Accepted Manuscript

A computerized method for generating Islamic star patterns

Aziz Khamjane, Rachid Benslimane

PII: S0010-4485(17)30203-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2017.11.002
Reference: JCAD 2561

To appear in: Computer-Aided Design

Received date : 23 December 2015

Accepted date : 20 November 2017

Please cite this article as: Khamjane A., Benslimane R. A computerized method for generating
Islamic star patterns. Computer-Aided Design (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2017.11.002

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Graphical Abstract (for review)
*Highlights (for review)

 A generation method of Islamic star patterns is proposed.

 The steps to construct the template motif inside the fundamental region are detailed.

 Patterns with overlapped rosettes are treated

 A wide variety of patterns is obtained by changing the motif parameters
 A comparative study is done to determine the appropriate parameters to obtain historical
patterns
*Manuscript
Click here to view linked References

A Computerized Method for Generating Islamic Star

Patterns

Aziz KHAMJANE1 , Rachid BENSLIMANE1

Abstract

In this paper, we will present a method based on the symmetry group theory to
construct Islamic star patterns. The method builds star patterns using one or
multiple kinds of stars/rosettes from a fundamental region of a given symmetry
group and a few intuitive parameters. This paper explains the procedure used in
the arrangement and construction of the stars/rosettes within the fundamental
region. Given a symmetry group, the method begins by constructing, within the
fundamental region, the minimal essential information (template motif) needed
to generate a particular symmetry type. The constructed template motif, on
which we operate a set of transformations that depend on the symmetry group,
gives birth to the unit motif (content of the unit cell). Finally, the entire pattern
is obtained by replicating the unit motif in a suitable net. The paper gives a
set of generated patterns for the most encountered symmetry groups in Islamic
geometric art.
Keywords: Islamic art, Islamic star patterns, symmetry groups, rosette, star,
generation design.

1. Introduction

Islamic ornamentation applied to art and architecture consists of three main

types of decoration: calligraphy, floral designs and geometric patterns. In this
paper, we focus on the star pattern which is the most famous and most beautiful

1 Laboratoire de transmission et de traitement de l’information, Université Sidi Mohamed

Ben Abdellah, EST, Route d’imouzzer P.Box 2427, Fez-30000, Morocco.

Preprint submitted to Journal of LATEX Templates November 13, 2017

5 forms of Islamic geometric art. For these patterns, the most famous design
element is the star motif (geometric rosette or geometric star) which is arranged
in complex combinations (Fig. 4).
The main contribution of this paper is to provide a "recipe book" that ex-
plains a step-by-step systematic process to build Islamic periodic patterns. The
10 systematic process includes the construction of the template motif within the
fundamental region of a given symmetry group. The constructed template mo-
tif will undergo the appropriate symmetries to obtain the unit motif (content
of the unit cell). Finally, the entire pattern is obtained by applying several
translations to the unit motif.
15 The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 covers related works
focusing on Islamic geometric construction methods. Section 3 gives a theoret-
ical background of symmetry group theory and geometric rosette. The analysis
of some periodic patterns is presented in section 4. The findings of this analysis
have led us to deduce the steps of the proposed method (section 5). In sec-
20 tion 6, we show how different star patterns can be built with one, two or three
stars/rosettes. Some special cases including patterns with overlapping rosettes
are discussed. The implementation issue is drawn in section 7. Experimental
results are presented in section 8, and finally, a conclusion and perspectives are
drawn in Section 9.

25 2. Related Works

Islamic art has received a lot of interest from the international scientific
community throughout the past decades. The first two publications that made
collections of Islamic patterns available come from Prisse d’Avennes [1] and
Owen Jones [2]. Then, Bourgoin was the first to try to analyze a large number
30 of patterns for their methods of construction [3]. Several other authors such
as Critchlow [4], El-Said et al [5] , Wade [6], and Paccard [7] published large
collections of Islamic patterns in their books.
To unveil the secret behind the construction of Islamic geometric patterns,

