Pixel texture with Illustrator

Sep 22nd/2010

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On today’s tip, our theme of study will be how to create pixel textures inside Adobe Illustrator in just a matter of seconds. This is useful when you want to generate textured fillings without having to switch between different graphic programs such as Photoshop or Gimp because the pixel textures can be stored directly inside the swatches window to be implemented later on your designs. This tip is specially helpful for those who are looking to develop pixel designs in Illustrator.

First of all, open up your Adobe Illustrator and make a new file, it’s important to make it small (we opted for a 5 px X 5 px canvas) and also leave it on RGB color mode and 72 dpi. Because we will be working with pixels, you must check the option “Align new objects to pixel grid”.

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Having your canvas ready, choose the rectangle tool and place a filled one over the canvas, it’s important that the shape has no stroke.

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And this is how your object must be looking at this moment, now the next step.

With the basic rectangle completed, we can proceed by making another one inside of it.

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And fill it with a gradient, that way the object will become a real texture and not just a solid color.

There you have it, now select your texture and drag it into the swatches window.

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If you want to test how your new pixel texture works, trace a large object and fill it with the texture.

There you have it, now you know how to make great pixel textures in Adobe Illustrator, this was just a simple example, imagine the amazing things that you can accomplish with a little bit of patience and imagination, see you tomorrow to find out more great tips, bye.