Artlandia SymmetryMill is the newest member of Artlandia's family of pattern design tools. It's designed to "make the pattern creation process simple for the rest of us."

SymmetryMill is a web application, integrated with Pattern Central, a new web repository of repeating patterns. Recent versions of Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and other popular browsers are supported. The new application creates repeating patterns of all 17 mathematically possible symmetry types from essentially any JPG, PNG, or GIFF image.

The built-in blending algorithms ensure the creation of patterns even when the result may otherwise show visible boundaries between pattern motifs, according to the folks at Artlania. The standard color adjustment filters and the sharpen and blur filters modify the patterns in place. Viewing saved pattern snapshots automatically executes the exact recipes for creating the patterns and sets the appropriate values of all SymmetryMill controls.

Users can share their patterns with friends or publicly on the new Artlandia web repository Pattern Central where patterns can be browsed by date, popularity, tags, and other categories. New submissions are also announced on the Twitter account @symmetrystream. Shared patterns can be loaded back in SymmetryMill with a click.

SymmetryMill requires Mac OS X 10.4 or newer. It's available as a free limited version, which works with the built-in demo image, or as the full version, by subscription at US$69 per year ($5.75/month) or $99 ($4.12/month) for two years. A $35 monthly subscription is available for casual users. Student subscriptions cost 50% less. SymmetryMill subscriptions can also be purchased in packages with SymmetryWorks, SymmetryShop, and other Artlandia products. More information about SymmetryMill is available on the Artlandia website (www.artlandia.com).