2
 many researchers focus on the tiling-based approach as a way to reconstruct
35 Islamic star patterns. Hankin [8, 9, 10, 11] shows a description of a technique
of construction of Islamic star patterns based on the tiling of the plane. This
technique, known also as polygons in contact method, was referenced in sev-
eral papers. Kaplan [12] provides a simple method for rendering Islamic star
patterns based on Hankin’s polygonal technique. The method builds star pat-
40 terns from a tiling of the plane and a small number of intuitive parameters.
In another paper, Kaplan and Salesin [13] propose an approach that uses a
family of tilings generated using an inflation process. The regular polygons
of these tilings are filled by a parameterized set of motifs (stars and rosettes),
while the irregular polygons are filled using an algorithm named inference algo-
45 rithm. Bonner presents a polygonal technique where patterns are created from
systematic [14] and non-systematic [15] geometric constructions. He classifies
systematic patterns into five distinctive systems: the 3-4-6-12 system of regular
polygons, the 4-8 system A, the 4-8 system B, the 5-10 system, and the 7-14
system. The non-systematic patterns are characterized by more than a single
50 region of higher order star-forms. Castera [16] presents a powerful technique of
building Moroccan patterns based on the construction of their skeleton by com-
bining eight-pointed stars and hexagons called safts. All these investigations are
based on the tiling as a guide for generating Islamic star patterns. The regular
polygons of the tiling are only used to correctly place the rosettes.
55 Alternatively, other papers focus on the symmetry group theory. Abas and
Salaman [17] and Wichmann [18], classify a set of patterns based on their sym-
metry groups to show the frequencies of the 17 planar symmetry groups. In
[19], Ould Djibril and Oulad Haj Thami propose a computational model for
the extraction of symmetry features of Islamic geometrical patterns to classify
60 them into point groups, frieze groups and crystallographic groups. Rønning [20]
discusses the symmetry groups of the Islamic geometrical patterns of Alhambra.
Grünbaum and Shephard [21] provide a deep application of the group theory to
the study of periodic star patterns. They derive mathematical tools to analyze
and predict the properties of Islamic star patterns when elaborated over the en-

3
65 tire plane. Ostromoukhov [22] extends this analysis to the seventeen wallpaper
groups. In all the aforementioned papers, the investigations are largely analyti-
cal. On the other hand, there are several works that focus on pattern generation
process. Lavani [23] presents a method for generating complex geometric pat-
terns based on infinite classes of subdivisions of the fundamental region. The
70 constructed geometric patterns don’t include Islamic star patterns. Cromwell
[24] gives a mathematical analysis of some star patterns that illustrate a variety
of methods of construction. Bodner describes the construction of several Islamic
geometric patterns [25, 26, 27]. Jowers et al. [28] propose a generative method
based on the symmetry group approach and on the shape grammar formalism.
75 A pattern is defined by selecting emergent forms in a given grid using a set of
rules inferred from the analysis of a corpus of eight Islamic geometric patterns.
The established rules cannot be claimed to be universal since an analysis of an
alternative corpus would likely lead to the definition of alternative rules. More-
over, no information is given about the choice of the used grid. Thalal et al. [29]
80 describe the method called Hasba (measure). This method is widely adopted
by the Moroccan craftsmen especially those working on wood.
In several other works, the authors investigate the quasi-periodicity of Is-
lamic geometric patterns [30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36].
The majority of the methods based on the symmetry group theory can only
85 help to understand the mathematical structure of the pattern in the whole plane,
but they don’t reveal how to generate the template motif contained in the fun-
damental region. Up until now, the majority of the construction techniques are
based on the tiling. The goal of this paper is to get rid of the tiling in a pattern
construction process. We focus on populating fundamental regions with design
90 elements. While this has been covered by previous authors [21, 22, 37], we in-
troduce a step-by-step construction process into the context of the fundamental
region and symmetry groups theory. This is a significant improvement over other
studies that are primarily focused on the relationship between Islamic geometric
patterns and the 17 plane symmetry groups [17, 18, 20, 38, 39, 40, 41]. On the
95 other hand, this work improves on the interesting paper of Kaplan and Salesin.

