GB2466056A

GB2466056A - Rendering repeating textile patterns

Info

Publication number: GB2466056A
Application number: GB0822583A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Nick Fiddes
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-12-11
Filing date: 2008-12-11
Publication date: 2010-06-16
Also published as: GB0822583D0

Abstract

A web browser's object layout language functionality is used to display coloured or shaded horizontal and vertical bands and their areas of intersection, generated from an abbreviated code, in order to visually represent a tartan or similar regular rectilinear textile pattern, on a display or print medium without the need to generate a separate graphic image. The abbreviated codes representative of repeating textile patterns, such as tartans, are translated into object layout language elements to enable the rendering of the pattern for screen display or printing purposes. The translation of abbreviated codes to facilitate display may be undertaken at a local processor without the requirement for processing on a remote server.

Description

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Patent Specification Title

Method for the computer display of tartan (or similar textile pattern) generated from definition code

Background

Tartan patterns (or similar regular and repeating rectilinear textile patterns such as a plaid' or check' etc.) are conventionally recorded as an abbreviated code, such as a thread count' or other notation. This code describes each unique pattern by its sequence and size of coloured horizontal and vertical bands, together with optional attributes such as whether the linear pattern is repeated identically in both horizontal and vertical dimensions (warp, and weft in weaving terminology), whether each linear pattern should use a mirrored reversal before repeating, and/or more precise definitions of each colour used.

Various methods exist for decoding and displaying thread counts or other abbreviated codes on computer screens as visual representations of the tartan patterns. These typically require a separate graphic image to be created, often with at least part of the computation to be done on a centralised server instead of the user's local computer, with image results sent to the requesting computer for display. This image creation incurs time delays and other drawbacks such as potentially excess server load.

It is therefore desirable for the computation for decoding and display to be hosted locally on the user's own computer, and to avoid the need to create a separate graphic image for display. There are currently a number of plug-in' technologies by which this could be achieved, such as Flash or Java. However, these technologies are not installed by default on everyone's computers, and so may require a special download and installation to work. What is needed is a method for distributed tartan generation using technologies already installed on almost all computers.

Statement of invention

This invention uses two technologies that are widely-installed on computers and other devices: javascript, and object layout language. Javascript (or similar) is used to decode the tartan description code, not outputting a separate image file, but defining the visual structure using object layout language code, such as (X)HTML tables or div' elements with defined CSS (cascading style sheet) properties, to display a series of contiguous rectilinear layout blocks with varying defined colours. Using features such as background or border colours can give a visual appearance of intersecting horizontal and vertical bands representing the tartan's colour shades, with those colours visually blending at the areas of intersection by using a calculated average shade of the crossing colours. The overall effect can then resemble the tartan represented. This patent is specifically for the novel use of object layout language, rather than separately generated images, for this purpose.

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Advantages The use of an object layout language such as (X)HTML tables rather than a separately generated image provides a rapid, consistent, and reliable display method available on almost any computer or device with a web browser or printing capability or equivalent display technology. In particular it enables real-time or near real-time responsiveness to any changes output by the tartan generation computations. It is also efficient and flexible as the display area can, for example, be almost any size required with little or no additional overhead in terms of computation, and there is no requirement for disk or memory space to store temporary or permanent image files.

Claims

Claims 1. The use of object layout language functionality such as (X)HTML tables or CSS div' elements, in a web browser or similar display or print medium, to display an area of contiguous blocks that represent the pattern of a tartan or any similar textile which is based on a regular and repeating rectilinear structure.
2. The use of object layout language elements such as background colours (or border colours, or similar) to represent the thread colours or shades of a tartan or similar textile within a visual representation of that pattern defined.
3. The translation of abbreviated codes representing regular and repeating textile patterns such as tartans, into object layout language elements (as distinct from a separately generated graphic image) for screen display or printing or other output.