Illustrator Looks Like Lines: Correcting Lines In Illustrator Patterns

If you have created patterns, you have probably experienced that Illustrator looks in lines white (or dark) lines in your patterns. These little lines will appear if your repeat is not created correctly, and sometimes even when you have created the pattern correctly. In this article, we will point out the common cause of these evil little lines, as well as some solutions to fix the patterns.

Diagnosis of the pattern

Zoom in and out on the pattern fill. If you see thin white lines in your pattern that disappear at one zoom level and reappear at another, they are mosaic artifacts of screen and the problem is in Illustrator. This is a common problem (a bug) with repeating pattern fills in Adobe Illustrator.

Maybe you may be interested: How to Use the Eyedropper Tool in Illustrator

Exporting the pattern

If the white lines are the result of that Illustrator error, only the on-screen display of your pattern will be affected, meaning the pattern will still print correctly from Illustrator. However, it may still appear in your export (i.e. PNG or JPG).

When exporting artwork that contains repeating pattern fills, choose File> Export and in the options dialog box, choose Optimized smoothing for illustrations. If you choose Optimized text, you may see lines when you export from Illustrator.

Illustrator looks in lines. Steps to follow

Here are the steps to follow to correct the pattern if Illustrator looks in lines:

Step 1a: Check your repeat box (pre-CS6)

In versions of Illustrator prior to CS6, a transparent box (we'll call it a repeat box) is placed behind pattern objects to tell Illustrator to only repeat what is inside this repeat box.

Sometimes the repeat box moves or is not the exact size of the colored background box above it, so may cause lines to appear in the patterns.

You can check if that is the problem by zooming into your pattern and going to View / Outline to see if your repeat box and background box are aligned correctly.

Once the repeat box and background box are aligned correctly, drag the pattern into the swatches and try filling your objects again.

You can also delete the existing repeating box and create a new one by copying the background box. Go to Edit / Paste on the back and finally make the box you glued on the back fill up.

Step 1b: Is your background box a different size than your pattern tile (CS6 and above)?

In the new Pattern feature (which is the best feature yet!) it is easy to create a background box that is not the exact size of your pattern tile or does not line up correctly with your pattern tile. When this happens, it can create those white lines in your patterns.

Make sure your pattern tile and background are exactly the same size and aligned correctly. You can do this manually zooming in and resizing the box background or adjusting the pattern tile.

You can also move all objects to the center of the background rectangle and then check the box 'Mosaic size to art' in the panel Motif options. This will resize the pattern tile exactly to your background box.

Then uncheck the box 'Mosaic size to art', move the objects as you wish and click Ready when you're done.

Step 2: Still seeing lines? It could be a redrawing issue

If you still see Thin white lines in your patterns, try zooming in and out at different zoom levels. Chances are if Illustrator is showing lines at some zoom levels but not at others, then this problem is simply the program doing a poor job of redrawing the page at certain zoom levels.

You may want to know: How to Make a Dotted Path in Illustrator: 8 Easy Steps

If you still see the lines at all zoom levels, double check that your repeat box is aligned correctly.

Step 3: Try disabling Anti-Aliasing

Another thing you can do is disable the smoothing artwork in Illustrator preferences. Go to Illustrator / Preferences / General in a Mac o Edit / Preferences / General on a PC and uncheck the option Smoothing of illustrations.

Not only will this fix some of those redrawing issues with the white grid lines, but it can also help speed up Illustrator. Anti-Aliasing is the smoothing of the edges of your artwork and is very demanding on Illustrator, so turning it off will help Illustrator render your page faster when you zoom in and out, rotate or change any objects on your page.

Step 4: Last resort, add a second fill to your object

If Illustrator still shows lines, and you're sure everything is correct with your repeat box (pre-CS6) or pattern tile (CS6-CC), try adding a second fill to your object(s).

Select your object that has the pattern filled with the lines and go to Appearance panel. From there, go to the menu Fly outwards on the right side and choose Add new filling. Change the color of the bottom fill attribute to the color that would work best (in our case, green) and that's it, no more lines!

You can also try changing the second fill attribute to the same pattern. Using the direct selection tool, hold down the Tilde ~ and move the pattern just one or two pixels up. This usually does a great job for us when getting rid of the lines if all else fails.

Take a look at: How to Make Arrows in Illustrator CS6 and CS5

Final thoughts

That's all about how to fix when Illustration you see lines. This problem can have several causes that we have described in the article. If you have any comments on the topic or the tutorial, feel free to do so through the comments section. In addition, we are also willing to listen to suggestions. On the other hand, you can get more related tutorials on our blog, visit us.