4
 We provide a generalized process for symmetric motifs, we eliminate the step
of building the tiling by working directly within the fundamental region and we
deal with situations where this technique can yield patterns that would not be
achievable using a pure polygons-in-contact approach. These improvements will
100 be shown in section 6 and 8.

3. Theoretical background

3.1. Symmetry group.

An object is symmetric if its position is invariant under one or more iso-
metric transformations. An isometry is an application, t : E2 → E2, of the
105 Euclidean plane E2, that preserves all distances. There are five types of isome-
tries of the plane (including the identity): reflections, translations, rotations and
glide reflections. Symmetry of figure F is an isometry that fixes it. The sym-
metries associated with F are, therefore, called its symmetry group [42]. There
are several classes of symmetry groups depending on the number of linearly
110 independent translations contained in the symmetry group:

(1) Point groups: do not contain translations.

(2) Frieze groups: contain translations in only one direction.
(3) Crystallographic groups: contain translations in two different directions.

In this paper we focus on the last category, which is the most frequent in
115 Islamic geometric patterns. It is proven that all 2D periodic patterns extended
by two linearly independent translational generators or vectors can be classi-
fied, depending on the type of network or lattice, into five types of unit cells
(Fig. 1) and seventeen symmetry groups [43] [42]. Each unit lattice is character-
ized by its translation generators, rotation, mirror reflection and glide-reflection
120 symmetries [42].
The examination of several Islamic geometric patterns [17] [18] shows that
the symmetry groups p6m, p4m, cmm and pmm are the most common ones in
Islamic geometric art. This has led us to limit ourselves to these groups. Their
unit cells and fundamental regions are illustrated in Fig. 2.

5
 Figure 1: The five unit cell types

Figure 2: Unit cells with highlighted fundamental regions of the groups: p4m, p6m, cmm,
and pmm

6
 Figure 3: 12-rayed star parameters (N, R, θ, S) and 12-rayed rosette parameters(N, R, θ, Φ, S)

125 The big challenge to produce a star pattern based on the symmetry group
theory is to determine the essential minimal geometric information to put in
the fundamental region. This information depends on the symmetry group, the
number of the stars/rosettes of the pattern, and their parameters.

3.2. Geometric star and geometric rosette

130 Periodic Islamic star patterns are the result of repeated copies of star and
rosette motifs. A star motif is an arrangement of line segments that together
delineate copies of a small number of different shapes. A star motif can be
defined by the following parameters (N, R, θ, S) (Fig .3.a):

• N : Is the order of the star.

135 • R: Is the radius of the star.

• θ: Is the angle made by the segment DG and the side of the regular
surrounding polygon.

• S: Is the number of intersections of each edge of the star with others.

Besides the parameters described above, the rosette can be defined by the
140
ˆ (Fig. 3.b). In general, we refer to a rosette with N petals as
angle: Φ = GBH

7
 Figure 4: Example of p6m type patterns with their template motifs

N-rayed rosette. A construction of ideal rosette is described in [44]. A rosette

ˆ
is ideal if: θ = Φ and the point G belongs to the bisector of DHB. Extensive
explanations of the automatic determination of (R, θ) are given in [45].

4. Analysis

145 To show the intuitive and natural aspects of the proposed method, we pro-
pose to start by an analysis phase which focuses on the geometric information
of the fundamental regions of several patterns (Fig. 4). The findings of this
analysis will be helpful to understand the proposed method in the next section.

8
150 (1) Rosette motifs and star motifs are the visual anchors that appear in all the
compositions of the star patterns (Fig .4)
(2) Two categories of star patterns can be considered: simple patterns with the
repetition of a single type of star/rosette (Fig. 4.a) and complex patterns
with several kinds of stars/rosettes (Fig. 4.b and Fig. 4.c)
155 (3) Depending on its symmetry group, a periodic pattern exhibits a funda-
mental region in which the template motif is constituted by: Portion(s) of
star(s)/rosette(s) centered on one or more vertices and an interstitial motif
(motif with red color in Fig. 4) that connects the rosettes of the pattern.
(4) Drawing all the mirror lines on a star/rosette divides it up into regions (half-
160 petals). Each half-petal can be used as a template to generate the whole
star/rosette.

