Clan Tartan Identification Place

[Tobus]

Not everyone finds it easy to visualise tartans from the ribbons. Key is to visualise certain elements, such as; a triple stripe on a plain ground, the pivot arrangements etc.

I've always found it difficult to identify tartans from the ribbon depictions, primarily because it's difficult to see where the sett pattern starts and stops. With a full tartan, having the pattern go both directions, it's easier to see where it mirrors or repeats due to the blocks/grids being more visually present. But with these ribbons, the eye has to scan multiple times left and right to try to find the pivots.

Whether it's full 2D tartan or just 1D ribbons, it's always better if they're presented with well more than one sett repeat so people can see the pattern. I hate it when tartan previews or swatches contain only a portion of the sett. And it's even worse with a ribbon design. Take, for example, the MacKinnon ribbons in Richard's photo above (at bottom left). Both of those leave a lot of guesswork as to where the sett pivots.

[figheadair]

I've always found it difficult to identify tartans from the ribbon depictions, primarily because it's difficult to see where the sett pattern starts and stops. With a full tartan, having the pattern go both directions, it's easier to see where it mirrors or repeats due to the blocks/grids being more visually present. But with these ribbons, the eye has to scan multiple times left and right to try to find the pivots.

It is certainly the case that a large or busy sett can make representing it in a single colour strip problematical. The prime example of this in a clan tartan is Ogilvie; for ease, the pivots are marked.



And in this example of an unnamed 18th century pattern one's eye is naturally drawn to the red areas between the broad blue and green bars, marked 'X', whereas the pivots are actually the alternating grounds marked 'P'.