The Plaid Studio / Guides
Textile pattern guides
Twelve guides, written from the engine rather than around it: what makes a repeat seamless, how a plaid is built out of a thread count, what each control in the studio actually does, and what a printer or a marketplace will ask you for.
Start here
What a repeat is, and the words a mill uses.
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What Is a Seamless Pattern? (And Why It Matters for Print)
A seamless pattern tiles edge-to-edge with no visible line. Learn what makes a pattern seamless, why it matters for fabric and print-on-demand, and how to check one before you export.
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Warp vs Weft: What They Are and Why They Matter for Pattern Design
Warp and weft are the two thread directions in a woven fabric. Learn the difference, how they interact in twill and plain weave, and why real weave structure matters for designing accurate plaid and check patterns.
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Gingham vs Tartan vs Plaid: What's the Difference?
Gingham, tartan and plaid are often used interchangeably but they're not the same thing. A clear breakdown of the weave, colour count and origin that separates each pattern — with examples.
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How to Read a Tartan Thread Count
A tartan sett is written as letters and numbers: K4 B24 K2 W6. What the letters mean, why the first and last stripe are the mirror axes, and how to read a real sett.
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Straight, Half-Drop and Brick Repeats
The three ways a tile can sit under the last one, what each does to how visible the repeat is, when a half-drop changes nothing at all, and what it costs you at export.
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How to Design a Seamless Plaid Pattern (Free Guide)
A step-by-step guide to designing a seamless plaid or tartan pattern for Etsy, print-on-demand or fabric printing — from warp/weft colour order to exporting a tileable, print-ready file.
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How to Choose a Colour Palette for Textile Patterns
How to choose a colour palette for a textile or plaid pattern: how many colours to use, contrast rules for readability at repeat, and how to build a coordinated colourway range.
The engines, control by control
One guide per engine: what each control does and what it is for.
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Sett Guide: Real Plaid, Tartan and Check Patterns
How to design woven plaid, tartan and check patterns from a thread count: ready-made checks, weave structures, yarn and true-size exports in The Plaid Studio.
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Watercolour Guide: Your Sett, Painted
Watercolour paints the sett you built in The Plaid Studio: wet, loose colour on textured paper instead of thread, with the brush controls that decide how it looks.
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Pen Guide: Hand-Drawn Line Patterns
Pen draws the sett you built in The Plaid Studio by hand: fineliner, fountain pen, brush pen, marker or pencil, with hatching lanes laid on the real stripe boundaries.
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GeoPrint Guide: Seamless Geometric Patterns
GeoPrint repeats a geometric motif over a seamless tile: 168 patterns in ten families, a words box, and controls for scale, density, detail, colour and repeat.
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Floral Guide: Seamless Flower Repeats
Floral lays scenes of drawn flowers, leaves and motifs over a seamless tile: tossed, ditsy or bouquet layouts, hero, support and filler layers, and palette-driven colour.
Getting it printed and sold
The part where a file meets a printer or a marketplace.
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DPI Guide for Print-on-Demand: What Resolution Do You Actually Need?
A plain-English guide to DPI and pixel dimensions for print-on-demand: what resolution fabric, apparel, and paper products actually need, and how to check before you export.
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SVG or PNG for Selling Patterns?
Vector or raster for a seamless pattern: what each format actually carries, why a vector file loses your texture, the size limits of both, and which one a buyer wants.
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How to Mock Up a Pattern on a Product
A flat tile does not sell a pattern; a photograph of it as cloth does. What makes a mockup believable, why the fibre matters, and how to get the scale right.
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How to Sell Textile Patterns on Etsy
How to sell seamless textile patterns on Etsy as digital downloads or print-on-demand products: what formats to list, how to price, and how to avoid the most common rejection reasons.
Make one while you read
- Print-on-demand pixel sizes — the sum, worked out per product
- The pattern gallery — every render, from the engines
- Gingham, buffalo, houndstooth, tartan and madras — a page each, with the thread count
- How the studio compares with other plaid generators