D2 Tutorial 2: How to Make a Seamless Texture

If you are confused as to what the term "seamless" means, it basically refers how the textures that have been applied to an image are enhanced by various techniques as to give them a smoother, sleeker, and more polished look instead of making the texture look too obvious and distracting to the viewer's eye. In other words, "seamless" textures tend to look "cleaner" than textures that have been merely applied and without having anything else done to them. This type of texture is often used for background images to ensure the legibility of any text. This tutorial involves a few techniques to accomplish this effect.

1. Create a shape and fill it with a color of your choice.

2. Go to Effect > Texture to select a texture. Here, I will select "Grain" as an example. 

3. Make any adjustments to the texture. When working with grain, you can adjust the grain type, intensity and contrast. However, I suggest you play around with different textures until you are satisfied with the results.

4. To make the texture even smoother, I recommend you go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. An "Inner Glow" dialog box should pop up so you can make any adjustments with the mode, opacity, and blur. Choose "Center" for best results. Do you see how much sleeker the texture is after you apply the inner glow?

5. Type in any text you want inside the shape.

6. To apply a texture to the text, go to Effect > Texture. This time, I will select "Texturizer." With this texture, you can adjust the texture type (like "Burlap"), scaling, relief, and light. You can also choose to invert the texture. Again, play around with different textures. Have fun with them!

7. To put more emphasis on the text, go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. A drop shadow dialog box should pop up.

8. Adjust the mode, opacity, x and y offsets, blur, and color as necessary.

And you're done!