7 Pattern Stamp Tool
Used for painting
with patterns
Found at #5 in the Toolbar diagram at left
Find the pattern stamp by clicking, and holding down the mouse button
on the clone stamp icon (formerly known
as the rubber stamp). Choose the pattern stamp from the pop-up menu that
appears.
You can use the preset patterns found in the tool’s options bar, or you can create your own pattern. To make your own, you must first make a rectangular selection and define it as a pattern. With the rectangular marquee tool, select an area in any open image to use as the pattern. Note that the selection (pattern) source image, and destination image must be in the same color mode. With the selection active, choose Edit > Define Pattern. Your new pattern will appear in the pattern pop-up menu in the tool’s options bar.
As with all palettes, loading a new palette set using the Replace option instead of Append will lose any custom patterns that you have made while the current palette was loaded. Also, deleting your preferences will lose any custom presets that have not been saved to a custom set. If you build custom presets, be sure and save them to a custom set by using the Preset Manager. In the Preset Manager, choose click and Shift-click to select all of the presets that you wish to include in your custom set. Then click the Save Set button and give the set a descriptive name. After closing and reopening Photoshop, the set will appear in the palette menu. It’s a good idea to save a copy of your custom sets outside the Photoshop application folder. That way, you won’t lose them if you have to reinstall Photoshop.
Dragging in the image with this tool will paint a repeating copy of the selected pattern. While the ability to brush on a pattern wherever you want it is nice, be aware that both the pattern fill layer (Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern Fill) and the pattern overlay found in Layer Styles allow scaling of applied patterns. The pattern stamp does not.
If you choose Edit > Fade immediately after using this tool, you can change the opacity and blend mode of the pattern you have just applied.
A shortcut for changing brush sizes while using this tool is to press the left bracket [ to decrease brush size, and the right bracket ] to choose a larger brush. Shift-right-clicking on your document while using this tool will open the blend modes menu next to your cursor.
The keyboard shortcut for the stamp tools is the letter S. Press the Shift key with the shortcut letter to toggle to the desired stamp.
The illustration below is the pattern stamp tool’s options bar (split in two because it’s so long). To find any tool presets that have been made for this tool, click on the tool’s thumbnail at the left end of the options bar. To reset the tool to its default settings, right-click on the tool’s thumbnail and choose Reset Tool from the menu that appears.
To choose a brush size and type, click on the brush thumbnail. A pop-up
palette of available brushes will appear. Press Enter or click on your
document’s blue title bar to close the palette after you’ve
chosen a new brush. If you want to access the full brushes palette with
its many options, click the brushes palette button at the far right end
of the options bar.
You can also right-click on your document to open the brushes pop-up palette next to the cursor. For more information on brushes, please see the Brushes in 7 tutorial. If you are still using Photoshop 6, find information on the your brushes palette on the old brushes page.
The box titled Mode, and showing Normal is a drop down menu of all the blend modes that can be used when applying, or stamping the copied image.
Opacity determines the transparency, if any, of the stamped pattern. A higher value is more opaque; a lower value is more transparent. You can set this with a slider, accessed by clicking the little arrow to the right of the percentage value.
The results of painting a straight stroke with Flow settings at less than 100 % will look the same as when using an identical setting for the Opacity slider. However, if you cross repeatedly over the same spot during a single stroke (without releasing the left mouse button), you’ll see the difference between the two controls. Both limit the amount of color that is applied on the first pass, but color applied with a lowered Flow setting will accumulate to full density within the same stroke if you pass the brush repeatedly over the same area. Color applied with a lowered Opacity setting will not (within a single stroke).
If you want the stamp to continue to apply color for as long as the left
mouse button is pressed, even if you are not moving the cursor, click
the airbrush button to activate that option.
If you check Aligned the pattern will apply as if you are revealing a continuous underlying texture. When aligned is not selected, applications of the stamp will apply overlapping and discontinuous versions of the texture.
Clicking on the pattern thumbnail on the options bar will open the preset patterns pop-up palette, shown in the second row, below, on the left. Any patterns that you create will also appear in this palette.
Beside the palette is its options menu, found by clicking on the little arrow in the top right corner of the patterns palette. In Photoshop 7 they have (finally!) added some nice default texture palettes. Be sure and check out the Nature, Rock, Artists Surfaces, Texture Fills and both Pattern palettes. The awful default palette remains, but at least there are now some decent alternatives.
In order to use the Impressionist option (checkbox, see below) properly, you need to first select your entire image (Select > All) and then define it as a pattern (Edit > Define Pattern). You can then click on the pattern thumbnail on the pattern stamp’s options bar and choose the image as the pattern that the pattern stamp will use when applying it in an Impressionist style, using the brush of your choice. Be sure and check Aligned when using the Impressionist option in this way.
If you have doodled with a tool’s options and want to get back to the default settings, right-click that tool’s icon at the far left end of its options bar (in Photoshop 6, left-click). Choose either Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop’s .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
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