You can use the other two mapping options for the cases where you

have a spherical or cylindrical 3D model; Sphere or Cylinder.

5.3.2 Tilling for image textures

After having a texture assigned to any material, you probably want to

have additional controls for certain visual aspects of that image. One of

those aspects is the distribution of an image at any 3D model surface.

Usually, you want a texture with a repeating pattern that can cover a

large surface. The technique has a name of tilling.

Unless you add controls to generate that tilling effect, image-based

textures will not repeat on a surface. Instead, all images stretch to fit all

available area of a surface. To create a tilling effect, you will need two

additional Nodes:

From the Input → Texture Coordinates

From the Vector → Mapping

Connect the Generated output socket from the Texture Coordinates to

the Mapping. From the Mapping, you will connect it to the Image Texture

(Figure 5.13).