Wallpaper group

A wallpaper group (or plane symmetry group or plane crystallographic group) is a mathematical classification of a two-dimensional repetitive pattern, based on the symmetries in the pattern. Such patterns occur frequently in architecture and decorative art. There are 17 possible distinct groups.

Wallpaper groups are two-dimensional symmetry groups, intermediate in complexity between the simpler frieze groups and the three-dimensional crystallographic groups (also called space groups).

Introduction

Wallpaper groups categorize patterns by their symmetries. Subtle differences may place similar patterns in different groups, while patterns which are very different in style, color, scale or orientation may belong to the same group.

Consider the following examples:

Examples A and B have the same wallpaper group; it is called p4m. Example C has a different wallpaper group, called p4g. The fact that A and B have the same wallpaper group means that they have the same symmetries, regardless of details of the designs, whereas C has a different set of symmetries despite any superficial similarities.

A complete list of all seventeen possible wallpaper groups can be found below.

ymmetries of patterns

A symmetry of a pattern is, loosely speaking, a way of transforming the pattern so that the pattern looks exactly the same after the transformation. For example, translational symmetry is present when the pattern can be translated (shifted) some finite distance and appear unchanged. Think of shifting a set of vertical stripes horizontally by one stripe. The pattern is unchanged. Strictly speaking, a true symmetry only exists in patterns which repeat exactly and continue indefinitely. A set of only, say, five stripes does not have translational symmetry — when shifted, the stripe on one end "disappears" and a new stripe is "added" at the other end. In practice, however, classification is applied to finite patterns, and small imperfections may be ignored.

Sometimes two categorizations are meaningful, one based on shapes alone and one also including colors. When colors are ignored there may be more symmetry. In black and white there are also 17 wallpaper groups; e.g., a colored tiling is equivalent with one in black and white with the colors coded radially in a circularly symmetric "bar code" in the centre of mass of each tile.

The types of transformations that are relevant here are called Euclidean plane isometries. For example:
* If we "shift" example B one unit to the right, so that each square covers the square that was originally adjacent to it, then the resulting pattern is "exactly the same" as the pattern we started with. This type of symmetry is called a translation. Examples A and C are similar, except that the smallest possible shifts are in diagonal directions.
* If we "turn" example B clockwise by 90°, around the centre of one of the squares, again we obtain exactly the same pattern. This is called a rotation. Examples A and C also have 90° rotations, although it requires a little more ingenuity to find the correct centre of rotation for C.
* We can also "flip" example B across a horizontal axis that runs across the middle of the image. This is called a reflection. Example B also has reflections across a vertical axis, and across two diagonal axes. The same can be said for A.

However, example C is "different". It only has reflections in horizontal and vertical directions, "not" across diagonal axes. If we flip across a diagonal line, we do "not" get the same pattern back; what we "do" get is the original pattern shifted across by a certain distance. This is part of the reason that A and B have a different wallpaper group than C.

Formal definition and discussion

Mathematically, a wallpaper group or plane crystallographic group is a type of topologically discrete group of isometries of the Euclidean plane which contains two linearly independent translations.

Two such isometry groups are of the same type (of the same wallpaper group) if they are the same up to an affine transformation of the plane. Thus e.g. a translation of the plane (hence a translation of the mirrors and centres of rotation) does not affect the wallpaper group. The same applies for a change of angle between translation vectors, provided that it does not add or remove any symmetry (this is only the case if there are no mirrors and no glide reflections, and rotational symmetry is at most of order 2).

Unlike in the three-dimensional case, we can equivalently restrict the affine transformations to those which preserve orientation.

It follows from the Bieberbach theorem that all wallpaper groups are different even as abstract groups (as opposed to e.g. Frieze groups, of which two are isomorphic with Z).

2D patterns with double translational symmetry can be categorized according to their symmetry group type.

