Photoshop: Rotatable pattern fills

I think the feature is also of potential benefit to illustrators – when I use Hard Mix-patterns for example to simulate halftone screens or engraving the current workaround of converting Pattern Layers to Smart Objects and rotating those can amount to a couple of minutes per image depending on the pixel-dimensions, I guess.
Admittedly it is not a technique I use very often ...

1. It would save room and disk space on the computer.

2. Even if the Photoshop team is working on preset organization, 1 less pattern on the pane is less of a pain to find. You know which pattern you want--you just need to rotate it.

3. You guys have sizing of a pattern... so rotation just looks cool. =P

4. You could also consider 45 degrees rotation too. But I think this would be harder?

5. Saves tons of time, because I don't have to make 4 patterns in what could be 1 swatch

6. Some people are just that dense and can't for the life of them figure out how to make a new pattern swatch. For those who aren't that bright/don't have enough time, it would mean extended capabilities. (Making patterns isn't easy for the average joe.)

7. The competition: Manga Studio EX already has pattern rotation (free rotation to boot), but honestly, it's a lot clunkier than photoshop's. While Manga Studio EX does seem to base most of the algorithms on vector rather than raster, the fact that others are catching a wiff that you can rotate means two things:
a. It can be done.
b. Adobe Photoshop should consider staying *ahead* not behind the curve.
If your major competition had it and you don't... doesn't that bode not so well for the future of the program? In basic marketing terms, you want to set the trend, not follow it. You, as a company, have fallen behind on some basics and have been playing catch up. Pattern rotation is fairly new... get on the boat early. (So you don't have the smart pattern fill thing you took from Gimp)

8. The reason I don't use pattern so often in Photoshop is that I find pattern hard to manipulate--rotation would make it so much easier for us.

9. Who would use it? People who draw people. Comic artists. Fashion designers. Pattern designers (Their entire reason they use Photoshop is to create patterns. For them to be able to demonstrate the ways that their pattern rotate in real time would mean a ton of ability to sell it to their boss--because let's face it, most graphic design bosses hire creatives, but have a lack of imagination themselves being better at management.). 3D artists (Because they need a displacement map, or a pattern to go over clothes). Anyone who needs a patterned displacement map.

Do you need more UX reasons? I spend most of my time improving UX as my day job... I can go into more marketing reasons too.

I think this would be simple, easy to put in and not that hard to implement. Though I am aware it's slightly harder than Manga Studio EX since Manga Studio EX seems to store their patterns as vector (They also have a slightly better algorithm for converting raster to vector... which is probably why Photoshop doesn't store patterns as vector... because the conversion isn't as good.) and Photoshop doesn't, if I understand correctly. I think this is similar to the having to double click a layer to rename it in Photoshop history--everyone wanted it, but didn't know they wanted it until they had it. Plus if you pair this at the same time as the preset organization, I think you'll get a collective amazement--new organization clearly makes people happy.

I'll keep reason 6 in mind. And thank you for the list - that's a pretty good justification for the idea.

Christoph - we should probably talk more about halftoning. There are number of improvements that could be made for that, but we need to narrow down the actual use cases to figure out the best solution(s).

I use Photoshop for Architectural Illustration for a number of clients. For elevations, I use the Pattern Fill Layer Effect a lot, since the designers are constantly changing materials and like to look at a lot of different choices. A lot of these materials have a direction, and need to be rotated in different ways. Think wood grains. It is a pain to make a new pattern fill to rotate a material 30 degrees. Also things like grid patterns need to be aligned and align function should have manuel capability.

Hmm, I thought you'd go for more complex patterns. Anyway, probably best to have that conversation offline (I think you've got my email address).

You can already turn the visibility off/on with selected layers. Select the layers and choose Layer>Hide/Show Layers (Note: you can assign a shortcut to this command by selecting Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts... )

Thanks a lot...now I hope for the rotable pattern ;)

I dream of a custom angle rotation into layer style :)

Neat trick, but a little time consuming when you have a huge file with a hundred layers!

Thank you Chris for moving this here, i searched "rotate", and not "rotatable" :)