Participating Frequently

Answered

Patterns not saving properly

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
July 25, 2024
3 replies
1914 views

Hello community!

When trying to save a pattern in Illustrator and going to use it from the Swatches > User Defined section, they either show empty or they show plain colors.

Method I use to save: Open the .ai pattern in Illustrator > Swatches > Save Swatches .

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I tried a couple of patterns and it worked, but after that no pattern that I save using the same method is saving properly.

Could you please help?

Thanks!

Tools

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Monika Gause

This is another one:

It is originally .svg.

That one just contains the artwork. You first need to make a pattern from it. It has 4 repeats on the artboard, you only want to use one of them. Use Object > Pattern > Make.

But beware! It is very complex. 700000 points. That is pretty detailed for a pattern. Most of the detail will probably not be visible when used in small scale.

Ton Frederiks

Adobe Expert

Good to hear you solved it.

Monika Gause

Adobe Expert

If there are no swatches in the panel, then you cannot save them. So you should definitely read the link Bill posted about how to create a pattern swatch.

Did you create these patterns or did you download them?

B

Benjamin Davi38804734pp6uAuthor

Participating Frequently

I downloaded it from Adobe Stock in .ai format. After the download, it opened directly in Illustrator and then I did this: Swatches > Save Swatches > selected the Swatches folder.

This is another example:

And when selecting the pattern the swatch window on the right does not show the pattern, it shows plain colors and a random pattern. If I proceed to save it as mentioned above, it either saves it blank or saves what you can see in the window here, that has nothing to do with the actual pattern. I am quite confused.

I am using Illustrator 2024 on a mac Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71).

Thanks!

Ton Frederiks

Adobe Expert

Sorry, nothing seems to be working.

The "pattern" saved is the 4th box and it is just white.

It seems blank when I save it like this.

And the problem happens with all patterns, not just this one. I tried downloading a bunch and all have the same issue.

Can you share an example Illustrator file?

Save as .pdf to be able to attach it to a post.

Bill Silbert

Adobe Expert

Without knowing exactly what steps you took to create your patterns it is hard to see what the error might have been. I would suggest trying again following the steps outlined here: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/create-edit-patterns.html. If you don't find the solution following the method provided then please provide full details of your process along with the exact version of Illustrator and operating system that you are using.

B

Benjamin Davi38804734pp6uAuthor

Participating Frequently

I downloaded it from Adobe Stock in .ai format. After the download, it opened directly in Illustrator and then I did this: Swatches > Save Swatches > selected the Swatches folder.

This is another example:

And when selecting the pattern the swatch window on the right does not show the pattern, it shows plain colors and a random pattern. If I proceed to save it as mentioned above, it either saves it blank or saves what you can see in the window here, that has nothing to do with the actual pattern. I am quite confused.

I am using Illustrator 2024 on a mac Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71).

Thanks!

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded