Read the middle two columns first, since those decide how much of the project is still yours to change after the first metre is woven. The construction sheet answers the rest, and a specification pack built from photographs<\/a> is the document that starts it.<\/p>\n A change window closes at beaming, and the window is earlier than a delivery conversation suggests. First, the edge route freezes the lettering before the warp is wound, because the lettering ends are part of the beam. Second, the body route lets colour and placement move inside the repeat while letter shapes stay locked in the mounting. Third, the label route allows a name to change on the last day before stitching. Each correction to spacing, repeat length or band width is a further sample cycle, so a late change is paid in time rather than in artwork. In practice, a buyer who wants to see three spellings should ask for three strike-offs before beaming, not after.<\/p>\n A selvedge is not one object, and the denim version does not travel to a wool loom. A denim identification edge exists because a shuttle leaves a clean edge, and the coloured identification yarns run in the warp inside that edge, so a name there is a warp pattern in a band that already exists. A woollen-spun tweed usually leaves the loom with a tucked edge, where the weft returns into the next shed, or a leno edge, where paired ends cross, or a fused edge on a cut piece. None of the three carries spare ends to spell with. Lettering at a tweed edge therefore means a mechanism on this construction, and that question comes before any figure quoted from a denim programme. In our mill the edge construction is settled before artwork is accepted.<\/p>\n Legibility is an ends budget divided by a word, and the division is arithmetic rather than taste. Three inputs feed the sum: 1) ends per centimetre on the finished cloth, 2) the width of band the mill will allow, 3) the letters in the name plus the spaces between them. Threads per unit length are counted on the finished fabric by the method in ISO 7211-2:2024<\/a>, and the count taken there is the only honest input. Multiply ends by band width, then divide by the letter count, and each letter is left with a fixed number of ends, which is the grid the letter must be drawn on. First, count on the finished cloth rather than the loom sheet. Second, condition the sample, because ISO 139:2005<\/a> fixes the atmosphere for the measurement. Third, divide before any artwork is approved. For example, the same name reads on one sett and muddies on a looser one.<\/p>\n An ends budget is a grid, and a letter is drawn on that grid rather than typed into it. A letter with a counter, such as A, O, R, D or P, needs enough ends to leave a hole, and a grid too coarse for the hole closes the letter into a solid block. Straight letters, such as I, L, T, H or E, survive a coarser grid. The working order is therefore: count the ends, then choose the wordmark, never the reverse. A name of nine letters and two spaces spends one budget in eleven parts, so a long brand name buys thin letters and a short one buys thick letters. For example, a five-letter name on the same budget holds a counter that a nine-letter name cannot hold. No designer’s opinion changes that outcome.<\/p>\n A cloth too loose to hold fine detail is the commonest reason a name turns muddy, and the cause sits in the sett rather than in the design file. A loose sett puts fewer ends in the same band, so each letter is drawn on fewer grid lines, and the boundary between letter and ground blurs before the artwork is at fault. Yarn fineness works in the other direction, because a finer yarn packs more ends into the same band. Two looms on one specification can differ here, and the three-loom trial comparison<\/a> sets out how to compare them. A strike-off from another construction proves the mechanism, not the readability of this name. Nap adds a second blur, because a hairy surface softens the edge of every letter.<\/p>\n A minimum is a statement about what has to be set up, and three different set-ups hide behind one number. The first is an existing edge mechanism on an existing construction: the loom is already configured, so the minimum is the warp the mill must beam to run the name. The second is a new mechanism on an existing construction: a mounting has to be built and proved, so the minimum includes a development and a strike-off. The third is a new construction: sett, yarn and finish are proved together, and the minimum is a development rather than an order. A first-time buyer cannot tell which one a quote refers to until the quote names it, and the four-minimums sheet<\/a> covers the neighbouring questions.<\/p>\n The mill has to name the route in writing, and the answer has to match one of three rows.<\/p>\n A quote that answers none of the three has answered a fourth question, which is what the mill would prefer to sell. In practice, the route also decides whether the name can be limited to part of the order, and that is the next question to settle.<\/p>\n A name is beamed, so the limit is the beam rather than the order. A beam carries the lettering ends for its whole length, and the name cannot be switched off partway down a beam without stopping the loom and re-tying. Three consequences follow. First, a late decision to drop the name wastes the labelled beams rather than the whole order. Second, a split order can carry the name on the first release and plain cloth on the second only when the mill beams two warps. Third, a reorder does not inherit the name unless the same beam is rebuilt. The question to put to the mill is how many beams the order occupies, and whether the lettering ends are beamed for the full length.<\/p>\n Approval happens at reading distance, on the production construction, at the edge position. A strike-off is an edge proof only when the lettering is woven at the edge of a production-width piece in the same construction, because a body swatch carrying the name proves the mechanism and not the band. Judge the sample at the distance a cuff is read, in daylight and under shop light, and judge the worst letter rather than the best. The file question is one line: the converted loom file is mill tooling, and buying cloth does not buy the file, as the design-rights check<\/a> sets out. What remains in the approval is the repeat, the direction and the face.<\/p>\n Three things are fixed by the mechanism and belong in the approval before the beam is wound. First, the repeat interval: a woven name recurs at a spacing set by the mechanism, so the buyer chooses the interval and the mill states what the mechanism holds. Second, the reading direction: the name reads along the length or across the band, and the direction decides which grid the letters are drawn on. Third, the face: the name reads from one side, and a folded piece presents half the names upside down, which is normal and has to be accepted in writing. A change to any of the three after beaming is a new beam, priced and scheduled as a new beam.<\/p>\n Three lines turn an approval into work the mill can weave.<\/p>\n A fourth line is optional and worth the space: the rejection rule, written as what will not be accepted at the edge, because a claim about a name is a claim about legibility rather than about metres. Send the three lines with the purchase order and keep the sealed strike-off, since no photograph of a sample settles a name that has to be read at arm’s length.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What Can Still Change After the Warp Is Beamed?<\/h3>\n
Is the Edge on a Wool Tweed the Same as a Denim Selvedge?<\/h2>\n
Why Is Legibility a Division Rather Than an Opinion?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nHow Many Ends Does One Letter Get?<\/h3>\n
Why Does the Same Artwork Fail on a Looser Cloth?<\/h3>\n
Which Minimum Is Your Order Actually Buying?<\/h2>\n
Which of the Three Minimums Applies?<\/h3>\n
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Can the Name Run on Only Part of the Order?<\/h3>\n
Where Should the Name Be Approved?<\/h2>\n
What Does the Repeat Fix Before Beaming?<\/h3>\n
What Three Lines Go in the Order?<\/h3>\n
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