Wednesday, December 21, 2011

How to Define Pattern as .PAT File in Photoshop

Some designs are sometimes will look more stunning with the use of pattern. It is very often that you will need larger canvas to put the pattern then edit it a little for its opacity, blending mode before using it to your design.

Many digital pattern resources may only provide .PNG graphic file format for you, because of that I want to share a quick tutorial of how to define a digital graphic pattern as .PAT file in Photoshop so you can apply it in larger canvas dimension for further editing process.

Step 1 - Open the digital graphic pattern file
Any graphic digital pattern file format, such as: .GIF, .JPG or .PNG can be defined as pattern in Photoshop. To have good quality result, be sure that they are available as seamless pattern as they will be repeated in all direction later.







Step 2 - Define pattern
Once your digital graphic file is opened, go to the Photoshop main menu bar, find:  Edit > Define Pattern



Another dialog box will be shown, and this time you have to name your new defined pattern then click OK when it's done.




Step 3 - Creating .PAT file for a set of patterns
Whenever you define more than one pattern, you will see all of the defined patterns in Preset Manager. Go to Edit > Preset Manager  select 'Pattern' for the Preset Type option and you can see all the previous defined patterns are listed. Click the Save Set button to create the .PAT file.



You can group certain pattern type (based on the shape or design style for instance) and save them as different .PAT file. Click the Load button to add another set of .PAT file pattern in your Preset Manager.


How to fill canvas with Photoshop pattern
After you understand how to define pattern as .PAT file in Photoshop, it will be very easy for you to apply the defined pattern into any size of Photoshop canvas dimension.

First of all, create any size dimension of new blank transparent canvas file: File > New.
There are several ways to apply the pattern:

1. Use Fill tool (Shift + F5) - with this tool you can select Blending Mode type or set the Opacity of the pattern before you apply it to the canvas.


2. Use Paint Bucket tool (G) - Beside Blending Mode options and Opacity control, there are also more different options if you use Paint Bucket tool to put pattern in your blank canvas.






3. Use Shape tool (U) - The advantage of using this tool is that you can apply Pattern Overlay using Layer FX tool and scale the pattern to seamlessly appear smaller. I'm not suggesting you to scale the pattern bigger because the resolution quality will not be nice to see. 




How to add color to your pattern
Basically, it is very easy to add color to your pattern by setting the opacity of the pattern layer above another layer that has solid color background. The bottom line is to make the pattern layer to look transparent with this technique.




When you fill pattern using shape tool, you can also add other effects using Layer FX tool, for instance: use Color Overlay effect, after you decrease / adjust the opacity of the Pattern Overlay effect.




I hope you will find this short tutorial useful. Use the comment form below if you have more questions and be sure to subscribe to GraphicIdentity Blog Feed because there will be another follow up tutorial related to 'pattern' soon. 




Related Post:

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Design Style Resources: SIMPLICITY IN WEB 2.0

Here we go again, with another Design Style Resources. There should be more of these, but only pick the several best of them to give you a clue of what Web 2.0 design is.


LAYOUT DESIGN GUIDELINES


Web2.0 Design Style Guide
by Web Design from Scratch

The visual design of Web 2.0 by Pixel Acres


WEB 2.0 INTERFACE TUTORIALS:

How to Create a Simple & Sleek Web 2.0 Site Footer by Daniel Lopes

Photobucket


Modern menu - Photoshop tutorial


Photobucket

Design a Web 2.0 tab with Photoshop

Photobucket

Vista Style Layout - Talk Mania Forum

Photobucket

Creating Object Reflection on a Surfaceby Graphic Identity

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


CSS


Rounded Corners in CSS

CSS Rounded Box Generator

Speech Bubbles

Photobucket

Expandable Box

Photobucket


GRAPHIC DESIGN APPLICATION AND TOOLS

Ultimate Web 2.0 Gradients – by Deziner Folio

Photobucket

Gradient Image Maker

CSS Rounded Box Generator

Stripe Generator 2.0

Stripe Designer


Web Applications for Designers


Web 2.0 Logo Creator


COLOR SCHEME

The Colors of Web 2.0 by Chris Messina

Photobucket

Web 2.0 Colour Palette by Stuart Brown
This is my favorite old post. Visit the website to get the hexa color codes.


FONTS AND TEXT EFFECT

Fonts

The trends in web typography by Daniel

Great Fonts for Web 2.0 by Stuart Brown

5 Free Fonts for Web 2.0 Logo


Text Effect Tutorials


Web 2.0 Text Effect
by Aviva Directory
The Glossy TEXT web2.0 style by aaron
Photobucket


LOGOS

Is There a New Trend in Logo Design? by Toon (Guest Blog Post for Creative Curio)

How will your Favorite Logos look in Web 2.0?

A Guide to Web 2.0 Logos

How Web 2.0 Logos are Drawn by Hongkiat

20 Corporate Logos redesigned for Web 2.0 by Alex


ICONS, BADGES, and BUTTONS

Icons

Web site icons

Photobucket


Illustrator Vector Round Icons by ~colormist

Photobucket


Social networking icons

Photobucket

Badges

Web 2.0 Badges by ~Forzaken

Photobucket
Web 2.0 Badges

Buttons

Color Button 2.0 by ~IdeandoGrafica

Photobucket

Download Button by ~WhoIsScott

Photobucket

Pointy by ~adrice

Photobucket

Power Button in black by ~helmlein

Photobucket

Tutorials

Quick ways to Create Buttons using Photoshop and Illustrator by Graphic Identity

Translucent IM Style Illustrator Icon Tutorial by Spoon Graphics

Photobucket

Handy Web 2.0 Icons In Photoshop by Fabio

Photobucket

Glossy web 2.0 badge with rounded corners by Photoshop It

Photobucket

Web 2.0 style buttons by Iris-Design

Photobucket