Pattern Making in Adobe Illustrator

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Excerpted from The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book for CS6 and CC, 2nd Edition (Peachpit Press), All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2020 by Sharon Steuer.


Overview: Create a pattern or edit an existing one; work in Pattern Editing Mode with the Pattern Options panel to adjust repeats, varying spacing, offset, and overlap; duplicate patterns and experiment with offsets and settings to create and save pattern variations to the Swatches panel.

To create one “Garden Walk” tile, Von Glitschka used primarily the Polygon and Pen tools to create individual elements, expanded white strokes with Pathfinder filters, and filled objects with global colors. Bringing the grouped tile into Pattern Options, he chose Hex by Row with gaps set to half of the white “stroke” width; when gaps double in the pattern repeat, they equal the tile “stroke” width. Experiment with transforming your own graphic objects into patterns by exploring all Pattern Option parameters and by adjusting settings both numerically and manually.

1 Creating the first pattern repeat

To follow along using Glitchka’s “Garden Walk” pattern, first protect the original by copying it (drag the pattern in the Swatches panel to the New Swatch icon) and then double-click the copy to automatically open the Pattern Options panel and enter Pattern Editing Mode (PEM).

Using the Pattern Tile tool (top-left corner of Pattern Options) and experimenting with settings

To use your own artwork instead, select it and choose Object> Pattern> Make.

In PEM, changes to settings immediately update, so when you adjust settings for Copies, be aware that with complex artwork, increased repeats can slow down screen redraw.

When you open an existing pattern in PEM, PEM loads the Tile Type saved with the pattern.

If you create a new pattern, then the default Tile Type will be Grid. You control the space between repeats by adjusting the size of the tile’s bounding box, either with Size Tile to Art enabled and numeric input for H and V Spacing or interactively by using the Pattern Tile tool.

Using the Pattern Tile tool to change the gap between repeats with a Grid layout

With the Pattern Tile tool selected, use the square anchors to enlarge or reduce the gap between repeats. To create an overlap, make the tile bounding box smaller and choose the desired Overlap features. As your pattern progresses, you might want to evaluate it by zooming out, temporarily disabling both Dim Copies and Show Tile Edge and increasing the repeats.

Viewing multiple repeats with both Dim Copies and Show Tile Edge disabled

Undo/Redo is available while in PEM and can even back you out of PEM. At any time you can save the current version of the pattern as a swatch, but stay in PEM to create more variations by clicking Save a Copy and naming it. Now you can continue editing and experimenting with the pattern.

To save this version as the final one and exit PEM, click Done. If you click Cancel, no changes are saved to your original pattern in the Swatches panel.

The Pattern isolation bar showing the pattern name, controls for saving the current state to the Swatches panel, and ways to exit PEM

2 Experimenting with pattern offsets

To experiment with pattern offsets, you can stay in PEM or start over with a new copy. Make sure that both Show Tile Edge and Show Swatch Bounds are enabled. Any artwork that is within, overlaps, or touches the Swatch Bounds will be included in the pattern. To make your tile resize to the exact size of your art, enable Size Tile to Art (if it’s enabled, you may have to disable and then re-enable it).

Glitschka offset “Garden Walk” using the Hex by Row tile type, which naturally fits this design with little manipulation, but you can also use Brick by Row with a Brick Offset of ½ to tuck the repeats close together.

Using Hex by Row to start an offset repeat of the pattern, adjusted with the Pattern Tile tool to make the repeats fit with a slender gap between them

Brick Offset controls the position of each repeat relative to the others. With the Pattern Tile tool active, you can adjust the Brick Offset in fixed intervals by dragging the diamond widget on the Tile Edge to the right or left.

Resizing the Tile Edge by dragging a corner down until it “snaps” (before and after figures above); you can also slide the diamond widgets to change the pattern repeat offset at fixed intervals from 1/4 up to 4/5 the distance of a full repeat

Switch to Brick by Row as your Tile Type (shown at right), grab a corner anchor, and drag straight down until it “snaps.” Your pattern should match the Hex by Row results.

When dragging a corner with the Pattern Tile tool, hold Option/Alt to symmetrically adjust spacing on opposite sides. Hold Shift to constrain spacing to a square. Disable the tool to scale your art within the tile-spacing box or to edit your art and objects with normal vector tools.

For three decades Sharon Steuer has pioneered the merging of traditional and digital art forms. In addition to being an artist, Sharon is also the author of numerous books, online tutorials and articles including 14 editions of the best-selling Adobe Illustrator WOW! Books (Peachpit Press), Creative Thinking in Photoshop (New Riders), and “Artistic Painting with Illustrator” courses for lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning (now "archived"—ask Sharon for direct links).
  • HI all. Just letting you know that even though my name is the only one above, this updated pattern-making lesson is a great example of the WOW! team at work: Cristen Gillespie and I shaped the lesson to explain artwork and techniques generously shared by Von Glitschka, working with our tech-editor Jean-Claude Tremblay, and then tweaked with the help of team of great WOW! testers making sure that everything works. I may be wrong, but believe this is the only full-color book on Adobe Illustrator in which an entire team works on making sure every page is tested and works for you.

  • Michael Barreto says:

    Still bummed by the disconnect of the dialog box that stands between drawing and manipulating the tiling methods. I use a couple of great apps on my iPad like iOrnament and Kaleidopaint and drawing patterns and changing tiling happens in the main interface. I wish that Adobe would fully integrate pattern making and free up their tools for more creative uses.

    • Hi Michael.
      Thank you for the pointer to some good iPad apps—assuming they’re both raster (not vector and importable to Illustrator)?
      It’s hard to get Adobe to update an existing feature (e.g. grids, Edit Colors…)—but there’s now a place where users can post their requests:
      https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-feature-requests

      Most of the time users prefer to have a panel that’s interactive, than a dialog box.
      I assume dialogs are easier to plug in without reconstructing the entire app.

      I’m glad to add panel-based patterns to my request for them to integrate the Freehand technology that allowed you to power transform/duplicate (and have it be editable). This is technology they own (when they purchased Freehand).
      And would be great to use in pattern making as well– hoping that’s a panel too!
      all my best,
      Sharon

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