Isometries of the Euclidean plane

Isometries of the Euclidean plane fall into four categories (see the article Euclidean plane isometry for more information).
*Translations, denoted by "T"_"v", where "v" is a vector in R². This has the effect of shifting the plane applying displacement vector "v".
*Rotations, denoted by "R"_c,θ, where "c" is a point in the plane (the centre of rotation), and θ is the angle of rotation.
*Reflections, or mirror isometries, denoted by "F"_"L", where "L" is a line in R². ("F" is for "flip"). This has the effect of reflecting the plane in the line "L", called the reflection axis or the associated mirror.
*Glide reflections, denoted by "G"_"L","d", where "L" is a line in R² and "d" is a distance. This is a combination of a reflection in the line "L" and a translation along "L" by a distance "d".

The independent translations condition

The condition on linearly independent translations means that there exist linearly independent vectors "v" and "w" (in R²) such that the group contains both "T"_"v" and "T"_"w".

The purpose of this condition is to distinguish wallpaper groups from frieze groups, which have only a single linearly independent translation, and from two-dimensional discrete point groups, which have no translations at all. In other words, wallpaper groups represent patterns that repeat themselves in "two" distinct directions, in contrast to frieze groups which only repeat along a single axis.

(It is possible to generalise this situation. We could for example study discrete groups of isometries of R^"n" with "m" linearly independent translations, where "m" is any integer in the range 0 ≤ "m" ≤ "n".)

The discreteness condition

The discreteness condition means that there is some positive real number ε, such that for every translation "T"_"v" in the group, the vector "v" has length "at least" ε (except of course in the case that "v" is the zero vector).

The purpose of this condition is to ensure that the group has a compact fundamental domain, or in other words, a "cell" of nonzero, finite area, which is repeated through the plane. Without this condition, we might have for example a group containing the translation "T"_x for every rational number "x", which would not correspond to any reasonable wallpaper pattern.

One important and nontrivial consequence of the discreteness condition in combination with the independent translations condition is that the group can only contain rotations of order 2, 3, 4, or 6; that is, every rotation in the group must be a rotation by 180°, 120°, 90°, or 60°. This fact is known as the crystallographic restriction theorem, and can be generalised to higher-dimensional cases.

Notations for wallpaper groups

Crystallographic notation

Crystallography has 230 space groups to distinguish, far more than the 17 wallpaper groups, but many of the symmetries in the groups are the same. Thus we can use a similar notation for both kinds of groups, that of Carl Hermann and Charles-Victor Mauguin. An example of a full wallpaper name in Hermann-Mauguin style is p31m, with four letters or digits; more usual is a shortened name like cmm or pg.

For wallpaper groups the full notation begins with either p or c, for a "primitive cell" or a "face-centred cell"; these are explained below. This is followed by a digit, "n", indicating the highest order of rotational symmetry: 1-fold (none), 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold, or 6-fold. The next two symbols indicate symmetries relative to one translation axis of the pattern, referred to as the "main" one; if there is a mirror perpendicular to a translation axis we choose that axis as the main one (or if there are two, one of them). The symbols are either m, g, or 1, for mirror, glide reflection, or none. The axis of the mirror or glide reflection is perpendicular to the main axis for the first letter, and either parallel or tilted 180°/"n" (when "n" > 2) for the second letter. Many groups include other symmetries implied by the given ones. The short notation drops digits or an m that can be deduced, so long as that leaves no confusion with another group.

A primitive cell is a minimal region repeated by lattice translations. All but two wallpaper symmetry groups are described with respect to primitive cell axes, a coordinate basis using the translation vectors of the lattice. In the remaining two cases symmetry description is with respect to centred cells which are larger than the primitive cell, and hence have internal repetition; the directions of their sides is different from those of the translation vectors spanning a primitive cell. Hermann-Mauguin notation for crystal space groups uses additional cell types.

Examples
* p2 (p211): Primitive cell, 2-fold rotation symmetry, no mirrors or glide reflections.
* p4g (p4gm): Primitive cell, 4-fold rotation, glide reflection perpendicular to main axis, mirror axis at 45°.
* cmm (c2mm): Centred cell, 2-fold rotation, mirror axes both perpendicular and parallel to main axis.
* p31m (p31m): Primitive cell, 3-fold rotation, mirror axis at 60°.

Here are all the names that differ in short and full notation.

:
"p4"
- align="center"
360° / 3 |
- align="center"
none |

See also .

