

This turns the pattern and shape into a grouped object with multiple compound and clipping paths. Then, you could use the Free Transform tools of Perspective and Free Distort on the group. Refer to Figure 7-63.

But this way is destructive, and if you want to adjust the entire pattern later, this is not ideal. See Chapter 9 on how to warp patterns using envelopes and meshes.

You could apply these same settings to the red pattern that we added to the Swatches panel, as well. However, let’s try something else to alter that pattern. Refer to Figure 7-64.

Repeating Patterns with the Object Menu

To enhance patterns, we can use some newer features in Illustrator that allow us to repeat shapes and grouped objects. They are Radial, Grid, and Mirror. These commands can be found in the Object ➤ Repeat menu. Refer to Figure 7-65.

Radial Repeat

In the pattern_start.ai copy of your file, on the artboard, lets create a copy of the red-patterned grouped object (Alt/Option-drag). Currently we are not working in Pattern editing mode. Select the grouped object with the Selection tool and then go to Object ➤ Repeat ➤ Radial. Refer to Figure 7-66.

This option appears to be very much like using the Rotate tool, except those multiple copies are created for you.

You can then refer to the Control panel or Properties panel for specific settings for this Radial Repeat command. Refer to Figure 7-67.

Number of Instances: This controls how many times you will repeat the object around its point of reference, between 1 and 100 times. In this case, the default is set to 8. But you can also use the up and down icon to the right of the bounding box to set that. Refer to Figure 7-68.

Radius: Sets the distance between the objects on the radius circle. Refer to Figure 7-69.

The ring’s rotation can also be further adjusted with the rotation circle when you drag on the point to rotate and expand it in and out. Refer to Figure 7-70.

You can also remove some of the symbols from the rotation by dragging on one side of the split circle icon and pulling it around the radius. Refer to Figure 7-71.

Reverse Overlap: When enabled, this causes the objects to overlap or stack in the opposite direction on the repeating radius. Refer to Figure 7-72.

Note

While working with the Radial Repeat, you also have access to other options in the Control panel, such as stroke weight, which will update at the same time all instances in your pattern. Refer to Figure 7-73.

For this project, we will leave them at the current settings.

Create a repeat that you like. In this case, I added nine instances and a radius of 1.2312 in, and left Reverse Overlap unchecked. Refer to Figure 7-74.

Then you can, while the repeat is selected, try this trick: Select it with the Selection tool, then use Edit ➤ Copy (Ctrl/CMD+C).

Note

While using the Selection tool, you can still move, scale, and rotate your Radial Repeat.

Then, with the Selection tool, click outside the artboard to deselect the repeat. Refer to Figure 7-75.

Now, in the Swatches panel, double-click on the red pattern to enter Pattern Editing mode. Refer to Figure 7-76.

Select the current paths that are present in the pattern by using the Selection tool to drag a marquee around the paths, and then press Backspace/Delete to remove the current pattern. Refer to Figure 7-77.

Now Edit ➤ Paste (Ctrl/CMD+V) so that the pattern appears in the center of the tile’s edge area. Refer to Figure 7-78.

Now, it is going to appear a bit cramped. So, use your Pattern Options panel and check the Size Tile to Art option to spread it out a bit more. You may need to click it to disable it and then enable it again. Refer to Figure 7-79.

That is how you can get your Radial Repeat inside of the Pattern Editing mode, and you can still use those settings to modify your pattern further in the Control panel. Refer to Figure 7-80.

In this case, I renamed my pattern Red Pattern Repeat and left it at the default setting of Tile Type: Grid. Refer to Figure 7-81.

Then, I unchecked the Size Tile to Art checkbox. Refer to Figure 7-82.

Then, I wanted to fill in the gap a bit more on the sides of the repeated pattern. I clicked on the Artboard and then, using the Polygon tool dialog box, I drew an eight-sided octagon with a radius of 0.6615in. Refer to Figure 7-83.

Then, with my Selection tool, I placed the polygon in the upper-left of my tile area on the Artboard and rotated it 241.252°. You can see that rotation transformation in the Transform panel. Refer to Figure 7-84.

I then used the Control panel to set the fill to red (C=15, M=100, Y=90, K=10) and the stroke to black with a stroke weight of 1pt. Here you can see the result of that, and the preview of the other octagons appearing in the other three corners. Refer to Figure 7-85.

For your own patterns, you could use other shape tools as well to enhance the design.

