Seamless patterns User guide

How to Use the Patterns in Illustrator To Amend the Pattern

(Instructions are written for CS5, other versions may vary)
• Select your pattern-filled shape
• Open the file in Illustrator • Go to Object > Expand - click OK
• Ensure the swatches panel is open (Window > Swatches) and that • Use the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow) to select and manipulate
‘Show All Swatches’ is selected individual elements within the pattern
• You should see something like this:

Troubleshooting
Pattern swatch
Global colour swatch
Fine white lines appearing in the pattern
Click here to show .ai and .pdf files
all swatches Sometimes times very fine white lines are visible
at certain zoom levels in Illustrator and Acrobat.
• Draw a shape This is a glitch in the way that Illustrator and
• With the shape selected click on the pattern swatch in the swatches Acrobat render certain vectors and will not
panel show up when printed. You can check this
by temporarily switching off Illustrator’s
anti-aliasing feature (Preferences > General >
To re-size Your Pattern-Filled Shape without Uncheck ‘Anti-aliased Artwork).
Scaling the Pattern itself
• Open Illustrator preferences Raster Files
• In the General section ensure that ‘Transform Pattern Tiles’ is unchecked When saving as a raster (i.e. jpeg, png etc). Always ensure that anti-aliasing
is Art Optimised and not Type Optimised when you export the artwork.
This will eliminate any white lines.
To Change the colour of the pattern
• In the swatches panel double click the black swatch with
the white triangle on the bottom right hand corner
• Select a new colour
• All instances of the pattern swatch will be updated

www.edgewaysdesign.co.uk
Seamless patterns User guide
How to Use the Patterns in photoshop
(Instructions are written for CS5, other versions may vary)

• In your Photoshop file define the area that you would like to fill with the • Select ‘Load Patterns...’
pattern (using the marquee tool, lasso etc)
• Go to Edit > Fill and select Pattern from the Contents drop down
options

• Click on the Custom Pattern selection box

• In the next window click on the small round button with an arrow on • Navigate to the saved .pat file and select
the top right • The pattern swatches will now appear in the pattern selection window
• Choose one and click ok

www.edgewaysdesign.co.uk