Beautiful seamless Illustrator patterns

I had a small project this week where I needed a seamless vector pattern, a "tiled" pattern that can be used to fill a shape in Illustrator to create a "wrapping paper" or "wallpaper" look.

My searching led me to the work of "Tolchik" on Crestock.com. She has an amazing array of high-quality vector illustrations, backgrounds, and these amazing seamless vector patterns.

I ended up using Image 496941 for my project.

A search for "seamless vector pattern" on Crestock turned up more than 1000 patterns from other artists. What a great resource!

Crestock is an alternative to the popular iStockphoto. If you use iStockphoto, you should also include Crestock in your searches for stock photography and vector illustration.

(By the way, if you don't know how to work with pattern fills in Illustrator, see this resource from Peachpit)

Cool new extension monitor

I've written previously about the productivity benefits of having dual monitors attached to your computer. But here's a new idea...the Mimo 710. This is a tiny $129 USD, 7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel monitor that plugs into your USB port.

I can think of several uses for this:

1. For use as a second monitor on computer systems that don't have a dual video card to support two full-size monitors

2. For use as a second monitor in areas where there isn't enough desk space for two full-size monitors

3. For use as a third monitor, for those who already have two large monitors. Could be an ideal dedicated space for iTunes, IM, Twitter, or email.

4. For use as a second monitor for travel for laptop users.

Wicked cool Flash Extension

Justin Putney at Ajar Productions has just posted an amazing Flash Extension on his Blog. The free extension adds a "MotionSketch" tool to the Flash CS4 toolbox. You select a symbol on the stage, and then draw a path with the MotionSketch tool. The path, and the variation in speed at which it is drawn, are transformed into an automatic Motion Tween. The resulting Tween path is fully editable, and the easing is editable in the Motion Editor as well. Brilliant!

Single letter shortcut trouble

Steve sent me a note today saying:

I love my InDesign shortcuts but sometimes they get me into trouble. For instance, I have the cursor on some text and then I switch apps, come back, forget that the cursor is on the text, go to type M to switch the tool to the Rectangle tool, and the next thing I know I have introduced an errant M in the document. What do you suggest as a way around this?

This makes me crazy also. So I've modified my keyboard shortcuts to avoid this problem. You can use the same shortcut keys you've grown to know and love for each tool, but you will add a modifier key so that you can use the keyboard shortcut even when your cursor is in text. Here's how:

1. Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

2. Choose Tools for the "Product Area"

3. Choose Rectangle Tool, (or whatever tool shortcut you are trying to change) in the list of commands

4. Click in the "New Shortcut" field, and press the keyboard shortcut you want to use (try option-M on the Mac, or alt-shift-M on Windows)

5. Click the Assign button. You may be asked if you want to create a new set. If so, answer Yes.

6. Click the OK button.

This also works, with slight variation, in Flash. But unfortunately, the keyboard shortcut editor in Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks doesn't let you assign modifier keys to tool shortcuts.

Precision in Illustrator

Sue wrote and asked:

"I’m setting up documents in Illustrator CS4 and when I set the page to a size with more than three decimals it rounds it up to two decimals (Example 2.125 rounds up to 2.13). Is there any way it can be changed?"

When working with the inches measurement system Illustrator appears to "round up" when you enter three-decimal precision in the Artboard width and height fields. However, for some reason known only to the programmers at Adobe, this is done for on-screen display only. The 3 (or even 4) decimal precision that you enter is retained. So if you enter 2.125" for the page width, the page will be 2.125" wide.

You can verify this by choosing Window > Document Info, and choosing Document from the Document Info panel menu. You will see the exact dimension that you entered for the Artboard width and height listed here.

(This applies to Illustrator CS3 and CS4, and if I recall correctly, previous versions as well. I don't have an older version handy to test.)