Once done, I reviewed my Pattern Options panel and then clicked Done in the upper-left of the Pattern Editing mode dialog to commit the change and exit. Refer to Figure 7-86.

The pattern is now updated in the Swatches panel. Refer to Figure 7-87.

Note

One other great thing you can try is applying the pattern to a copy of your Radial Repeat outside of Pattern Editing mode. This produces a pattern within a pattern. Refer to Figure 7-88.

We’ll come back to these patterns in an upcoming project in this chapter, but for now let’s continue to look briefly at the other two object repeat options.

Grid Repeat

Again, on a copy of your original grouped object, you can try this next setting: Object ➤ Repeat ➤ Grid. Refer to Figure 7-89.

While not exactly for pattern creation, this is very useful if you need to create a grid of repeating items in a hurry. I can see how this would be helpful for print production of labels or stickers, so that you do not have to Alt/Option-drag a copy multiple times and then rely on your Align panel to line everything up.

You will find the settings in the Control panel and Properties panel for Grid Repeat. Refer to Figure 7-90.

Horizontal Spacing in Grid: Adjust the spacing evenly horizontally, between the objects in the grid. You can also use the arrow slider on the top of the bounding box to do this, by dragging left or right. However, if some of the pattern disappears outside the bounding box during expansion, then you need to drag on the right handle to increase the size of the bounding box. Doing so will also add more repeating items to your grid. Refer to Figure 7-91.

Vertical Spacing in Grid: Adjust the spacing evenly vertically, between the objects in the grid. You can also use the arrow slider on the left of the bounding box to do this, by dragging up or down. However, if some of the pattern disappears outside the bounding box during expansion, then you need to drag on the bottom handle to increase the size of the bounding box. Doing so will also add more repeating items to your grid. Refer to Figure 7-92.

In the More Options dropdown in the Control panel are the other three options:

Grid Type: Similar to working in the Pattern Options panel, you can set to Grid (Default), Brick by Row, or Brick by Column. Refer to Figure 7-93.

Flip Rows: This allows you to flip the objects in the row, with settings of Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical, or both. It is similar to how you would flip a single object using the Transform or Properties panel, but now you are flipping all items at once or in alternating rows. Refer to Figure 7-94.

Flip Column: This allows you to flip the objects in alternating columns with Flip Horizonal, Flip Vertical, or both. It is similar to how you would flip a single object using the Transform or Properties panel, but now you are flipping all items at once in alternating columns. Refer to Figure 7-95.

Note

While in Grid Repeat, you can still use the Selection tool to move, scale, and rotate the grid.

Mirror Repeat

This last repeat example is similar to using Object ➤ Transform➤ Reflect. In this case, I selected a copy of my grouped object and then chose Object ➤ Repeat ➤ Mirror. In this command, however, the mirrored item goes into Isolation mode, as you can see from the Layers panel and the area on the left below the rulers. Refer to Figure 7-96.

You can find your settings in the Control panel or Properties panel. Refer to Figure 7-97.

Angle of Mirror Axis: You can then set, in degrees, the angle of the mirror (0°–360°) in the text box or use the dropdown list to select a preset. The default is 90°. Here I tried a setting of 210°. Refer to Figure 7-98.

By dragging on the center circle you can adjust the spacing, and dragging on the end circle handles will adjust the angle.

When you are done, use the left-pointing arrow in the upper left to exit Isolation mode and commit the Mirror Repeat. You may have to click a few times to completely exit. Refer to Figure 7-99.

However, after this you can continue to use Mirror Repeat in the Control panel without having to enter Isolation mode. But to adjust spacing, you will need to double-click again on the mirrored paths to enter Isolation mode once more. Refer to Figure 7-99 and Figure 7-100.

Note

While in Mirror Repeat (Isolation mode) you can still use the Selection tool to move, scale, and rotate the original, and the Mirror Repeat will adjust as well.

Further Repeat Menu Options

The same repeat options can be found under Object ➤ Repeat ➤ Options. You can preset your options by just clicking on a tab (Radial, Grid, Mirror) for the type of repeat you are planning to do. Enter your settings and click OK. Or, just set them using the Control and Properties panels as you adjust your repeat. Refer to Figure 7-101.

The other option, Object ➤ Repeat ➤ Release, is good if you decide you want to cancel a repeat and return to the current grouped object only. Refer to Figure 7-102.

Note

You can use any of the three repeats multiple times on an object or in combination with each other. However, in that case you may have to use Object ➤ Repeat ➤ Release a few times to return to the original group shape. Refer to Figure 7-103.

You can see some of my examples in the file pattern_final.ai. I expanded the Artboard so you can see the examples I created. You can save your examples at this point.

For some additional visual examples from Adobe, you can visit https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/repeat-patterns-desktop.html.

Note

You can now experiment with a new feature Object ➤ Intertwine to edit you patterns further. To learn more about this item refer to this link:https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/intertwine-objects.html

Pattern Library and the Pattern Options Panel

While not necessary to know for this book, I’ll just mention that we could use Photoshop’s Adobe Capture (Extract from Image) from the Libraries panel to create custom patterns from layers. Once they are edited in the dialog box using the Patterns tab, they can be stored and saved to CC libraries or Creative Cloud libraries. They can be accessed later using the Libraries panel by other Photoshop documents, In those documents they can then be applied to Pattern Fill Adjustment layers, and added to the Patterns panel. Refer to Figure 7-104 for a brief overview.

However, in Illustrator there is currently no option to use Extract from Image or Adobe Capture to make Illustrator patterns available to Photoshop. Instead, you must save them as a graphic, which you could later add to Photoshop. Refer to Figure 7-105.

However, you do have access to any patterns you created in Photoshop. In this example, you do not need to create a new library using the menu. In this case use the Libraries panel’s menu to load or import my library Photoshop Patterns.cclibs. If you have already read Perspective Warps and Distorts with Adobe Tools: Volume 1 you may have already done this step, so it does not need to be imported again. If you have not read it, import it now so you can see the same library as myself. Upon choosing Import library from the Panels menu, select and find the library in the Lib folder in your Projects folder. Select the library and then click Import in the dialog box. Refer to Figure 7-106.

Extracting Photoshop Patterns from the Creative Cloud Libraries Panel

Open the file Library_Pattern_start.ai and make sure that the current patterns are available in the Libraries panel of Photoshop Patterns. Save a copy of your document if you need to practice. Refer to Figure 7-107.

In this case there are two rectangles. Select one of the rectangles with the Selection tool. Refer to Figure 7-108.

Then, double-click on one of the Capture patterns to add it to the shape. Refer to Figure 7-109.

This automatically adds the pattern to the Swatches panel as well. Refer to Figure 7-110.

OK, that was quick and efficient, and you can see how, for simple patterns straight from Photoshop Capture, this could be very useful. Refer to Figure 7-111.

If we check the pattern by double-clicking on it in the Swatches panel, going into Pattern Editing mode, and selecting it, we can see from the Control panel that it is an image.

And if you check your Window ➤ Links panel, you will see that it is an Embedded Link image. Refer to Figure 7-112.

If you check the details under the link info triangle, the PPI or pixels per inch is at 1440, which is high, so resolution is not an issue should you want to scale the pattern. However, you might notice a slight white seam on one side of the pattern, which might be visible if you did scale the pattern. We can correct that using the Pattern Options panel. Refer to Figure 7-113.

Enable the Size Tile to Art and Move Tile with Art options and set the H Spacing to about -0.001 in, leaving V Spacing at 0 in, as there were no white spaces there. Set the Overlap to Right in Front and Bottom in Front. This should close the overlap of the white line. Refer to Figure 7-114.

At this point, you can click Done to commit your changes and exit Pattern Editing mode. Refer to Figure 7-115.

Note

You might still see a white line on the preview, but if you zoom in with your Zoom tool it should be gone. I always make a test print to confirm this with any pattern I create.

Customizing a Capture Pattern and Modifying It

However, what if you want to edit the color of the pattern in some way, as well as simplify it? Let’s look at that possibility next.

In my own projects, I often use two panels to assist me in altering my illustration. You can use these as well on any embedded image in Illustrator. They are the Image Trace panel and the Color Guide panel. Refer to Figure 7-116.

I will not go into any details about them, as you can review that topic on your own at the following sites:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/color-groups-harmonies.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/image-trace.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/image-trace-presets.html

However, I will point out the basic steps that I would use to customize one of my Libraries panel’s Capture patterns should I want to use it in Illustrator for other projects.

To edit one of the Capture patterns, with the Selection tool, I would drag it out of the Libraries panel onto the Artboard to embed it. In the Libraries panel, it is stored as a bitmap PNG. Refer to Figure 7-117.

