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Turn any image or photo into a perfectly color matiching herringbone background tile with the use of a couple of super filters.
This tutorial assumes you know how to install third party Plugins and Filters. If you don't, Click Here to go to Debisty's tutorial. Do be sure you have them installed before you open PI to begin the tutorial or you won't be able to use them.




What you will need:

PhotoImpact 6 or higher
An image or photo of your choice
And the Simple and Redfield Jama Plugins (see below)
Click here to go to download the Simple Filters Click here to go download the Redfield Jama plugins

NOTE Versions 10 and higher. Be sure you are working in Standard Mode or Full Edit (or your own customization of either) so that all of the features of PhotoImpact are available to you. Some things have been moved to different places in the Menus. Notably Format has been split between Adjust and Photo.

Let's Begin...
  1. Open the image in Photo Impact and press Control + d to duplicate it. Close the orignal. This will preseve it as it is for future use.
  2. click on FORMAT/DIMENSIONS... or FORMAT/IMAGE SIZE.. or ADJUST/IMAGE SIZE
  3. Uncheck the box at the bottom that says 'Keep Aspect Ratio'. Then in the drop down box Choose Pixels and in the two boxes above this enter 150. Then click OK.
    Do not skip over this step, if the background isn't square, it won't tile seamlessly when you finish.
  1. Now Click on EFFECT/BLUR & SHARPEN/Gaussian Blur or EFFECT/BLUR/Gaussian BLUR or PHOTO/BLUR/Guassian Blur and choose one of the thumbnails on the bottom row. I chose the middle one. Or you can manually set the blur amount to at least 20. All you want here is a blur of color. You should not still easily recognize the original image.
  2. Open the Simple Quick Tile filter by clicking on EFFECTS/SIMPLE/Quick Tile and accept the defaults. You might choose 4 Way Average here instead depending on the image you are using. All we want to do is equalize the colors so that at the end it will tile seamlessly as a background. (you might need to search the Effect menu a bit to find Simple in the newer versions of PI)
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  1. Next, set your Background color to or any light color in your image. You can right click on the foreground color in the color palette on the Left side tool bar. This opens the color picker. Choose Eyedropper and move your mouse over the blurred image. Watch the colors change in the left half of the box. I clicked on the pink in the center of the image for mine.
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  1. Leave the Forground color set at white or reset it if it has been changed.
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  1. Open the Jama 3D filter by clicking on EFFECT/REDFIELD/JAMA 3D. Click the drop box and select 'Herring Bonus'. Most of the settings we will leave alone. Please note the items enclosed in Red boxes and the red numbers 1,2 & 3...
  2. Once you match your settings to mine click again on the drop box and select 'Save User Preset' from the menu. Give it a name and now click APPLY. Now they'll be there for you the next time you want to use them.
  3. Ok, you have done a lot of work and have a nice image (I hope). But the question now is - Does it tile seamlessly as a background...? You are in luck. PI has a way built right in to see it.
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  1. Go to FILE / PREVIEW IN BROWSER / as Tiled Background . This will open your browser and display the image tiled to fill the whole page. You should see something like this............ When you are done with your preview goto EDIT/UNDO to restore your regular desktop wallpaper.
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  1. To save for future use right click your tile and chooe IMAGE OPTIMIZER go to WEB/IMAGE OPTIMIZER and save your tileable image as a JPG or a GIF and you are done.
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