Question about viewing tartan and tartan as an art

[TheOfficialBren]

Why is tartan often illustrated on tartan viewers what appears to be off of centre?

I thought that the meeting right angles constituted the middle. Am I missing something?

Thank you.


Secondly, tartan is such a beautiful artform. I have learned to really appreciate the complexity and balance of many patterns. Hats off to tartan designers and weavers.

[MacGumerait]

Bren ,

I think the tartan viewers are trying to illustrate a snapshot of the tartan's full sett ( when possible ) , in order to give a person a sense of the sett's repeat , which in turn looks off center in the pic .

Cheers , Mike

[unixken]

Most tartan viewers display a specific number of threads, which may or may not be enough to display the full sett, centered in the image. If a display area is 260 threads wide, and I display a sett that is 300 threads, not all of the sett will be displayed (only the leftmost 260 threads.) Thus, the image would appear not centered.

In a 6-inch sett, you see the whole sett...



With the thread counts tweaked to produce a 7 inch sett, you see the following...

[TheOfficialBren]

Awesome. Thanks, guys.

[The Wizard of BC]

Another thing that you may be seeing is a technical thing about Tartans.

When we design or describe Tartans we do not need to list the thread count for the entire Sett.

If you look at the X Marks Tartan that forms the backdrop of this site --- look from the center of the Yellow line over to the center of the wide White line ---
This is called a 'half Sett". You can flop the half Sett over and produce a mirror image. The two combined create the full Sett. Both vertically and horizontally.



To technically describe the Tartan I really only need a small strip showing the half Sett.



When Tartans are shown on the Scottish Tartans Authority they are giving the technical description of the Tartan not how it looks to the average Tartan enthusiast.

They often show only that part of the Tartan necessary. This can make it appear off-center.

[TheOfficialBren]

Ah! Got it. Thank you, Steve.