A free tool
The Tartanator
Every tartan ever registered exists as a short line of code. This turns that code into cloth, and back again.
I went deep on tartan history a while back — deep enough to write a whole post about it. The bit that stuck with me was the notation.
Every registered tartan is stored as a string of letters and numbers called a threadcount. K/32 Y4 K32 Y48 R/4 is the MacLeod of Lewis — 64 black threads, 4 yellow, 32 black, 48 yellow, 8 red, and then the whole thing mirrors back on itself. Warp and weft carry the same sequence, and where they cross the colours blend. That's the entire pattern, in five terms.
So I built the thing I wanted while I was reading it. Pick a sett, pull it apart, change the colours, resize it, and take the threadcount away with you. It's the notation a mill actually works from, so anything you design here is already in a format someone can weave.
Free, no sign-up, nothing stored. (If it's useful, the coffee button is there. If it isn't, no hard feelings.)
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The warp — one half-sett, left pivot to right pivot
Threadcount
This is the bit to keep. Copy it, or download it as a text file.
Library
Fourteen registered setts, expanded from their published threadcounts.
Colours
Each letter is a shade code. Change a colour here and every band using that code changes with it.
Bands
Thread counts for one half-sett. The first and last bands are the pivots — the pattern mirrors around them.
Load a threadcount
Paste one in from the register, or from anywhere else.
Reading the notation
B/24 K4 B4 K24 G/24 means 24 blue threads, 4 black, 4 blue, 24 black, 24 green. The slashes mark the two pivots: the sett mirrors around them, so only half of it ever gets written down. A repeating sett that doesn't mirror is bracketed by ellipses instead — ...B24 K4 G24....
Warp and weft carry the same sequence, interlaced as a 2/2 twill. That's what produces the diagonal grain, and the half-tone blends wherever two colours cross. This tool weaves it thread by thread rather than drawing overlapping stripes, which is why the blends come out right.
Pivot counts are written as half by default — the convention used by the Scottish Register of Tartans — so B/24 becomes a 48-thread blue band at the loom. Some mills write the full count at the pivot; there's a toggle for that under Bands.
The library setts come from published register threadcounts. They're accurate as far as I can tell, but if you're commissioning real cloth, check your threadcount against the register record before anyone warps a loom.