Editing Vonster Patterns

[vapordave]

Hi,

Does anyone know why the pre-packaged Vonster patterns that ship with Illustrator are not editable? For instance, the Patterns Options palette has all the options greyed out when a Vonster pattern is selected, including the most useful one, Move Tile With Art.

I created a great graphic using a Vonster pattern, using the artboard instead of the document window, and when I went to move the graphic back to the document window to print, the pattern tile did not move with the art, meaning my art was now positioned in a slightly different place on the pattern tile, rendering my entire effect useless.

Is there a way to expand the appearance of a Vonster pattern, and/or be able to edit it in any way, and/or be able to move the tile with the art?

I've attached a screenshot of a Vonster Pattern selected and all the options greyed out.

Thanks!

Dave

[tromboniator]

Hi, Dave. I don't understand what you mean when you say "using the artboard instead of the document window", so it's not clear where the problem arises. I'm not finding any difficulty in accessing editability in the Vonster patterns. Could you please explain your process step by step?

Thanks,
Peter

[Ton Frederiks]

You must double click the pattern in the Swatches panel to get to the options.

[vapordave]

I am unable to even get any Vonster pattern into the Swatches panel, but it's all good, I figured out a workaround for resizing my graphic without the pattern background remaining fixed (and therefore showing a different portion of the pattern tile)...drop the .ai file into InDesign and resize away, tile remains true within the graphic and I can then export as a PDF 🤓

[Ton Frederiks]

I wonder how you used the pattern if it is not in the swatches panel?

[vapordave]

The Vonster patterns live in their own panel, not the Swatches panel, see attached. All you do is have an object selected (its fill not its stroke) and then click on any of the Vonster patterns and it fills your object with the pattern.

[Monika Gause]

Those are graphic styles, but when you apply one of them, the pattern gets added to the swatches.

[vapordave]

That's true in theory but not in practice, see attached. When I select the pink Vonster pattern the swatch that gets added to my swatches panel is the purple pattern, not the pink one

[Ton Frederiks]

Vonster Patterns have their own pattern library: Swatches > Patterns > Decorative > Vonster Patterns

But to be honest I forgot that there was also a Graphic Styles library that combines variations of them.

[Monika Gause]

That's right. Because graphic styles are not just patterns. THey can have effects and transparency.

[vapordave]

Aha! Thank you, hadn't thought to check the Appearance panel, duh!

However, I'm still having the issue of not being able to select any options in the Palette Options for this pattern, see attached. This results in the pattern remaining fixed in place if I decide to move my object elsewhere on the page, meaning the resulting pattern within my object looks different depending on where I move the object around the page. How do I resolve this issue?

[Ton Frederiks]

To edit the pattern, double click it in the Swatches panel, but you probably are talking about moving the pattern with or without moving the shape. That can be done by choosing options in the Transform panel menu.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

In order to move the pattern with the object, turn on "Transform pattern" in Preferences > General