Based on these findings, the construction of a template motif can be based

on two steps. The first one performs the drawing of the stars/rosettes, whereas
the second step performs the drawing of the interstitial motif that connects
165 them.

5. Proposed Method

Based on the symmetry group theory, a periodic pattern can be constructed

by the following steps:

(1) Construction of the template motif in the fundamental region.

170 (2) Construction of the unit motif by applying suitable symmetry transforma-
tions of the symmetry group to the template motif.
(3) Construction of the entire pattern by applying repeated translations to the
unit motif through its generator vectors.

The second step depends on the symmetries of the group and the third step
175 depends on the generator vectors of the unit cell. Both steps are described
for all crystallographic groups for a given template motif in [17]. However,
the construction of the template motif within the fundamental region is not

9
 covered. This paper covers this gap in the literature by providing a detailed
and well-organized systematic process for performing this task. The method
180 is illustrated for the most common symmetry groups in Islamic geometric art:
p4m, p6m, cmm and pmm symmetry groups.

5.1. Construction of the template motif

As deduced from the analysis phase, the construction of the template motif
can be divided into two steps. The first one performs the generation of the motifs
185 (stars/rosettes), and the second step performs the drawing of the interstitial
motif that connects them.

5.1.1. Star/rosette construction

In this part we describe the systematic process that allows us to generate
the parts of stars/rosettes within the fundamental region. This process consists
190 of the following steps:

• Radial grid

A Star/rosette is a dn-symmetric motif, which can be constructed on a radial

grid [46] [25]. To get this radial grid within the fundamental region, each corner
is divided into several equal angles according to the order of the rosette centered
195 on it and the symmetric properties of this corner. It is worth noting that the
use of radii placed at vertices of the fundamental region is nicely represented in
several of the illustrations in [46] [25]. But the authors do not use the radial
grid in the context of the symmetry group theory.
Table 1 shows how to determine the number of divisions for each corner of
200 the fundamental region according to the rosette order. Fig. 5 shows the radial
grid in different cases. The determination of the radii of the stars/rosettes will
be illustrated in the next section.
For the cmm symmetry group, the vertices B and C will be joined when
we duplicate the unit cell in order to produce the whole pattern. As a result,
the rosettes centered on B and C must have the same parameters to ensure the

10
 p6m p4m cmm pmm
Vertex A NA = 2 × iA NA = 2 × iA NA = 2 × iA NA = 2 × iA
Vertex B NB = 3 × iB NB = 4 × i B NB C = 2 × iB + 2 × iC NB = 2 × iB
Vertex C NC = 6 × iC NC = 4 × iC NB C = 2 × iB + 2 × iC NC = 2 × iC
Vertex D ND = 2 × iD

Table 1: Corners of the fundamental region and their compatible star/rosette orders for
different symmetry groups, (the vertices notation is the same as in Fig. 2).

Figure 5: The generated radial grids in different cases of the p6m symmetry group. (a) radial
grid for an 18-rayed rosette centered on the corner C, (b) radial grid for a 12-rayed rosette
centered on the corner C and a 9-rayed rosette centered on the corner B , (c) and the radial
grid for 24, 12 and 8-rayed rosettes centered respectively on the corners C, B and A.

Figure 6: Fundamental region containing portions of rosettes, unit cell obtained by mirror
reflections in AB and AC, and the result of duplicating the unit cell through its vector
generators where the parts of the rosettes centered on B and C are joined to form one rosette

11
 complementarity of their parts when duplicating the copies of the unit cell (Fig.
6). Therefore, the angles B̂ and Ĉ will be divided into iB and iC equal angles
of π/NB C where:

iC × π/NB C + iB × π/NB C = π/2 (1)

and the angles of the minimal triangle are determined by:

Ĉ = iC × π/NB C (2)

B̂ = iB × π/NB C (3)

