| If you are running
Windows95, don't overlook Microsoft Paint. Though a bare-bones
paint program, it does one thing really well: Copy and Paste. At
first this may not seem like a particularly significant feature, but the
value is in how effortlessly MS Paint does this. And it must
be said that the ability to easily copy and paste is a great boon to the
contemporary Tiled Background Designer (a highly respected position in
a field that is growing every bit as fast as the internet itself).
Caution: making tiled designs may
ruin your family life - once started copying, flipping and pasting, there
is no going back, and little time remains for the things mere mortals consider
important. However, if you dare...
First, let's admit that any boob can make tiled backgrounds.
The trick is to infuse them with some subtlety and finesse (I hope I spelled
that right.). So instead of starting off with the dork palette that
MS Paint offers let's create one of our own.
Double click on the orange color and the Edit Colors window
will open. Choose Define Custom Palette. Move the slider on
the right up a tad, then click Add to Custom Colors. The orange in
the palette is now slightly lighter. Using the square paintbrush
tool make a dab of color on the page. Again, double click on the
orange color in the MS Paint palette and repeat this process a number of
times until you have created a minny (mini?) palette of orange shades as
shown (1). |
(2) Choose a mid-range color with the dropper tool
and make a larger square. (3) Choosing lighter colors, use the spray
tool to create a random pattern on the square. You can add depth
by spraying with darker shades as well. Select an area of the mess
you have made, hold down on the Ctrl key and drag a copy off to the side,
let go of the Ctrl key and (4) you have your Tile Masterpiece!
To use the design as your desktop background, move it
to the upper left corner of the page. Doing this in a magnified view will
get it right without chopping any pixels off. Now go down to the
bottom right corner where, at the outside edge of the page, you should
find a handle. If it isn't there click around in that area until
it shows up (that's what I do). You can drag diagonally up on the
handle, making the page smaller as you go. Do this in stages to,
again, prevent chopping off any part of your creation. Your goal
is a page consisting of your tile and no white border.
Save your design, then choose File/Set as Wallpaper (Tiled)
and you should have a background similar to the one on this page.
Next, for something a little more interesting... |
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