jaggies

[hoover4]

i thought i saw on here somewhere about how to get rid of jaggies when pattern making and now i can't find. any help would be appreciated. thanks brian

[Jr_Ranger]

Brian,
jaggies come from changing a low res picture into a bigger size. Use a format that doesn't use compression ie bitmap or png. Change the resolution to 300 or more if the picture is small. Then enlarge. I try to always work from the size I get. Going smaller doesn't make a big difference. It is when enlarging you run into problems. Some programs have filters that will smooth a pixelated pattern called median or guassian blur. Do this in grayscale then convert to black and white to clean up and convert back to grayscale again. You will get smoother lines. What program are you using?

[hoover4]

thanks for the help i'm trying out gimp. brian

[Jr_Ranger]

There is a tutorial for using gimp in the design tutorial area. Hopefully the link works. Pattern making with Gimp or Adobe Photoshop Elemements by John S.

[Ellenburg48]

I smooth my patterns, initially, by hand.............then I put it through Inkscape (another free program) to smooth it better.........sometimes twice. I also follow the same instructions Sylvia gave.
Christina

[hoover4]

great thank you. what do you do in inkscape?

[Ellenburg48]

I open my finished pattern in Inkscape...........click on path......then click on trace bitmap.............then choose brightness cutoff thresh hold 800-840 and then click on OK. Then when it's done put your cursor over the image and move it...........the old image will show white space around it and the new image won't have any. Click on the old image and delete it and then click on what looks like a stack of 3 bars...........this is the centering..........choose Page on the drop down menu and then click on the middle stacked bars..........one on top of the other...........this centers the pattern on the page so you get it all. Then click on file and export...........it will export it to the same place your original pattern is............open it up in your paint program and merge it (flatten it) add a border if you desire and save as to your computer. When it is exported it is in the form of a .png file...........not everyone can open this..........so I save mine as a .jpeg or .gif.............resize it as desired.
Hope that helps you.

You can get Inkscape here: Inkscape - Reviews and free Inkscape downloads at Download.com
Christina