• Template star/rosette construction

205 The geometric star and rosette are constructed by scientists in different ways
[13], [44]. In this section, we will construct them in a different manner.
The rosette can be obtained by combining the half-petal within one division
of the radial grid with its symmetric copies. The half-petal allows defining the
parameters (R, θ, Φ, S) of the rosette.
210 To construct a half-petal of a rosette centered on C, we begin by drawing a line
segment S0 = KG from the point K, which defines the radius R of the rosette
ˆ
(R = CK), to the bisector of the (CEK) angle. EK is the perpendicular to BC
on K (Fig. 7.a). Then, we draw a second line segment S1 from G to the bound
of the division (Fig. 7.b). S0 and S1 define respectively the parameters θ and
215 Φ of the rosette (Fig. 7.b).The line segment S1 is considered a light ray, and by
propagating it through the division, successive reflections occur alternatively at
its bounds (if the incidence angle is different from π/2) producing line segments
S2 , ..., SS (Fig. 7.c,d,e), where s is the rosette parameter described in Fig. 3.b.
ˆ
If θ = Φ, then; S0 and S1 are symmetrical in the bisector of the (CEK) angle,
220 and the half petal is derived only from the line segment S0 .
The same steps are used to generate the half-petal of the star. This can be
done by removing the point G. The line segment S0 reaches directly the bound
of the division. The last line segment is SS −1 (Fig. 7.g,h).

12
 Figure 7: (a,b,c,d,f) Construction of a rosette’s half-petal. (g,h) construction of a star’s half-
petal.

• Construction of the Portion of the star/rosette

225 The rosette can be obtained by combining the constructed half-petal with
its symmetric copies. We restrict ourselves to the part of the rosette contained
in the fundamental region. We obtain this part by applying successive mirror
reflections to the constructed half-petal in the division lines (Fig. 8).

Figure 8: Construction of a part of a rosette within the fundamental region. (a) the first
half-petal, (b) the second half-petal obtained by applying a mirror reflection to the first one,
(c) the third half-petal is obtained by applying mirror reflection to the second one.

13
 Figure 9: (a) A reflection point where the edge is reflected from the side and an extension
point where two lines are extended, (b) determination of the extension points (green Color)
and the reflection points (red Color), (c) first application of the extension/reflection process,
(d) second application of the extension/reflection process

5.1.2. Construction of the interstitial motif

230 After building the parts of stars/rosettes, we need to fill the interstitial area
that allows to connect them. To do this, the simplest way is to extend the
adjacent line segments to the interstitial area.
The bounds to the fundamental region are considered mirrors [21]. Hence, the
adjacent line segments of the fundamental region that are in contact with one
235 side are reflected from it. The others are extended through their free vertices
until they meet similarly produced lines or until they get one side of the funda-
mental region.
We propose an algorithm called extension/reflection process to construct the
interstitial motif. The free vertex of the edge ei will be notated pi . The vertex
240 pi which is on the side is named reflection point (red points of Fig. 9) and the
other vertices are named extension points (green points of Fig. 9).

(1) If two edges ei and ej (j 6= i, pi 6= pj ) intersect at the point hij . Store the
line segment pi hij together with its length in the set He i and store pj hij

14
 with its length in He j .
245 (2) If the edges ei and ej are collinear; hij is the middle of pi pj . Store the line
segment pi hij together with its length in the set He i and store pj hij with
its length in He j .
(3) If the edge ei and the side sk intersect at the point mik ; store the line
segment pi mik with its length in He i .
250 (4) For each edge ei , sort its set He i according to the lengths of the line seg-
ments.
(5) If the minimum of the set He i of the edge ei corresponds to an intersection
point with a side sk (min(He i = pi mik )); add the line segment pi mik to the
template motif.
255 (6) If min(He i ) = pi hij and min(He j ) = pj hij (The point hij is the first inter-
section of both edges ei and ej or is a middle of the collinear edge ei and
ej ); add pi hij and pj hij to the template motif.
(7) If none of the condition 5 and 6 is verified for an edge ei ; remove the line
segments pi hij that correspond to the intersections with the edges coming
260 from other rosettes and add min(He i ) to the template motif. This can only
occurred in a very few cases of patterns with multiple kinds of rosettes.

