OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Tartan Pattern Generator
Seamless Check, Gingham and Tartan Tiles, Free PNG
OneTask is free, with no sign-up, and built by one person.
If this tool saved you time, a coffee helps keep new ones coming.
How the Plaid And Tartan Pattern Generator works
This tartan pattern generator weaves a sett in both directions. A tartan is a stripe sequence, the sett, woven in both directions so the vertical and horizontal bands cross and blend. Pick a classic sett such as Black Watch or Royal Stewart, a buffalo check, gingham or madras, or let the seed invent a tartan from a palette, choose the weave, and save a seamless square tile or a tiled wallpaper as PNG. Nothing leaves your browser.
Tartan pattern generator: setts and how they repeat
A sett is a list of colours and thread counts: Black Watch, for example, is blue 22, black 4, blue 4, black 4, blue 4, black 22, green 22 and so on. Traditional tartans are symmetric, so the sequence runs forward to a pivot colour and then back again, and the generator applies that reflection to Black Watch, Royal Stewart, the camel check and the random setts. Buffalo check, gingham and madras are asymmetric and simply repeat. Random builds a sett of three to seven bands with widths from two to thirty-two threads and colours from the chosen palette; each seed gives a different tartan and typing an old seed back restores it. The Palette control only affects Random; the named setts carry their own colours.
Weave
Where a vertical band of one colour crosses a horizontal band of another, real cloth shows both threads. Twill draws the diagonal hatching of a woven tartan, two threads of warp then two of weft, so the crossings shimmer with fine diagonal lines as they do on the fabric. Basket alternates small squares of each colour, the look of a coarse basket weave or a knitted plaid. Flat mixes the two colours evenly, which gives the smooth, print-like plaid used in graphics rather than cloth.
Seamless tiles
One tile holds a whole number of setts, one by default or two or three for a finer check, so the last thread of the tile meets the first thread of the next copy exactly and the pattern continues without a seam in either direction. Because the tile is drawn thread by thread, a larger export simply makes each thread wider; a 2048 tile of Black Watch at one sett per tile has threads about eight pixels wide.
Saving
Export a square tile at 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 pixels for a CSS background, a fabric mock-up, a texture or a fill in a design tool, or a tiled wallpaper at 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 where the tile is repeated at the preview scale. Files are PNG, drawn pixel by pixel on a canvas on your machine and saved straight from the browser.
FAQ
Are the named tartans accurate?
They follow the published thread counts of the traditional setts closely enough to be recognisable, with colours chosen for screen rather than dyed wool. For an official register entry, a mill's own swatch is the reference; this tool is for backgrounds and mock-ups.
Can I enter my own sett?
Not as a thread-count string in this version. Random with the Monochrome or Sea palette gets close to many family tartans, and each seed is repeatable, so try a few seeds and note the one that works.
Why do Twill crossings look slightly mottled at small sizes?
The hatching is two threads wide, so at 256 pixels with a long sett each diagonal is only a pixel or two and the two colours blend visually, which is also what happens on real cloth seen from a distance. Export at 1024 or 2048 to see the weave clearly.
What is the difference between plaid and tartan?
In Scotland a plaid is a cloth garment and a tartan is the pattern; in North America plaid is the everyday word for any crossed-stripe pattern, including gingham, buffalo check and madras. This tool covers both meanings.
See also: all Generative Art tools, Images, Audio, Video & Screen, PDF, SVG, Simulations & Screensavers, Chart Makers, 3D Model Viewers, Drawing Pads, Mockups & 3D Making, Diagram Makers, 3D Science, Tracker Music.
Related tools
Dot Grid Pattern Generator
Seamless dot grid, polka dot and halftone tiles as PNG or 4K wallpaper.
Truchet Tile Pattern Generator
Random Truchet arcs and diagonals as a seamless PNG tile or wallpaper.
Hex Grid Pattern Generator
Seamless honeycomb outlines or tinted hex cells as a PNG tile or wallpaper.
Wallpaper Generator
Random abstract backgrounds, six palettes, saved at desktop or phone size.
Abstract Art Generator
Random shapes, lines, blocks and splatter in five palettes, seeded.