This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating patterns
In addition to process colors, spot colors, and gradients, the Swatches panel can also contain pattern swatches. Illustrator provides sample swatches of each type in the default Swatches panel as separate libraries and lets you create your own patterns and gradients. In this section, you will focus on creating, applying, and editing patterns.
Applying an existing pattern
A pattern is artwork saved in the Swatches panel that can be applied to the stroke or fill of an object. You can customize existing patterns and design patterns from scratch with any of the Illustrator tools. Patterns can start with artwork (a tile) that is repeated (tiled) within a shape, starting at the ruler origin and continuing to the right. Next you’ll apply an existing pattern to a shape.
Choose File > Open. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the Lessons > Lesson10 folder, and select the L10_start2.ai file on your hard disk. Click Open to open the file.
Choose File > Save As, name the file Cake_poster.ai, and select the Lessons > Lesson 10 folder in the Save As menu. Leave Adobe Illustrator (ai) chosen from the Format menu (macOS) or Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) chosen from the Save As Type menu (Windows) and then click Save.
In the Illustrator Options dialog box, leave the Illustrator options at their default settings and then click OK.
Choose View > Fit All In Window.
With the Selection tool (
) selected, click to select the tan background rectangle behind all of the other artwork.Click More Options (
) in the Appearance section of the Properties panel to open the Appearance panel (or choose Window > Appearance). Click the Add New Fill button at the bottom of the panel. This adds a second gradient fill to the rectangle and layers it on top of the first.
NOTEYou’ll learn all about the Appearance panel in Lesson 12, “Exploring Creative Uses of Effects and Graphic Styles.”
In the Appearance panel, click the top fill color box to the right of the word “Fill” to show a panel of swatches. An arrow is pointing to it in the figure. Select the Pompadour swatch.
The pattern swatch fills the shape as a second fill on top of the first. The swatch named “Pompadour” is included in the swatches for a Print document. You can find so many more pattern swatches in Illustrator by choosing Window > Swatch Libraries > Patterns and choosing a pattern library.
In the Appearance panel, just below the top word “Fill,” click the word “Opacity” to open the Transparency panel (or choose Window > Transparency). Change the Opacity value to 20. Click in a blank area of the Appearance panel to hide the Transparency panel.
NOTEIf you don’t see the word "Opacity” below the top Fill row, click the disclosure triangle (
) to the left of the top word "Fill” to show it. The arrow is circled in the figure.Close the Appearance panel.
Choose Object > Lock > Selection and then choose File > Save.
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Creating your own pattern
In this section, you’ll create your own custom pattern. Patterns you create are saved as a swatch in the Swatches panel for the document you’re working in.
With nothing selected, choose 2 from the Artboard menu in the Properties panel to show the smaller artboard on the right. If it’s already active (chosen), choose View > Fit Artboard In Window.
With the Selection tool (
) selected, choose Select > All On Active Artboard to select the artwork you’ll use to create a pattern.Choose Object > Pattern > Make. Click OK in the dialog box that appears.
When you create a pattern, Illustrator enters Pattern Editing mode, which is similar to the Isolation mode you’ve worked with in previous lessons. Pattern Editing mode allows you to create and edit patterns interactively, while previewing the changes to the pattern on the artboard. All other artwork is dimmed and cannot be edited while in this mode. The Pattern Options panel (Window > Pattern Options) also opens, giving you all the necessary options to create your pattern.
NOTEYou don’t need to have anything selected when you create a pattern. You can add content to the pattern when you edit it in Pattern Editing mode, as you’ll see.
Choose Select > All On Active Artboard to select the artwork.
NOTEA pattern can be composed of shapes, symbols, or embedded raster images, among other objects that you can add in Pattern Editing mode. For instance, to create a flannel pattern for a shirt, you can create three overlapping rectangles or lines, each with varying appearance options.
Press Command and + (macOS) or Ctrl and + (Windows) to zoom in.
The series of lighter-colored objects around the artwork in the center are the repetition of the pattern. They are there for a preview and are a little dimmed to let you focus on the original. The blue box around the original group of objects is the pattern tile (the area that repeats).
In the Pattern Options panel, change Name to Cake Top, and try choosing different options from the Tile Type menu to see the effect on the pattern. Before continuing, make sure Grid is selected.
