Which Size?

One of the first questions that comes up concerns the dimensions of the tile to be repeated. Technically, there are no limitations in terms of size. So you are free to make your own choice.

Note, however, that the size also depends on the number of times the tile is to be repeated. If a visitor's monitor resolution is 640 x 480 pixels and that of your tile is 320 x 240, it will be repeated 4 times. If it measures 20 x 20 pixels, it will be repeated 32 times. And if your pattern has elements that interlink, there will be no join visible and the visitor will not notice how many times the pattern is repeated. On the other hand, if the pattern shows a visible border, the tiling effect will be emphasised. So you should choose the dimensions according to the desired effect.



Figure 1: The same pattern in three different sizes. The choice is yours!

Pay attention to the file size. If you use a pattern that takes up a lot of memory, the time needed to download it will be the same as for any big graphics file. When this happens, the benefits in terms of downloading speed will be lost.

Conversely, if you succeed in creating a big pattern in a small file, downloading it as a background image instead of downloading a regular graphic will certainly be to your advantage. It can happen that the number of pixels in a document and the quantity of memory space used to store them are not proportional.