Taprats

Taprats is a Java-based tool that helps you develop tiled objects similar to Islamic architectural patterns developed in the Middle Ages using a technique called Hankin's method.

The overall application’s layout is pretty simple. Everything a user has to do is click 'Add' and a list of modified decagons and hexagons in various shapes and sizes can be defined as the background of your project.

Since all these patterns are created using the Java engine, they are shown in real time and users can manipulate these patterns. This feature is fairly minimal, however, since artists can only pan their view across the pattern, rotate, and zoom in and out of the newly created model.

The patterns created by Taprats are meant to overlap each other in perfect shapes. Users can modify model interlacing, overlapping, and other pattern attributes to best suit their needs. Since the Hankin patterns are made from concave closed polygons, each sort of modification will overlap each other in beautiful and aesthetically pleasing ways. In case, a model does not overlap in a satisfying way, users can either hide or delete it.

Each base pattern can have its transparency, width, and color modified. Files can be exported to four main formats: JPG, BMP, PNG, and EPS. The latter one is especially useful for artists who plan to build accurate Islamic pattern textures in their own projects in CorelDRAW and Photoshop. To learn how to build advanced Hankin patterns, the program allows users to import a large database of preset projects and study their design.

Taprats is an excellent tool built to create Hankin method patterns. These are rendered inside the utility and can be exported to four major formats for later usage in other editors. Overall, the main purpose of this app is strictly aesthetic, but it can also be mathematical in case there are people that study the Islamic patterns in old Umayyad buildings in Spain.