The seventeen groups

Each of the groups in this section has two cell structure diagrams, which are to be interpreted as follows:On the right-hand side diagrams, different equivalence classes of symmetry elements are colored (and rotated) differently.

The brown or yellow area indicates a fundamental domain, i.e. the smallest part of the pattern which is repeated.

The diagrams on the right show the cell of the lattice corresponding to the smallest translations; those on the left sometimes show a larger area.

Group p1

The two translations (cell sides) can each have different lengths, and can form any angle.

Group p2

Group pm

(The first three have a vertical symmetry axis, and the last two each have a different diagonal one.)

Group pg

Without the details inside the zigzag bands the mat is pmg; with the details but without the distinction between brown and black it is pgg.

Ignoring the wavy borders of the tiles, the pavement is pgg.

Group cm

* Orbifold notation: *x.
* The group cm contains no rotations. It has reflection axes, all parallel. There is at least one glide reflection whose axis is "not" a reflection axis; it is halfway between two adjacent parallel reflection axes.

This group applies for symmetrically staggered rows (i.e. there is a shift per row of half the translation distance inside the rows) of identical objects, which have a symmetry axis perpendicular to the rows.

Examples of group "cm"

Group pmm

Group pmg

Group pgg

Group cmm

* Orbifold notation: 2*22.
* The group cmm has reflections in two perpendicular directions, and a rotation of order two (180°) whose centre is "not" on a reflection axis. It also has two rotations whose centres "are" on a reflection axis.
*This group is frequently seen in everyday life, since the most common arrangement of bricks in a brick building utilises this group (see example below).

The rotational symmetry of order 2 with centres of rotation at the centres of the sides of the rhombus is a consequence of the other properties.

The pattern corresponds to each of the following:
*symmetrically staggered rows of identical doubly symmetric objects
*a checkerboard pattern of two alternating rectangular tiles, of which each, by itself, is doubly symmetric
*a checkerboard pattern of alternatingly a 2-fold rotationally symmetric rectangular tile and its mirror image

Examples of group "cmm"

Group p4

Group p4m

wallpaper_group_list|p4m|*442|The group p4m has two rotation centres of order four (90°), and reflections in four distinct directions (horizontal, vertical, and diagonals). It has additional glide reflections whose axes are not reflection axes; rotations of order two (180°) are centred at the intersection of the glide reflection axes. All rotation centres lie on reflection axes.

This corresponds to a straightforward grid of rows and columns of equal squares with the four reflection axes. Also it corresponds to a checkerboard pattern of two alternating squares.

Examples displayed with the smallest translations horizontal and vertical (like in the diagram): Examples displayed with the smallest translations diagonal (like on a checkerboard):

Group p4g

wallpaper_group_list|p4g|4*2|The group p4g has two centres of rotation of order four (90°), which are each other's mirror image, but it has reflections in only two directions, which are perpendicular. There are rotations of order two (180°) whose centres are located at the intersections of reflection axes. It has glide reflections axes parallel to the reflection axes, in between them, and also at an angle of 45° with these. In p4g there is a checkerboard pattern of 4-fold rotational tiles and their mirror image, or looking at it differently (by shifting half a tile) a checkerboard pattern of horizontally and vertically symmetric tiles and their 90° rotated version. Note that neither applies for a plain checkerboard pattern of black and white tiles, this is group p4m (with diagonal translation cells).

Note that the diagram on the left represents in area twice the smallest square that is repeated by translation.

Group p3

* Orbifold notation: 333.
* The group p3 has three different rotation centres of order three (120°), but no reflections or glide reflections.

Imagine a tessellation of the plane with equilateral triangles of equal size, with the sides corresponding to the smallest translations. Then half of the triangles are in one orientation, and the other half upside down. This wallpaper group corresponds to the case that all triangles of the same orientation are equal, while both types have rotational symmetry of order three, but the two are not equal, not each other's mirror image, and not both symmetric. For a given image, three of these tessellations are possible, each with rotation centres as vertices, i.e. for any tessellation two shifts are possible. In terms of the

Equivalently, imagine a tessellation of the plane with hexagons of regular shape and equal size, with the sides corresponding to the smallest translations. Then this wallpaper group corresponds to the case that all hexagons are equal (and in the same orientation) and have rotational symmetry of order three, while they have no mirror image symmetry. For a given image, nine of these tessellations are possible, each with rotation centres as vertices. In terms of the

Examples of group "p3"

Group p3m1

wallpaper_group_list|p3m1|*333|The group p3m1 has three different rotation centres of order three (120°). It has reflections in the three sides of an equilateral triangle. The centre of every rotation lies on a reflection axis. There are additional glide reflections in three distinct directions, whose axes are located halfway between adjacent parallel reflection axes.

