Computer Generated Islamic Star Patterns

Craig S. Kaplan
csk@cs.washington.edu

 

Abstract

Islamic star patterns are a beautiful and highly geometric art form whose original design techniques are lost in history. We describe one procedure for constructing them based on placing radially-symmetric motifs in a formation dictated by a tiling of the plane, and show some styles in which they can be rendered. We also show some results generated with a software implementation of the technique.

 

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Stars and Rosettes
• Filling the Plane
• Rendering
• Results
• Future Work
• Bibliography and Links

• About this document ...

 

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Mamoun Sakkal for his guidance and helpful discussion while initiating this project in his course. Thanks also to David Salesin for his valuable input and to Reza Sarhangi for the encouragement.