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Question

Lines in patterns in Photoshop

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
June 23, 2017
6 replies
11209 views

Hi-

Would anyone know what is causing these faint lines to appear in the pattern? (see top row of ducks) I created the patterns in Illustrator for an invitation & the lines are not there, not matter how much I zoom in. When I open them in Photoshop to save as a JPG the lines are there. Even if I export as a JPG from Illustrator and open in PS...lines! Some are cross hair looking so I am not sure if this is from the pattern tool. I have them in the polka dot pattern that is part of this invite too so it's not just the shape. I thought maybe if I change from a hex pattern to offset brick it would help, but it isn't.

Thanks,

Lauren

laurenh22769Author

Known Participant

Rayek, what would your solution be please?

rayek.elfin

Legend

The reason for those seams is very, very simple: you are not working pixel-precise, and Illustrator (or Photoshop during import) is then forced to render a decimal pixel along those edges - which results in anti-aliased seams which are (very) noticeable in a pattern.

The solution is to use exact pixel dimensions in your clipping masks. And the exported artboard or pattern size must be pixel-precise as well. NO DECIMALS!

Steps:

0) create an artboard at exactly the pattern's size. For example, 128x128px size. Or create a new file with these dimensions.

1) create an invisible rectangle at exact non-decimal pixel dimensions. For example, 128x128px. Align this rectangle to the artboard. Use the input fields to make absolutely certain the rectangle is positioned at 0 and 0 (x/y) and the width and height are 128px.

2) Create your first pattern object. Drag this to the swatches to create a pattern.

3) Assign this pattern to the rectangle you drew earlier.

4) double-click on the pattern swatch, and design away. When finished, return to the canvas.

5) drag the asset to the Asset Exporter, and choose your settings. Export.

If you kept the artboard and rectangle at exact pixel sizes, you should no longer have any seams.

laurenh22769Author

Known Participant

LOL! Semaphoric! Marking this one as "helpful".

laurenh22769Author

Known Participant

Hi Stephen,

Thank you. I did try it & it worked. I just don't know how large the files will get if I apply 7x. Does it increase file size? Ultimately, I am flattening to a JPG for customers. The patterns are backgrounds for the most part.

On my end...I did a test print of my saved file w/ the unchecked box and I didn't see any issues with the visual. Going forward I will save my pattern as a hi-res JPG & then apply to the graphics.

Take care,

Lauren

Semaphoric

Community Expert

I'm glad you have all your ducks in a row! (I've been waiting all week to say that!)

laurenh22769Author

Known Participant

I will have to try that. Thank you Trevor.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

I'd prefer to define the pattern in Photoshop starting with a single duck, or the shape of your choice. It's almost a mathematical process.

You need the grid turn on with a suitable spacing. (Tip: a quick way to alter grid spacing is to adjust the image resolution with Resample turned off. Increasing the resolution also increases the grid spacing. This is just a wee bit quicker than going into Preferences).

Lay down your first object, be it raster or vector shape, and start Free Transform. Nudge the centre handle to coincide with a grid intersection and OK it.

Copy the shape and repeat that a couple of times moving each one so that its FT centre handle coincides with the relevant grid intersection.

With three objects, merge the layers. Copy and move this time using the centre handle.

With three rows, merge into a single layer, and drag out some guides to form your pattern box

You can now make a selection that snaps to the guides, and copy to a new layer

You now have a perfectly reaping pattern. Note you will need to rasterize if you used shape layers. Trim the image with it set to transparent pixels (having turned off the other layers, and define your pattern.

rayek.elfin

Legend

Trevor, you do realize your pattern shows an obvious anti-aliased line at the pattern's edges?

Sigh, I wish Photoshop would have a wrap-around mode like Krita, Illusatrator, or PhotoLine have. Makes it infinitely easier to create seamless patterns.

rayek.elfin

Legend

Even the default pattern fills provide in Illustrator have this issue (one would expect that these are created correctly). Even a simple chess board pattern has this issue.

You could work on a copy in Illustrator and rasterize the fill pattern before rasterizing the entire art if this helps, or just use the apply image trick that I mentioned.

x7 applications of apply image to the same transparent layer will not add x7 layers worth of info, so no need to worry… what it will do is fill in the antialiased edges to be solid as they should be.

Stephen_A_Marsh wrote
x7 applications of apply image to the same transparent layer will not add x7 layers worth of info, so no need to worry… what it will do is fill in the antialiased edges to be solid as they should be.

That method affects ALL the anti-aliased edges of the artwork, and results in growing edges, as well as in terribly jaggy looking edges.

Not a method I would suggest anyone ought to use to solve this issue.

As long as the patterned rectangle/artboard is set to full pixels (no decimals) the export works fine.

If you need to work with existing patterns that create seams when exported for screen work, a quick fix is to export the pattern without any anti-aliasing at a 4 up to 8 times larger size than needed for screenwork, and use photoshop to scale it down to the required size. This will anti-alias the edges again, and leave the outside edge alone.

Mohammad.Harb

Community Expert

in illustrator saving as JPG dialog box, Choose Art optimized from the Anti-aliasing options

laurenh22769Author

Known Participant

Thanks. I tried that and it didn't work. I also tried exporting as a PSD file and still no luck. I ended up unchecking the "anti-alias" when opening the AI file in PS & that seemed to do the trick.

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