Like for p3, imagine a tessellation of the plane with equilateral triangles of equal size, with the sides corresponding to the smallest translations. Then half of the triangles are in one orientation, and the other half upside down. This wallpaper group corresponds to the case that all triangles of the same orientation are equal, while both types have rotational symmetry of order three, and both are symmetric, but the two are not equal, and not each other's mirror image. For a given image, three of these tessellations are possible, each with rotation centres as vertices. In terms of the

Group p31m

wallpaper_group_list|p31m|3*3|The group p31m has three different rotation centres of order three (120°), of which two are each other's mirror image. It has reflections in three distinct directions. It has at least one rotation whose centre does "not" lie on a reflection axis. There are additional glide reflections in three distinct directions, whose axes are located halfway between adjacent parallel reflection axes.

Like for p3 and p3m1, imagine a tessellation of the plane with equilateral triangles of equal size, with the sides corresponding to the smallest translations. Then half of the triangles are in one orientation, and the other half upside down. This wallpaper group corresponds to the case that all triangles of the same orientation are equal, while both types have rotational symmetry of order three and are each other's mirror image, but not symmetric themselves, and not equal. For a given image, only one such tessellation is possible. In terms of the

Group p6

wallpaper_group_list|p6|632|The group p6 has one rotation centre of order six (60°); it has also two rotation centres of order three, which only differ by a rotation of 60° (or, equivalently, 180°), and three of order two, which only differ by a rotation of 60°. It has no reflections or glide reflections.

Group p6m

wallpaper_group_list|p6m|*632|The group p6m has one rotation centre of order six (60°); it has also two rotation centres of order three, which only differ by a rotation of 60° (or, equivalently, 180°), and three of order two, which only differ by a rotation of 60°. It has also reflections in six distinct directions. There are additional glide reflections in six distinct directions, whose axes are located halfway between adjacent parallel reflection axes.
p6mm

Lattice types

There are five lattice types, corresponding to the five possible wallpaper groups of the lattice itself. The wallpaper group of a pattern with this lattice of translational symmetry cannot have more, but may have less symmetry than the lattice itself.
*In the 5 cases of rotational symmetry of order 3 or 6, the cell consists of two equilateral triangles (hexagonal lattice, itself p6m).
*In the 3 cases of rotational symmetry of order 4, the cell is a square (square lattice, itself p4m).
*In the 5 cases of reflection or glide reflection, but not both, the cell is a rectangle (rectangular lattice, itself pmm), therefore the diagrams show a rectangle, but a special case is that it actually is a square.
*In the 2 cases of reflection combined with glide reflection, the cell is a rhombus (rhombic lattice, itself cmm); a special case is that it actually is a square.
*In the case of only rotational symmetry of order 2, and the case of no other symmetry than translational, the cell is in general a parallelogram (parallelogrammatic lattice, itself p2), therefore the diagrams show a parallelogram, but special cases are that it actually is a rectangle, rhombus, or square.

ymmetry groups

The actual symmetry group should be distinguished from the wallpaper group. Wallpaper groups are collections of symmetry groups. There are 17 of these collections, but for each collection there are infinitely many symmetry groups, in the sense of actual groups of isometries. These depend, apart from the wallpaper group, on a number of parameters for the translation vectors, the orientation and position of the reflection axes and rotation centers.

The numbers of degrees of freedom are:
*6 for p2
*5 for pmm, pmg, pgg, and cmm
*4 for the rest

However, within each wallpaper group, all symmetry groups are algebraically isomorphic.