Click somewhere on the Artboard to place it. The file will come in quite large, so use the Shift key and the bounding box handles to scale it down to a manageable size and move it onto the Artboard. You can see my Width and Height settings in the Control panel of W: 3.7395 in and H: 2.1594 in. Refer to Figure 7-118.

Now I will Alt/Option-drag a copy, so I still have the original pattern to view, and then select the copy of the bitmap PNG pattern. Refer to Figure 7-119.

Looking at the Control panel, I will see a button for Image Trace. Refer to Figure 7-120.

Do not click on the button yet. Instead, go to the side arrow beside the button and choose, from the menu, a preset to simplify the pattern down, such as 16 Colors. Refer to Figure 7-121.

At this point, you may get a warning message that says, “Tracing may proceed slowly with this large image. Would you like to Continue?” The warning suggests reducing the image size and rasterizing to a lower resolution. If you wanted to, you could click Cancel and choose Object ➤ Rasterize, and then set a new resolution setting in that dialog box before proceeding with the image trace again. However, in this case just click OK. Refer to Figure 7-122.

Give Illustrator a few moments to progress through the image trace. When complete, the pattern should be simplified and traced with some reduced colors. You can either add back some colors or reduce the colors further using the Image Trace panel. Refer to Figure 7-123.

In this case, I increased the Colors setting to 18 to add back some of the yellow. Give Illustrator time to recalculate as you move the slider and click the preview off and on to commit the setting. Refer to Figure 7-123 and Figure 7-124.

Now that I have my ideal settings, I can click the Expand button in the Control panel to commit the image tracing so that it is no longer a bitmap image, but rather a group shape made of many paths. Refer to Figure 7-125.

Click off the Artboard with the Selection tool so that you can see the pattern without all the paths selected. Refer to Figure 7-126.

So, that is good for simplifying the pattern and its colors for Illustrator. However, now I want to alter some of the colors. In this case, I want the pink areas to be blue instead.

Altering Colors

Select the group pattern again with the Selection tool, and this time you can modify the colors using the Color Guide panel. Remember, if you need to review this panel in more detail, make sure to check out my Photoshop Selection book. However, in this project just click the Edit or Apply Colors button. Refer to Figure 7-127.

You will then be inside of the Recolor Artwork dialog box. Refer to Figure 7-128.

Don’t be worried if the preview of your pattern color changes dramatically. Illustrator will do that based on the current active colors in the dialog box, but you will control that in a moment. Refer to Figure 7-129.

Note

Your project you may have different colors than mine. This project can only give you a basic idea of how to alter your color, and you may need to swap some colors as you proceed to match my figures as closely as possible.

Return to your Recolor Artwork dialog box. Look at the current colors. To prevent some colors from changing, click the arrow between the Current Colors and the word New so that it becomes a straight line. This controls whether the colors in the row are recolored. Refer to Figure 7-130.

Changing all the arrows to lines will reset all the colors. Refer to Figure 7-131.

Now, in this case I just want to alter the one shade of pink that I want to switch to a new blue color. So, I select it first. Refer to Figure 7-132.

Now, I am going to click on the New Row button. It looks like bars with a plus symbol. Refer to Figure 7-133.

This added a new row above my other current color collections. Refer to Figure 7-134.

Then, I will select the pink color again and drag it onto that row to isolate it. Refer to Figure 7-135.

Currently, the new color is showing up as white in the preview. Refer to Figure 7-136.

Now, to change the color to a blue, double-click on the new swatch to enter the Color Picker dialog box, then find a light blue color that you like. Refer to Figure 7-135.

I used C: 50%, M: 3%, Y:0%, and K:0% and clicked OK to exit. Refer to Figure 7-137.

The new color has now been set for that selected color. Refer to Figure 7-138.

At this point, you may want to move or drag some of the other colors around. In this case, click OK to exit the Recolor Artwork dialog box and confirm the change. Refer to Figure 7-139.

Then, click outside the Artboard to preview the change. Refer to Figure 7-140.

Now that your grouped pattern is complete, you can scale it further or leave it at the current size. Then, select the entire grouped pattern again with the Selection tool and use the Swatches panel to add the repeating swatch by dragging the swatch into the Swatches panel. Refer to Figure 7-141.

Now, with the Selection tool, select the other gray rectangle, apply the pattern swatch, and see the result. Refer to Figure 7-142.

Note

In my case, there was again a slight seam issue in the width and height, so afterward I double-clicked on the pattern in the Swatches panel to enter Pattern Editing mode.

