Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1491557
9 2 G R A P H I C S P R O • J U N E 2 0 2 3 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M B U S I N E S S S T R A T E G I E S similar to color stops and can be redistrib- uted by dragging to the left or right. Click OK to apply the gradient to the fill layer. Pattern fills A pattern is a repeating rectangular ele- ment. To make a pattern from any image, choose the rectangular marquee tool and drag it over an area on an image (Fig. 8). e marquee must not have a feath- ered edge. Choose Define Pattern from the Edit menu to store the pattern in the pattern presets. e pattern can be applied in several ways, either with the Pattern Stamp tool or with the Fill menu, but the most effi- cient and flexible technique is to create a pattern fill layer. Choose the Pattern option from the Fill Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to display the dialog box. Click the down arrow to choose a pattern, and set the following options: • Angle: Enter a value in degrees or drag the angle line to adjust the angle of the pattern • Scale: Choose a percentage to deter- mine the size of the pattern from zero to 1,000 percent • Link With Layer: Check this box if you want to align the pattern's layer mask to the layer • Snap To Origin: If you want to move the pattern, drag your cursor over it in the image window Snap it back to its original position by clicking the Snap To Origin button Click OK, and the pattern appears within the selected area as a repeating series of images. In the Layers panel on the fill Layer, a thumbnail of the pattern is displayed along with a layer mask (Fig. 9). Editing After they have been created, color fill, gradient fill, and pattern fill layers can be edited by double-clicking their thumb- nails in the Layers panel to reveal the Color Picker, the Gradient Fill dialog, or the Pattern Fill dialog. If you want to apply a filter to a fill layer, it will have to be rasterized, which con- verts the layer to pixels. However, a ras- terized fill layer is no longer editable as fill content (Fig. 10), so you may want to plan your workflow so that rasterization is among the final techniques that you apply. Advantages Fill layers have all the advantages of lay- ers, including the ability to adjust opacity or apply them through a blend mode to alter their strength or color. Furthermore, they can be repositioned in the stack. Unlike content layers that are filled with pixels, fill layer effects are dynamic and will resize if the canvas is resized. Since fill layers are isolated to individual lay- ers, they can be edited at any point in the workflow. I recommend that you consider using them whenever you need to fill a region of the image to maintain flexibility and keep the design and editing process fluid and dynamic. GP Fig. 8: To make a pattern from any image, make a selection with the rectangular marquee tool, then choose Define Pattern from the Edit menu. Fig. 9: The Pattern Fill dialog box, the Layers panel with the fill layer, and the resulting pattern that has been scaled and rotated. Fig. 10: To apply a filter, rasterize the fill layer to convert it to editable pixels.