Illustrator

Create corner tiles for brush patterns

Corner tiles lend special border effects when applying brush patterns. You can create corner tiles from scratch, or you can use a brush pattern’s side tile as the basis for designing complementary outer and inner (reflected –135°) corner tiles.

  1. Choose File > Open, locate a brush pattern file (supplied with Adobe Illustrator) that you want to use, and click Open.
  2. Choose Window > Brushes. Select the tile you want to use, and drag it to the center of your artwork.
  3. If the tile does not have a square bounding box, create a box that completely encompasses the artwork, the same height as the side tile. (Side tiles can be rectangular.) Fill and stroke the box with None, and choose Object > Arrange > Send To Back to make the box backmost in your artwork. (The bounding box helps you align the new tile.)
  4. Select the tile and the bounding box.
  5. To create an outer corner tile, use the Rotate tool  to rotate the tile and its bounding box 180°. Skip this step to create an inner corner tile.
    Pasted tile (left) compared to same tile rotated 180° (right)

  6. Using the Rotate tool, Alt+Shift-click (Windows) or Option+Shift-click (Mac OS) the lower left corner of the bounding box. Enter a value of 90°, and click Copy to create a copy flush left of the first tile. This tile becomes the corner tile.
  7. Using the Selection tool, drag the left tile down by the top right anchor point, pressing Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS) to make a copy and constrain the move so that you create a third tile beneath the second. When the copy’s upper right anchor point snaps to the corner tile’s lower right anchor point, release the mouse button and Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS).

    You use the third copy for alignment.

    Rotate 90° and copy left tile (left), and then Alt‑drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a corner tile to make a copy beneath it (right).

  8. Select the artwork in the right tile. Drag it to the left, pressing Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS) so that the right-tile artwork overlaps that in the corner tile.
    Copy (left) and move upper right tile over corner tile (right).

  9. Edit the corner tile so that its artwork lines up vertically and horizontally with the tiles next to it. Select and delete any portions of the tile that you do not want in the corner, and edit the remaining art to create the final outer corner tile.
    Deleting unnecessary elements (left) produces a final outer corner tile (right).

  10. Select all of the tile parts including the bounding box.
  11. Save the new pattern as a swatch.
  12. Double-click the new pattern swatch to bring up the Swatch Options dialog box, name the tile as a variation of the original (for example, use the suffix “outer”), and click OK.