The name in the Pattern Options panel becomes the name of the swatch saved in the Swatches panel and can be useful to distinguish multiple versions of a pattern swatch, for instance. Tile Type determines how the pattern is tiled. You have three main Tile Type choices: the default grid pattern, a brick-style pattern, or the hex pattern.
Choose 1 x 1 from the Copies menu at the bottom of the Pattern Options panel. This will remove the repeat and let you temporarily focus on the main pattern artwork.
Click in a blank area to deselect the artwork.
Option+Shift-drag (macOS) or Alt+Shift-drag (Windows) the blue circle in the center to a little outside the upper-right corner of the blue pattern tile box.
NOTEDon’t forget to release the mouse first and then the keys.
Click in a blank area to deselect the artwork.
In the Pattern Options panel, change the following options:
Choose 5 x 5 from the Copies menu to see the repeat again.
Notice that the new circle is not repeated. That’s because it’s not within the pattern tile. Only artwork within the pattern tile is repeated.
TIPThe H Spacing and V Spacing values can be either positive or negative values, and they move the tiles apart or bring them closer together, either horizontally (H) or vertically (V).
Select the Size Tile To Art option in the Pattern Options panel.
The Size Tile To Art selection fits the tile area (the blue square) to the bounds of the artwork, changing the spacing between the repeated objects. With Size Tile To Art deselected, you could manually change the width and the height of the pattern definition area in the Width and Height fields to include more content or to edit the spacing between. You can also edit the tile area manually with the Pattern Tile Tool button (
) in the upper-left corner of the Pattern Options panel.If you set the spacing values (H Spacing or V Spacing) to negative values, the artwork in the pattern tile will overlap. By default, when objects overlap horizontally, the left object is on top; when objects overlap vertically, the top object is on top. You can set the overlap values: Left In Front, Right In Front to change overlap horizontally or Top In Front, Bottom In Front to change the overlap vertically (they are the small buttons in the Overlap section of the panel).
NOTETo learn more about the Pattern Options panel, search for "Create and edit patterns” in Illustrator Help (Help > Illustrator Help).
Click Done in the bar along the top of the Document window. If a dialog box appears, click OK.
TIPIf you want to create pattern variations, you can click Save A Copy in the bar along the top of the Document window when in Pattern Editing mode. This saves the current pattern in the Swatches panel as a copy and allows you to continue creating.
Choose File > Save.
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Applying your pattern
You can assign a pattern using a number of different methods. In this section, you’ll apply your pattern using the fill color in the Properties panel.
With nothing selected, click the Previous Artboard button (
) in the Properties panel to show the larger artboard on the left.With the Selection tool (
), click the top cake shape (see the following figure). Choose Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste In Front.Select the swatch named “Cake Top” from the Fill color in the Properties panel.
NOTEInstead of making a copy of the shape, you could have applied a second fill to the shape like you did previously.
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Editing your pattern
Next you’ll edit the Cake Top pattern swatch in Pattern Editing mode.
With the shape still selected, click the Fill color in the Properties panel. Doubleclick the Cake Top pattern swatch to edit it in Pattern Editing mode.
Press Command and + (macOS) or Ctrl and + (Windows) several times to zoom in.
In Pattern Editing mode, with the Selection tool (
) selected, click one of the blue circles; then while pressing the Shift key, click to select the other.In the Properties panel, change the fill color to the brown swatch named “BG.”
Click Done in the gray bar along the top of the Document window to exit Pattern Editing mode.
Choose View > Fit Artboard In Window.
Click the top cake shape with the pattern fill to select it, if necessary.
With the shape selected, choose Object > Transform > Scale to scale the pattern but not the shape. In the Scale dialog box, change the following options (if not already set):
Uniform Scale: 50%
Scale Corners: Deselected (default setting)
Scale Strokes & Effects: Deselected (default setting)
Transform Objects: Deselected
Transform Patterns: Selected
TIPIn the Scale dialog box, if you want to scale the pattern and the shape, you can select Transform Objects and select Transform Patterns. You can also transform patterns in the Transform panel (Window > Transform) by choosing Transform Pattern Only, Transform Object Only, or Transform Both from the panel menu (
) before applying a transformation.Select Preview to see the change. Click OK.
Choose Select > Deselect and then choose File > Save.
Choose File > Close.
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