Using the Pattern Options panel, I again checked the Size Tile to Art box, and this time in my spacing I set both the H Spacing and V Spacing to -0.002 in; Overlap was set to Right in Front and Bottom in Front. If the pattern is complex, as in this case, with many paths, it may take a moment to process each step. Refer to Figure 7-143.

Then I clicked Done to confirm and exit Pattern Editing mode. The seam should be very tiny now and barely noticeable, unless you zoom in at a very close range. Note you may need to adjust the H and V Spacing more or less depending on how large or small you initially scaled your pattern, or adjust your Overlap settings to Left in Front or Top in Front. Refer to Figure 7-144.

As mentioned earlier, you can also set—in the Transform panel—the option to Transform Object Only if you want to scale the path without scaling the pattern, and this will allow you to cover part of the thin seam as well. Then, return the setting to Transform Both, and scale your pattern and path.

Selecting an area of a path with the Direct Selection tool in a grouped pattern and then altering the swatch color can improve complex seam issues as well.

So, as you can see, you can use the Image Trace panel and the Color Guide panel to simplify patterns and edit the colors as well. The more simplified the pattern, with fewer paths, the easier it will be for the Pattern Options panel to adjust, and the smaller the file size. So, these are all things to consider when you create a pattern, first using Photoshop Capture settings to create a pattern, and then later for use in Illustrator.

You can look at my final examples in the file Library_Pattern_final.ai.

Use Your Patterns for Some Brushes

Patterns do not have to be used just for backgrounds; you can also use them for creating borders with the Brushes panel. I’ll point out a few basic examples, and you can refer to my file brush_border.ai if you need more.

In this case, with my Selection tool, I drag a copy of my grouped objects into the Swatches panel. I will not edit them using Pattern Editing mode, though technically they are still a pattern.

Then, with nothing selected on the Artboard, I go to my Brushes panel and click on the New Brush button. Refer to Figure 7-145.

The New Brush dialog box will appear. There are five brush options to choose from, but two are grayed out. Refer to Figure 7-146.

• Calligraphic Brush: Use for a calligraphy pen–like appearance when you paint with the Paintbrush tool or Pen tool to give the strokes a more angled look. Refer to Figure 7-147.

• Scatter Brush: Brushes used to scatter art objects that have been added directly to the Brushes panel and applied on paths when you use the Paintbrush tool or Pen tool. Refer to Figure 7-148.

• Art Brush: Art added directly to the Brushes panel and used as borders and applied on paths when you use the Paintbrush tool, Pen tool, or a Shape tool. Refer to Figure 7-149.

• Bristle Brush: Can be used to create painterly effect–type paths when you use the Paintbrush tool, Pen tool, or Shape tool to make it appear that you painted with a brush with natural bristles. Refer to Figure 7-150.

• Pattern Brush: This is ideal if you want to create a patterned border using patterns from your Swatches panel; they are applied to the path’s strokes as tiles. We will look at this option now. Refer to Figure 7-151.

In this case, I will choose Pattern Brush and click OK. I enter the Pattern Brush Options dialog box. Refer to Figure 7-152.

You can then give your brush a name: Octagon Border.

Adjust the scaling. I left it at a fixed 100%, but there are other settings when you are using a stylus. Refer to Figure 7-153.

I left the spacing between the tiles at 0%. Refer to Figure 7-154.

Now I can select the pattern that I want to use from the Swatches panel, by selecting it for the edge of the border. There are five dropdown menu options: Outer Corner Tile, Side Tile, Inner Corner Tile, Start Tile, and End Tile. Start and End Tiles only are needed when the path is open. Refer to Figure 7-155.

In the menu, scroll down until you see the swatch you want and leave the checkbox enabled for Show Auto-Generated Corner Tiles. Refer to Figure 7-156.

Here are the patterns that I used to generate the preview. I found some of the corner tile options to be too warped, so I just set the actual swatch instead. Refer to Figure 7-157.

Additional options also allow me to do the following:

Flip: Flip the pattern along and across. I left these disabled. Refer to Figure 7-158.

Fit: You can choose Stretch to Fit, Add Space to Fit, or Approximate Path. I left it at the default of Stretch to Fit. Refer to Figure 7-159.

Colorization: By default, this is set to None. However, by selecting a key color eyedropper you can alter the color, after selecting from the Method dropdown either Tints, Tints and Shades, or Hue Shift (only if the stroke is initially a color and not black). More information on this can be found when you click on the Lightbulb icon near the Method dropdown list. You could preview this change if you enabled the Preview checkbox while a patterned stroke is selected. Refer to Figure 7-160.

