What are tileable and scalable graphics?
Tiled graphics are those that are smaller than the layout allocated to the graphic. The remaining space is divied up into similar sized “tiles” which are then filled with exact duplicates of the image used for the original area. The other option that graphics can use is for the remaining space not to be divied up at all, but the entire image stretched or shrunk to fit the entire area, scaled whether the image is smaller or larger. There are obvious advantages of using one method or the other, the most obvious being that you don’t need a graphic that “fits” the area at all. The most obvious and noticeable disadvantage is that sometimes the graphic will be stretched too large to look aesthetically pleasing scaled, in which case tiling is the most appropriate form. Algorhithmically this is sometimes difficult to ascertain and is thus left to the user’s and theme designer’s tastes on a case-by-case basis.