Some symmetry group isomorphisms:
*p1: Z²
*pm: Z × D_∞
*pmm: D_∞ × D_∞

Dependence of wallpaper groups on transformations

*The wallpaper group of a pattern is invariant under isometries and uniform scaling (similarity transformations).
*Translational symmetry is preserved under arbitrary bijective affine transformations.
*Rotational symmetry of order two ditto; this means also that 4- and 6-fold rotation centres at least keep 2-fold rotational symmetry.
*Reflection in a line and glide reflection are preserved on expansion/contraction along, or perpendicular to, the axis of reflection and glide reflection. It changes p6m, p4g, and p3m1 into cmm, p3m1 into cm, and p4m, depending on direction of expansion/contraction, into pmm or cmm. A pattern of symmetrically staggered rows of points is special in that it can convert by expansion/contraction from p6m to p4m.

Note that when a transformation decreases symmetry, a transformation of the same kind (the inverse) obviously for some patterns increases the symmetry. Such a special property of a pattern (e.g. expansion in one direction produces a pattern with 4-fold symmetry) is not counted as a form of extra symmetry.

Change of colors does not affect the wallpaper group if any two points that have the same color before the change, also have the same color after the change, and any two points that have different colors before the change, also have different colors after the change.

If the former applies, but not the latter, such as when converting a color image to one in black and white, then symmetries are preserved, but they may increase, so that the wallpaper group can change.

Web demo and software

There exist several software graphic tools that will let you create 2D patterns using wallpaper symmetry groups. Usually, you can edit the original tile and its copies in the entire pattern are updated automatically.

* [http://www.peda.com/tess/ Tess] , a nagware tessellation program for multiple platforms, supports all wallpaper, frieze, and rosette groups, as well as Heesch tilings.
* [http://www.scienceu.com/geometry/handson/kali/ Kali] , free graphical symmetry editor available online and for download.
* Inkscape, a free vector graphics editor, supports all 17 groups plus arbitrary scales, shifts, rotates, and color changes per row or per column, optionally randomized to a given degree.
* [http://www.artlandia.com/products/SymmetryWorks/ SymmetryWorks] is a commercial plugin for Adobe Illustrator, supports all 17 groups.
* [http://www.wozzeck.net/arabeske/index.html Arabeske] is a free standalone tool, supports a subset of wallpaper groups.

ee also

*List of planar symmetry groups (summary of this page)
*Tessellation
*Point group
*Crystallography
*Symmetry groups in one dimension
*M. C. Escher
*Aperiodic tiling

References

* [http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/04/media-grammar-of-ornament-part-one.html "The Grammar of Ornament"] (1856), by Owen Jones. Many of the images in this article are from this book; it contains many more.
* J. H. Conway (1992). "The Orbifold Notation for Surface Groups". In: M. W. Liebeck and J. Saxl (eds.), "Groups, Combinatorics and Geometry", Proceedings of the L.M.S. Durham Symposium, July 5–15, Durham, UK, 1990; London Math. Soc. Lecture Notes Series 165. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 438–447
* Grünbaum, Branko; Shephard, G. C. (1987): "Tilings and Patterns". New York: Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-1193-1.
*Pattern Design, Lewis F. Day

External links

* [http://www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/wallpaper/seventeen.html The 17 plane symmetry groups] by David E. Joyce
* [http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/education/math5337/Wallpaper/introduction.html Introduction to wallpaper patterns] by Chaim Goodman-Strauss and Heidi Burgiel
* [http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/docs/reference/CRC-formulas/node12.html Description] by Silvio Levy
* [http://clowder.net/hop/17walppr/17walppr.html Example tiling for each group, with dynamic demos of properties]
* [http://www.math.toronto.edu/~drorbn/Gallery/Symmetry/Tilings/Sanderson/index.html Overview with example tiling for each group]
* [http://www.spsu.edu/math/tile/ Tiling plane and fancy] by Steve Edwards
* [http://escher.epfl.ch/escher/ Escher Web Sketch, a java applet with interactive tools for drawing in all 17 plane symmetry groups]
* [http://www-viz.tamu.edu/faculty/ergun/research/artisticdepiction/symmetric/program/index.html Burak, a Java applet for drawing symmetry groups.]