I left my Method at None and the Key Color at black and clicked OK to exit. This adds the patterned border to the Brushes panel. Refer to Figure 7-161.

I can then drag out a rectangle with the Rectangle tool and, with the Control panel, apply a brush definition to my stroke. The new brush pattern is then applied. Refer to Figure 7-162.

To scale down the border a bit more, I then set my stroke weight to 0.25 pt. This balances out the shapes and makes them more evenly spaced. Refer to Figure 7-163.

Brushes can be duplicated if dragged over the New Brush icon in the Brushes panel, and then you can set alternate settings in the copy of the brush. We will look at brushes a bit more in Chapter 8.

Project: Blowing in the Wind, Part 5

To continue with our project of the girl on the farm, we can apply what we will learn now about the Appearance panel to modify areas of the illustration with additional patterns.

Open Landscape1_5_start.ai. Save a copy if you want to practice. Refer to Figure 7-164.

In the Swatches panel you will find two patterns that I created and edited using the Pattern Options panel, and one has already been added. Refer to Figure 7-165.

If you unlock the Girl layer and select her bow clip with the Group Selection tool, you will find that it has a pattern that was added over a yellow background fill. Refer to Figure 7-166.

You will see a warning symbol in the Control panel showing the background fill is active, but not the top-most pattern fill. Refer to Figure 7-166 and Figure 7-167.

In this case, do not click the warning triangle, but instead look in the Appearance panel.

Here, you will see that this path has two fills and one stroke. The top fill is the pattern with some transparent areas, and a second, lower fill is a solid CMYK yellow swatch. Refer to Figure 7-168.

At this point, lock the Girl layer for now, as we do not need to alter anything on this layer. Refer to Figure 7-169.

Now, unlock the layer Mountains and Foreground and, with the Selection tool, select the gray foreground area. Refer to Figure 7-170.

Now look at the Appearance panel. Refer to Figure 7-171.

We need to add another fill above the current fill so that we can blend the pattern in with the ground, to create a more textured effect.

Select the fill and then click the Duplicate Selected Item button to create a second fill. Refer to Figure 7-172.

This creates a second fill with the same swatch color. Now, select the dropdown menu and locate the pattern called Mezzotint and select it. Refer to Figure 7-173.

This adds a texture-like appearance to the gray ground to make it look more like gravel. Refer to Figure 7-174.

Besides fills, you can use the Appearance panel to add additional stroke effects, alter the opacity overall or for individual fills and strokes, and other filter effects.

We will look at that a bit more in this next project and in Chapter 8, as well as in Chapter 11.

For now, lock your layers and save your document. You can look at my project so far in the file Landscape1_5_final.ai. Refer to Figure 7-175.

Project: Colorizing the Circus Tent

For additional practice with patterns and the Appearance panel, you can use the file Circus_Tent.ai. Save a copy to practice.

You will see the tent again in Chapter 10 with a very similar project when the clowns get ready for their next circus performance.

However, you can use this opportunity to colorize one of the tents with your own patterns or the ones that I supplied in the Swatches panel. Refer to Figure 7-176.

The patterns were built using similar steps to what we did in this chapter, only some of the colors differ. Also, most of the tent parts were built with a gradient fill rather than a solid color to add texture. Refer to Figure 7-177.

In this case, work on the Original Tent layer and use the steps I showed you in the previous project to add a pattern via the Appearance panel. You can select your paths with the Selection tool, as the tent is not grouped. Refer to Figure 7-178.

If you get stuck, you can unlock another tent layer and then refer to the Appearance panel for those selected paths. Then, try to add the new fill to your own Appearance panel for your path. Refer to Figure 7-179.

One final thing that I will point out is that should you get the fills out of order, such as the gradient fill is on top of the pattern, you can drag that pattern fill above the other in the Appearance panel, similar to working with the Layers panel. Refer to Figure 7-180.

When you are done, save your project.

Summary

We looked at patterns that can be created in Illustrator, as well as ones that can be modified from Photoshop. We also looked at the repeat options and how they can be incorporated into patterns. The Swatches panel patterns can be reused for brushes as well. And the Appearance panel allows us to blend patterns over the top of solid colors or gradients.

As you can see, you can create many unusual patterns for all your print projects.

In the next chapter, we will explore gradients.