5.2. Construction of the entire pattern

Choosing the symmetry group determines a set of transformations. The
application of these transformations to the template motif gives birth to the
265 unit motif (Fig. 10.b). Finally, the entire pattern is obtained by duplicating
the unit motif with its copies in the plane. Fig. 10 shows examples of two p6m
type patterns constructed using the proposed method. Fig. 11 illustrates an
example of a generated pmm type pattern with an 8-rayed rosette.

6. Case studies

270 6.1. Patterns with one star/rosette

In order to construct a pattern containing one star/rosette we can use a
single vertex as its center (Fig. 10 and Fig. 11). But, we want to discuss here

15
Figure 10: Construction of two p6m type patterns. (a) construction of the template motifs,
(b) construction of the unit motifs, (c) the obtained patterns

Figure 11: (a) The template motif, (b) the unit motif, (c) and the constructed pmm type
pattern

16
 an important case where both vertices B and C of the fundamental region of
the cmm symmetry group will be used simultaneously. To generate the radial
275 grid we proceed as follows: For iC = 2 and iB = 3 we get from the table 1:
NB C = 2 × 2 + 2 × 3 = 10. Therefore, a 10-rayed rosette will be centered on
the vertices B and C. The values of the angles Ĉ and B̂ are: Ĉ = 2 × π/10 and
B̂ = 3 × π/10 as deduced from (2) and (3). The angles B̂ and Ĉ are divided
respectively into three and two angles of π/10. The construction process of two
280 cmm type patterns is illustrated in Fig. 12.

6.2. Patterns with two stars or rosettes

To construct patterns with two rosettes, we use several vertices as their
centers. The radii of the rosettes are determined automatically as illustrated in
Fig. 13.a. The angles θ1 and θ2 must be equal to ensure the perfect crossing
at the contact point K of adjacent rosettes, but the angles Φ1 and Φ2 can be
different. Using trigonometry, we deduce from Fig. 13.b that the radius of each
rosette depends on its order:

R1 = L/ tan(γ = π/NC ) (4)

R2 = L/ tan(β = π/NB ) (5)

We deduce from the equations (4) and (5) that:

tan(π/NB )
R1 = R2 × (6)
tan(π/NC )
Hence, to conserve the proportion between the radii R1 and R2 , we can change
one and deduce the other using the equation (6). The patterns with rosettes
that do not come into contact with each other (Fig. 13.b) cannot be achieved
285 using the Kaplan and Salesin’s Technique [13]. The same steps are used to
generate a pattern with two stars (Fig. 13.c).

6.3. Patterns with 3 stars/rosettes

In the case of adjacent rosettes in pairs, the radii are determined by the
vertical projections of the intersection between the bisectors of the angles of the

17
Figure 12: Construction of two cmm type patterns, (a) construction of the template motifs
(1: the radial grid, 2:the half-petal, 3: the part of the star rosette, 4: the interstitial motif,
(b) construction of the unit motifs (5: Mirror reflection in AC, 6: Mirror reflection in AB),
(c) obtained patterns

18
 Figure 13: (a) Determination of the radii of the 12 and 9-rayed rosettes centered respectively
on C and B and construction of a pattern with adjacent rosettes. (b) The radii are changed re-
specting the equation and the obtained pattern with non-adjacent rosettes. (c) Determination
of the radii of the 12 and 6-pointed stars centered respectively on C and B and construction
of the pattern with adjacent stars

290 fundamental region. Fig. 14 illustrates the construction of a p6m type pattern
with a 24, 12 and 8-rayed rosettes.

6.4. Special cases

6.4.1. Patterns with rosette placed on a side of the fundamental region

In special cases, the rosette can be centered on the side of the fundamental
295 region. The radial grid is obtained by dividing the straight angle into N divisions
of π/N , where N is the rosette order. For a pattern with two rosettes (one of
them is centered on the vertex and the other is centered on the opposite side),
the rosette center on the side is the intersection between this side and one
division line segment (Fig. 15.a). To construct a regular star/rosette on the
300 side, the angle made by the line joining the centers of the rosettes and the side
must be a multiple of π/N (Fig. 15.a). For irregular stars you can see the paper
of Cromwell [46]. Fig. 15 illustrates the construction of a p4m type pattern
with two rosettes.

