dot patterns with illustrator

[zorg]

I would like to now if anyone knows an easiest (than the one I'm currently using) way for producing dot patterns with illustrator

by dot patterns I mean the following img.

for the momment I create a whole bunch of points and place it on top of the trace I want to "dot-ize', and on the borders I play with the pathfinder tool in order to restricts the dots one by one.

is there an easiest way??
 please tell me there is

[neuromancer]

Select everything at once and click the "divide" pathfinder button. No need to do them one at a time.

Bob

[rdagger]

You can create a grouped pattern and then just drag it to the swatch window.  You can then fill objects with that pattern.

[zorg]

You can create a grouped pattern and then just drag it to the swatch window.  You can then fill objects with that pattern.

can you detail the cration of the "grouped pattern" please

thank's

[patrickl]

I'd assume there was a way to do this in Illustrator, but I don't know one myself.

If all else fails, you could create it with PhotoShop and then use "Mahuti's path trick" to convert that to Illustrator.

[zorg]

I'd assume there was a way to do this in Illustrator, but I don't know one myself.

the path finder divide tools mentioned by neuromancer, works OK for this purpose.

THANK'S neuromancer

i was focused in creating a filling (as in photoshop), that's why i wasn't investigating the path finder options.

If all else fails, you could create it with PhotoShop and then use "Mahuti's path trick" to convert that to Illustrator.

I'm really reluctant in using automatic vectorisation.
just check how photoshop trace a simple circle, and compare. I let you guess the one auomaticaly produced and the one done using the right tool

[rdagger]

can you detail the cration of the "grouped pattern" please

By "grouped pattern", I just meant that you can take almost anything you draw and turn it into a swatch.  Just draw your pattern and then make sure all the objects in the pattern are grouped together.  Then drag the pattern into the swatch window.  You will have a new swatch that you can use to fill any object with the pattern you created.

[rdagger]

Here is pic of a simple swatch on the left and an object filled with the swatch on the right.

[mahuti]

That's how I've done it in the past.

I swear, though, that there should be some kind of good "half-tone" plug in out there that can do this stuff.

I've needed some more sophisticated effects using half-tone patterns, and I've yet to find a good tool to do them in Illustrator.

[zorg]

thank's for the swatch tool. I now have to figure out what's the french name for 'swatch'

thank's

[rdagger]

thank's for the swatch tool. I now have to figure out what's the french name for 'swatch'

La palette Swatches

[zorg]

thank's for the swatch tool. I now have to figure out what's the french name for 'swatch'

La palette Swatches

yep I found it it's the "palette Nuancier"

once again thank's to everyone for your help

[Ravage]

I swear, though, that there should be some kind of good "half-tone" plug in out there that can do this stuff.

I've needed some more sophisticated effects using half-tone patterns, and I've yet to find a good tool to do them in Illustrator.

I'm looking at a few pieces myself where half-toning is required as fills. Whilst doing the swtach way is OK, it wont handle reducing size circles that the half-toning uses... There MUST be a way to do this?
Regards
Rav

[mahuti]

never figured one out

[Oddfeld]

For creating the pop-art style coarse halftone screens you see on some artwork, I would probably do that bit as a raster element in photoshop. Go into photoshop, create a greyscale document (you'll probably want to make it as high res as you can tolerate to get nice round halftone dots) and fill it with a gradient approximating the halftoned gradient in your artwork, then go to image>bitmap and for the bitmap method choose 'halftone screen', choose a round dot pattern and play around with the screen ruling settings to get a dot-pitch approximating the artwork you're trying to match (you'll probably need a really coarse screen ruling, 5lpi or something). This'll give you a 1-bit bitmap image where the dots taper away. You can place this in Illustrator, colour it up, crop it to a shape using masks, etc. If you want it as vector data you could load the document's only channel as a selection in photoshop and go to 'paths>make work path' to autotrace it, then export that path to use in Illustrator (it won't make nice geometric dots but you probably won't notice in the final printed output).

Failing that, you'd could draw a few of the biggest dots and a few of the smallest dots in Illustrator and use the blend tool (set to an appropriately small number of steps) to fill in the ones in between.

As for using the pathfinder divide feature to cut away the edges of dots protruding from shapes, it's probably a lot easier to just make a mask for your group of dots, so the edges are still there, but they're hidden by the mask - saves selecting and deleting each little dot segment...

[neuromancer]

For creating the pop-art style coarse halftone screens you see on some artwork, I would probably do that bit as a raster element in photoshop. Go into photoshop, create a greyscale document

You can also (in PS): Filter|Pixelate|ColorHalftone, which is more of a magazine type of halftone than a popart style screen. They were really tints or shades, rather than halftones. There's a notebook in the other room filled with rub on Zipatone for doing that.

Pointilize is kind of nifty too, but still not the same.

Pattern swatches seem like the best route, but setting the dot spacing is difficult.

Bob

[Ravage]

Ok.... Check this sample out for the situation I'm looking at...



You gotta adnit all those dots will be hell!!!

[mahuti]

Yep. I have searched and searched, and never found anything that will do it. Virtual zipatone sure would be nice.