Software Used: Paint Shop Pro 6
This
is a challenge that was sent to me by a friend. She had an image
that she created using filters in Paint Shop Pro, and she wanted
this image to tile seamlessly in order to be used as a fill.
This tutorial is a result of her request. Her image is shown
to the right. As you can see below, it does not tile seamlessly.
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After
several attempts and getting "close, but not quite"
results, I tried to think of an easier way... |
Since the image is symmetrical, I thought it would be
a simple matter of cropping it where two lines intersect.
My crop lines are shown to the right in red so you can
see them.| Close, but not quite... |
Hmmm... if I could make the mesh pattern horizontal and vertical instead of diagonal, I could make a more precise selection. Luckily, this image happened to have a 45 degree diagonal.
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1.) I went to Image -> Free Rotate, 45 degrees.
Here
is the result...
2.) Now I could easily place my crop marks precisely in the center of the meshlines and crop. It's helpful to check the box for precise cursors in the tool options. |
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3.) Now it needs to be rotated back to a diagonal again. You can use the same settings as before. |
 4.)
We need to crop the image once again, but this time it will
be easier to get precisely where we need to be. This time
I am using the selection tool instead of the crop tool because
I need a square selection. In the tool options for the selection
tool, set the selection type to square, then click and drag
to put a square selection in the center of the image, just
inside to the edge of the white boundaries. |
|
Go to Image -> Crop to selection. If you prefer the crop tool, you can use it, but be sure to watch the status bar so you know your selection is precisely square. If it's not square your image will not tile seamlessly.
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Below is the tiled image. It's not entirely perfect, but it's pretty darn close. |
What I didn't realize was that my friend intended to use this fill to create a horizontal border background. I heard from her again when she wanted to know why the horizontal background she created did not tile seamlessly.
Below is a horizontal border background I made quicky with a height dimension of 100. Notice how there is a very obvious seam where the image tiles horizontally?
To work around this, you must create your new image with a pixel height that is evenly divisible with the height of your fill pattern.
First, you need to find out the dimensions of your fill pattern.
Go
to Image -> Resize. Click the Percentage of Original
radio button and enter 100 for the width and height.
The pixel size above will change to reflect the pixel dimension
of the image at 100 percent. As you can see, my image is 63
by 63 pixels. Once you know the dimensions you can cancel out
of the resize dialog.
Now that we know our fill is 63 pixels heigh, we can calculate the height for the horizontal background we need using multiples of 63. I'll make my background 126 (63 x 2) pixels high, but you can use any multiple such as 189 (63 x 3), 252 (63 x 4), and so on.
Here's the new horizontal background created using a height of 126.
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No
Seam!
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If you enjoyed this tutorial, why not share it with a friend?
Paint Shop Pro Tutorials from your Guide
Sue
Chastain
Your Guide to Graphics Software
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Images:
Copyright 2000, Barb R., BAR-Grafx, Used with Permission.
Screen shots captured with Corel Capture 9. Image conversion
and optimization with Photoshop 5.5.
