Want to export all the patterns in your current snapshots set in one go? With the just-released SymmetryMill 2.1, you can. The Export dialog now has the Export Snapshots button that lets you choose a folder and then automatically save all the patterns (or tiles) in separate image files. Continue reading New in SymmetryMill 2.1: One-Click Export of Snapshots
As luck would have it, while researching materials for this post, we’ve gotten reacquainted with Jaeson Caulley, a long-time Artlandia user, who is also a designer, an expert in secure printing, and Vice President of DSS Plastics Group, a leader in manufacturing secure plastic cards.
According to Jaeson, over the past ten years, the market in building secure plastic cards has shifted from standard guilloché patterns to fine-line patterns, as the look is fresher and friendlier to photos, names, addresses, and all other kinds of variable data on the card.
For the new polycarbonate ID cards (“unbreakable glass”), which have laser-engraved variable data, fine-line patterns are also a must because the material simply won’t bond if large swaths of fill colors are used, whereas thin lines off the edge of the card allow the material to adhere to the next layer.
Today we are happy to announce the release of a major new version of Artlandia SymmetryMill, a desktop application that provides the easiest-to-use tools for creating seamless repeating patterns from any image. Rebuilt from the ground up and based on modern technology, SymmetryMill 2 brings you a range of improvements and makes your pattern design work even more productive and fun. Among the major improvements are: Continue reading Artlandia SymmetryMill 2: Pattern Design for the Rest of Us
Last updated: September 3, 2017
Patterns add flavor to your webpage, making it unique and unforgettable. As a pattern designer, you will probably want to make your patterns yourself, and all the Artlandia tools, SymmetryWorks, SymmetryShop, and SymmetryMill, will let you do that. But if you are in hurry, there’s a wealth of patterns on Pattern Central that you can deploy right away, either as is or tweaked to suit your needs.
To that end, for every shared pattern set, Pattern Central gives you a direct link to a pattern tile. The tile is exactly what you need for your page CSS (or the HTML style attribute).
For instance, to re-create the first pattern from a shared set, like “SymmetryMill Blending Modes,” get its tile image and upload it to your website or link directly to the tile. For a pattern to run through the body of a page, you can add this class to the body tag (the background-size property is optional and needed only if you want to scale the pattern):
.pattern {
background-image: url("http://artlandia.com/share/tile/17b819be244e76a");
background-repeat: repeat;
background-size: 30%;
}
Continue reading Where Do Patterns Go? Part 2: Patterns for Your Webpage
Last updated: September 3, 2017
Artlandia’s Pattern Central just made it easier to use shared patterns in your projects. You could always load a shared pattern set in SymmetryMill and export a pattern tile for the pattern that you like. Now you may be able to skip a couple of steps, because the first tile in each shared set is available directly from Pattern Central. The tile image will seamlessly repeat if stacked both vertically and horizontally in many applications.
Continue reading Pattern Tiles: New on Pattern Central
You often want to make the repeat size of your patterns exactly to spec, which is now easy, thanks to SymmetryMill 2 displaying the repeat size when you edit the control path. You can also turn on the repeat size display by simply hovering your mouse over the control path. In either case, the repeat size shows up in the top section of the Source Image window.
Continue reading Get the Repeat Right: New Repeat Size display in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
Wouldn’t you want to sit back and relax while somebody makes all kinds of patterns for you? With SymmetryMill 2, you can! Just start the Pattern Explorer and let it run. Stop any time you see something interesting. But don’t worry about missing a beat. All the intermediate steps are recorded and you can replay them, like a movie, or browse frame by frame and select the best.
Continue reading Pattern Making on Autopilot: Pattern Explorer in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
When it comes to making seamless patterns, there can’t be too many tricks up your sleeve. SymmetryMill 2 adds dozens of new blend modes to your arsenal and lets you customize boundaries between neighboring units in your patterns exactly to your liking.
You can choose among many blend modes, such as Normal, Enhanced Average, Dissolve, Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Inverse Color Dodge, Lighten, Screen, Overlay, Soft, Hard, Vivid Light, Glow, Freeze, Heat, Difference, and Composite.
Continue reading Make That Perfect Seamless Pattern: New Blend Modes in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
You often want to tweak your patterns to make them look just so. In SymmetryMill 2, you can do that with a rich collection of image filters:
Continue reading Get More Patterns out of Your Images: New Filters in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
