Making tiling images can be the pits!  You make one and it looks right and you make your web page only to find out the tile doesn't tile perfectly.  Be nice to have a way to check that when you make the tile, right?  That's what DeskChecking does!  In programming, when I finished writing a program, the most important think was to test every part of it and that is referred to as 'DeskChecking' thus I call this tile making test 'DeskChecking' also.

I had three tiles I needed to test, so I decided now is as good a time to write this tutorial.  I kept forgetting to write it because this is something I do without even thinking about it.  This is a quick and painless way of checking the tiling before you even save the image so you can use 'undo' to fix it before even saving.

These are the 3 images I want to check:

Step 1   (Setting up the work tools.)
First we check the flood filling;  we want to set this to use patterns as fills;  so first, click on you fill tool , then set your fill to patterns.
In PSP7, go to your styles boxes    and click on the arrow of the top box the see the choices .  The first from the left is the paintbrush selector, next is the gradient selector, next is the patterns selector and the far right is the null selector (to deactivate the fill);  click on the patterns selector .  After selecting patterns, the top styles box will show an image .  Next you click on the top styles image to bring up the pattern choices , then click on the down arrow of the preview window to see your choices
and you can then select your pattern by image or by image
name .  Click OK and you will see your chosen image in the
top styles box .  Now we are ready for the next step.

In PSP6, open your Tool Options  .  You will match the settings under the first tab and when pattern is the fill style, you have to set the pattern in the second tab by the name of the image you want to use as a fill, then it will show the pattern you chose in the preview window.  Since I don't know the image names you will be using, I just pulled up a tile and used it.  The choices will be a list of every image you have open at the time.  Then you click OK.  Now you are ready for the next step.
        

Step 2
Open a new image,  match the settings below and click OK.   Check to see that your fill tool  is selected.  Click in the middle of the new image.  I know the size is big, but it's the BEST way to see any problems later.

Step 3
Eagle eye the image for breaks in the pattern,  any patterns edges that give away the tiling and coloration changes that give away the tiling.  Not sure?  Use your 'View/FullScreen Preview' to check it.  If something is wrong here, it will be the same on your web page - so 'undo' you image , find the problem and correct it then do the deskchecking again.  If the tiling is clean (you can't tell where it starts, stops or repeats, then save you image and it is ready to be used for a flood fill pattern, a web page or stationery

Step 4
Got another one to check?  Go back to Step 1 to select another image.  click in the middle of the image which at this point still shows the tiling of the first image.  It will fill with the newly selected pattern.

repeat Step 1 and select the next pattern (this one is a sideborder tile)

you can see how nice and clean the border lines up and the star part looks uninterrupted.  That's what you are looking for.  Oh, and if you have used a drop shadow on the sideborder - a break in the shadow is very unattractive, you might want to check out my ShadowStick tutorial.
 

Close Window when Finished.

tutorial by CSGreen
 

Zipped tutorial in PDF format . . . 605KB