6.4.2. Patterns with overlapping rosettes

305 The most complicated patterns in Islamic geometric patterns are those with
overlapping rosettes. For the polygon in contact technique, if the motifs for the

19
 Figure 14: (a) Determination of radii of three rosettes, (b) radial grid, (c) constructed template
motif, (d) obtained p6m type patterns

two overlapping polygons are simply superimposed, the result is not aesthet-
ically pleasing. Another encountered problem is that the inference algorithm
developed by Kaplan performs poorly on the shared area between the overlap-
310 ping polygons [47]. Instead, the solution adopted by scientist is to search for
different configurations related to the overlapping rosettes [47], [48]. Our tech-
nique deals perfectly with this problem and allows us to avoid the search for
different configurations.
To construct patterns with overlapping rosettes, we choose a radius that
315 makes some part of the rosette outside of the fundamental region. This part is
simply removed from the template motif, allowing this rosette to overlap with its
symmetric copies when applying symmetry transformations to the template mo-
tif. Fig. 16.a,b shows constructed cmm and pmm type patterns with overlapped
10-rayed rosettes. For the cmm group, one rosette is centered simultaneously on
320 both vertices B and C as described previously and the other rosette is centered

20
Figure 15: Construction of a p4m type pattern with 16-rayed rosette centered on the vertex
C, and an 8-rayed rosette centered on the side AB. (a) Generation of the radial grid and
determination of the radii, (b) Construction of the first two half-petals, (c) Construction of
the parts of the rosettes, (d) extension/reflection process, (e) unit motif, (f) constructed
pattern

21
 Figure 16: Construction of cmm and pmm type patterns with two 10-pointed rosettes. (a)
the steps of constructing cmm type pattern with overlapped rosettes, (b) steps to generate a
pmm type pattern with overlapped rosettes, (c) Alternative solution to cover the interstitial
area using an additional 5-rayed rosette

on the side AC.

Also, the technique described here can be used to improve the interstitial motif.
In Fig. 16.b, the interstitial motif generated by the extension/reflection process
does not cover the interstitial area in the best manner. The area left blank is
325 very large. To overcome this problem, we can place an additional rosette on the
side AB. Fig. 16.c shows an alternative pattern to that of Fig. 16.b obtained
using this technique. The 5-rayed rosettes have two shared petals because of
the technique used to control the area of overlapping.

7. Implementation

330 We have implemented the method described in this paper as a Java appli-
cation called Lmaâlem meaning the craftsman. The graphical user interface
of the application allows the user to select the symmetry group of the pattern
and the order of the star/rosette centered on each vertex of the fundamental
region and the pattern is drawn immediately. Then, the user can change the pa-
335 rameters θ, Φ and S of each star/rosette. The software reflects interactively all
these changes. The interactivity and simplicity of Lmaâlem make it enjoyable
to construct a wide range of Islamic periodic star patterns.

22
 The important class in the application is the class named Vertex which is
an implementation of the corner of the fundamental region. This class defines
340 the properties of the corner and the parameters of the rosette/star centered
on it. It contains the methods that construct the radial grid, the half-petal of
the star/rosette and its symmetric copies. The rosette centered on the side of
the fundamental region is treated in the same way as a rosette centered on the
corner.
345 A symmetry group is defined using a java class Group which contains the
shared properties between groups p6m, p4m, cmm and pmm. These symmetry
groups are then derived from it. In this class we find the methods that allow
to construct the interstitial motif, the unit motif by applying the appropriate
transformations, and the entire pattern.

