Creating Seamless Tiles in PSP8

In previous versions of Paint Shop Pro, without a decent plug-in or going to an awful lot of trouble, it was pretty much impossible to create a perfect, seamless tile. The old 'Convert to seamless tile' option quite frankly, er, well...sucked! However with Version 8 this feature has improved out of sight. Not only does it now tile your images brilliantly, but it also offers several different ways in which to achieve it. So, let's take a look at how seamless tiles are done now.

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1.   First of all, open up an image of your own you'd like to tile, or if you prefer, you can download my example (below). Place your mouse over the image, and right-click to save to your own hard drive.

(Note: for the sake of quicker downloading, I've reduced all the images shown of Polly below.)

2.   Polly looks pretty, and she'd make a great tile for a home page featuring exotic birds, (Special Note: In 'real life' I wouldn't normally use 'Polly' for a tile without fading her somewhat - she's way too dark and there's too much 'business' going on, however I thought such a dramatic image would make a great example for demonstrating how the seamless tile tool works). However, this is what happens when we place her on a page as she is: Pretty Polly. Well, the results are shall we say quite...YUCK!

3.   Let's see what we can do about this. Go to Effects>Image Effects>Seamless Tile. You'll see something like this, below:

4.   The default settings for the seamless tile tool are the ones shown above. If you'd like have a good play around with the different controls to get a feel for them go right ahead, now is the time for it. Don't worry about accidentally changing anything, because all you need to do when you've finished exploring is to hit the 'reset to default' button (as shown above). This will undo all your changes and return it to the factory settings. O.k. when you're ready, click on OK, and let's see what we get. Hmmmm...interesting result...but what does Polly look like now on a web page? You can see for yourself right here: Cornered Polly. Quite different, huh? One thing's for sure, there's not an ugly seam in sight, however somehow we've lost Polly's beak! Goodness, that will never do! How is she gonna keep stealing our fruit without a beak?!

5.   Hit the Undo button, (or Edit>Undo) and this time try changing the default in the Tiling Method from 'Corner' to 'Edge'. To check out the result of this when it's tiled, have a look here: Polly Tiled with an edge. Ahhh...so that's what happened to her beak ;-) Also, that pesky leaf she's hiding behind isn't quite so prominent.

6.   Want to see what Polly will look like mirror-tiled? Undo again, and this time try 'mirror'. This is the result right here: Polly Mirror Tiled. Hmmmmmm.......this has softened the edges quite a bit, and we can see Polly clearly peeking out from behind that leaf now. Now Polly is starting to look like a pretty Polly indeed :)

Tip: to soften the edges around the tile so it will blend in even more seamlessly, try playing with the Transition control. The rule of thumb here is that the higher the number, the softer the transition between the tile edges. The lower the number, the more it will 'harden' the edges making the transition a little more obvious.

As you play with them, don't worry if some of these controls are greyed out - they're not all supposed to work together. For instance, 'corner style' will only work if the 'corner' tiling method is selected.....duh. ;-) Try experimenting a bit until you come up with something that you like. If it's something you really like, why not save it as a preset?

7.   In a nutshell, 'corner' will tile your image diagonally around your central image (remember the diamond pattern from earlier? 'Edge' will tile your image over the page based on straight vertical and horizontal edges around your central image giving it a kind of boxed pattern, and 'mirror' will reflect those vertical and horizontal edges back on to themselves. Clear as mud? Good......I knew that would make sense ;-)

8.   The most important thing to note here is that the focus of the image (the center of the tile itself) isn't what is changed by the seamless tiling tool - what will change are the edges around the selection. Can you make a different part of your original image the focus, that is change the actual selection? Yes indeed. Try dragging the crosshairs (shown above) in different directions, either left, right, or up and down, and you'll see the preview change. To have even more control over what you change, click the navigation button (see below, left) and you'll then be able to get a really good idea of where your selection is in relation to the overall image (see below, right). You can also drag this square to change the focus of the tiling area. (BTW, this square isn't normally red - I 'mocked' it up so it would stand out better for the sake of this tut.) The 'Show tiling' feature is also very handy, as you can switch back and forth between viewing your original image any time, and seeing what it will look like in its final, tiled version.

        

9.    You may notice that when you drag the selection around the increments keep changing in the Vertical and Horizontal Offset boxes. They change because they're actually the same controls - the input boxes allow you to manually change the settings instead of dragging with the mouse. Have a good play around with these settings to find out what they can do in more depth. Good luck with your seamless tiling, and once you get the hang of it I think you'll agree it's a huge improvement on the old method of converting to seamless tile!