How would you repeat something on the X and Y axis in Inkscape?

Question

I would like to use the paint bucket to fill in the background with black and white circles evenly spaced apart. What is this called?

Answer 1

You can use the clone tool :

• Select the object
• Menu -> Edition -> Clone... -> Create Tiled Clones
• "Symmetry" tab, then "P1 -> translation"
• Choose the number of rows/columns you want
• ???
• Profit

Then, you can fill arbitrary shapes with the result, by selecting all the clones, then Menu Object -> Patters -> Object to Pattern (Alt-i)

Then in any shape you have, you can fill it with this newly created pattern.