350 8. Results and discussion

The method presented here can generate an endless number of patterns

by continuously changing one or more parameters. Fig. 17 shows p6m type
patterns of a 12-rayed rosette with different parameters and Fig. 18 shows
a generated pattern with great rosette order (36). These examples show the
355 performance of our method to generate a wide variety of patterns by changing
one or more parameters of the star/rosette. The important problem here is to
define the appropriate parameters to obtain historical patterns. To overcame
this problem, we propose to determine the adequate rosette/star parameters by
taking into consideration the parameters defined by Jay Bonner in his polygonal
360 technique [14, 15].
According to Bonner, two distinct categories of patterns can be generated:
the non-systematic patterns and the systematic ones. The systematic technique
[14] uses a limited number of polygonal elements. Each polygonal element is
associated with a line pattern for all historical families: acute, median, obtuse
365 and 2-point patterns. The polygonal elements can be assembled in an infinite
number of tessellations. There are five systems for creating geometrical patterns

23
Figure 17: Obtained patterns by changing parameters R, θ and φ of a 12-rayed rosette for a
p6m type pattern

Figure 18: The template motif and the p6m type pattern of 36, 18 and a 12-rayed rosettes

24
 Pattern with stars Patterns with rosettes
Group System Family Angle θ Angle θ Angle φ
Acute 30
P6m System 3-4-6-12 Median 60 θ = π/2 − ω/2
Median 90
P6m System 3-4-6-12 Obtuse 120 θ = π/12 Φ = π/12
P6m System 3-4-6-12 Obtuse 135 θ = π/8 Φ = π/8
Acute 45
P4m System 4-8 A Median 90 θ = π/2 − ω/2
Obtuse 135
P4m and Cmm System 4-8 B Acute θ = π/8 Φ = π/8
P4m and Cmm System 4-8 B Median θ = π/4 Φ = π/4
P4m and Cmm System 4-8 B Obtuse θ = φ/2 − ω/2
Cmm System 5-10 Acute θ = π/10 Φ = π/10
Cmm System 5-10 Median θ = π/5 Φ = π/5
Cmm System 5-10 Obtuse θ = π/2 − ω/2

Table 2: Compatible parameters between our approach and Bonner’s systematic method for
different systems.

as mentioned in section 2. Table 2 shows the compatible parameters between

our approach and the systematic approach. For the parameter s we have: s = 3
for the Acute and Median families and s = 2 for the obtuse family. The ω angle
370 is the angle between two lines developed from an edge in the polygon in contact
technique.
Fig. 19 shows some generated historical patterns and their equivalent polyg-
onal elements. The generation of 2-point patterns will be discussed in another
work. The non-systematic technique is compatible with our cases with several
375 rosettes. Table 3 presents the corresponding rosette’s parameters of the three
families: Acute, Median and Obtuse. The parameter N is the smallest rosette
order.Fig. 20 shows patterns with two rosettes in different families.

25
Figure 19: Examples of constructed patterns with their equivalent polygonal elements in
different families.

26
 Acute family Rosette parameters θ = Φ = π/N, s = 3
Median family Rosette parameters θ = Φ = 2π/N, s = 2
Obtuse family Star parameters θ = π/2 − ω/N, s = 2

Table 3: Parameters of stars and rosettes in different families of Bonner’s technique, where N
is the rosette/star order.

Figure 20: Example of p6m type patterns containing the 12 and 9-pointed rosettes in different
families

27
 9. Conclusion

In this paper we presented a method for generating Islamic periodic star

380 patterns. The proposed method builds a star pattern based on the symmetry
group theory. Given a symmetry group, we describe a systematic process to
draw the template motif within the fundamental region according to the number
of stars/rosettes and their parameters.
The performance of the proposed method is assessed by its ability to generate
385 a wide variety of existing Islamic geometric patterns and to create novel ones.
Also, the method can yield patterns that would not be achievable using a pure
polygons-in-contact approach such as: rosettes that do not come into contact
with each other, rosettes that are not at the vertices of fundamental regions
and geometry that is truncated by the boundary of a fundamental region, then
390 merged with neighboring truncated geometry. Furthermore, this method is
easy to implement compared to existing generative methods. It also has the
advantage of not requiring any initial tiling. The methodology does not cover
though the construction of aperiodic patterns and periodic patterns for the two-
point family. Therefore, it can be useful to extend this method to cover these
395 classes of patterns in future works.

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