xtartan - draw various tartans as window backgrounds

xtartan [-draw] [-list] [-print] [-version] [-r] [-s scale] [-t tartanname] [-w linewidth] [-np namepattern] [-sp setpattern] [-dark] [-modern] [-fade] [-fv fadevalue] [-min] [-minimum]

Xtartan generates a pixmap containing a Scottish tartan and sets it as the background of a new window (or the root window if -r is used). Tartan sett information and color information are specified using X11 resources, allowing you to easily add your own tartan if it is not already included, or to modify the pattern or individual colors of existing tartans.

The standard applications default file for Xtartan includes descriptions for over 240 setts.

-draw

Draw the tartan as a window background (the default action).

-list

Print out a list of the names of all of the available tartans.

-print

Print out the sett information for the specified tartan.

-version

Print out the version number of the xtartan program.

-r

Display on the root window instead of creating a new window.

-s

Scale up the width of the stripes in the tartan by the specified integer (default 2).

-w

Scale up with width of the lines drawn by the specified integer.

-t

Use the specified tartan. If not specified, the MacBeth tartan is used.

-np

Use the specified name pattern to filter tartans for -list and when cycling through the tartans. Only tartans which contain the specified string as a substring of the name will be used.

-sp

Use the specified sett pattern to filter tartans for -list and when cycling through the tartans. Only tartans which contain the specified string as a substring of the sett will be used.

-dark -modern

Using either of these will display the tartan in its darker modern colors as opposed to the traditional ancient colors.

-fade -fv

Using -fade will fade the colormap to create a tartan that is usable as a background for WWW pages. The fadeValue (-fv) resource controls how bright. Algorithm details are later in this document.

-min -minimum

Either of these switches forces the displayed window (in "draw" mode) to be the exact size of the tartan after taking scaling into account. Details are below, in the showMinimum resource.

Xt switches

In addition to the above switches, any of the standard top-level switches for the Xt toolkit can be specified (such as -display).

In addition to standard Xt toolkit resources, xtartan looks for the resources described below. All resources are application resources (xtartan.<resource>).

action

Type String, class Action. Specifies the action to take; one of "draw", "print", "list", or "version". Setting the action to one of these is equivalent to specifying the command line option of the same name.

colorCode.<codename>

Type String, class ColorCode. Specifies the color name translation for the indicated color code. Color codes are used in the sett descriptions. For example, if the sett used "BK4" and the resource "*.colorCode.BK: Black" was specified, the BK4 would be drawn as a black stripe of width four. By specifying a resource such as "XTartan.colorCode.BK: Grey" in your personal resources (or with the -xrm command line option), you can override the translation of the BK color code and make it come out as Grey instead of Black.

firstTartan

Type String, class firstTartan (sic - no capitalization). Specifies the name of the first tartan in the list of tartans. All tartan sett information is specified in resources. See the descriptions of the sett and nextTartan resources.

lineWidth

Type Int, class LineWidth. Specifies the line width factor. Equivalent to the "-w" command line option.

<tartanname>.nextTartan

Type String, class nextTartan (sic - no capitalization). Specifies the name of the next tartan in the list of tartans. The chain of tartans starts with the tartan specified with the firstTartan resource and goes through each nextTartan resource. When Xtartan starts up, it reads the chain into memory so that it can go forwards or backwards in the list. You can add your own tartan into the middle of the chain by overriding the nextTartan resource of the tartan preceding your tartan (to refer to your tartan) and by specifying the nextTartan resource on your new tartan to refer to the tartan formerly referred to by the preceding tartan. For example, if you wanted to add the tartan Foobar between Fletcher and Forbes, you could do this by specifying the following resources in your personal resources:

XTartan.Fletcher.nextTartan: Foobar
XTartan.Foobar.sett: B4 R4 (a simple sett)
XTartan.Foobar.nextTartan: Forbes

You should run xtartan with the -list option after adding a tartan to make sure you have not broken the chain.

scale

Type Int, class Scale. Specifies the scale factor. Equivalent to the "-s" command line option.

<tartanname>.sett

Type String, class sett (sic - no capitalization). Specifies the sett information for the tartan. Each color stripe is represented by a color code immediately followed by a thread count, e.g. BK4. The color code is translated by the colorCode.<code> resource. The sett string can contain comments in parentheses (one level only), and some special codes, which are preceded by a percent character (%). The special codes modify the interpretation of the sett string as follows:

%a - the sett is asymmetric (no pivots)
%b - all thread counts are even; they are divided
     by two when read in
%p - the last two colors are a double pivot
%v - vertical pattern (which follows) is different from
     horizontal pattern (which precedes)

The sett pattern is drawn from left to right and from bottom to top.

tartan

Type String, class Tartan. Specifies the name of the tartan to use. Equivalent to the "-t" command line option.

useRoot

Type Boolean, class UseRoot. If true, set the background of the root window instead of opening a new window. Equivalent to the "-r" command line option.

dark

Type Boolean, class Dark. If true, use the darker, modern colors instead of the brighter "ancient" colors. This can be toggled interactively.

fade

Type Boolean, class Fade If true, fade the image to create a backdrop tartan. This can be toggled interactively.

fadeValue

Type int, class FadeValue Controls the brightness of the faded backdrop. Defaults to 2. The algorithm scales all color values to use the top "fv" fraction of the available range; e.g., if the fadeValue is 5, then the top 1/5th of the color range is used. Out of a 65534 color range, the minimum value is 49149 instead of 0.

showMinimum

Type Boolean, class ShowMinimum If true, the window will always be the minimum size to hold the current tartan, taking scaling into account. This means the window dimensions will change when the scale is changed or when the tartan itself is changed. Default is False, meaning the window will stay at its current size until adjusted by either turning showMinimum on (see below), or resizing using window-manager handles.

While xtartan is running, you can change tartans, scale, linewidth and dark mode by entering keyboard command characters (except when -r is used). The actions defined in xtartan are listed below, followed by the default translation bindings.

exit()

Causes xtartan to exit.

help()

Prints out a list of what the standard translation binding do.

info()

Prints out the current tartan name, scale, and line width.

lineWidth(n)

Changes the line width multiplier. The argument is a numeric string optionally preceded by a "+" or "-" character. If there is no sign character, then the new number is used directly as the new line width. If there is a leading sign, then the new number is either added or subtracted from the current value, and the result is used as the new line width.

name()

Prints out the name of the current tartan.

scale(n)

Changes the scale multiplier. The argument is a numeric string and is interpreted in the same was as for the lineWidth action.

setTartan(n)

Switches the current tartan to the specified tartan. If the name is "+", the next tartan in the list is selected. If the name is "-", the previous tartan in the list is selected. If the name is "0", the first tartan in the list is selected. For these specials, the name and sett patterns are used to filter out tartans which do not match those patterns.

sett()

Prints out the name and sett of the current tartan, and translations for the color codes used in that sett.

dark()

Toggles between dark and bright colors (modern vs. ancient).

xpm()

Dumps the current tartan to an xpm file in the current directory. The file will be named after the tartan's name, with "_dark", "_fade", and ".xpm" added appropriately.

gif()

Dumps the current tartan to a gif file in the current directory. The file will be named after the tartan's name, with "_dark", "_fade", and ".gif" added appropriately.

fade()

Toggles between normal and faded colors.

minimum()

Toggles between displaying minimum window and constant window.

root()

Will install the current tartan to the root window and exit. As the program exits, it will print the command line to regenerate the tartan it just installed.

The standard translation bindings (in the default app-defaults file) are: Ctrl<Key>C : exit()\n\ :<Key>? : help()\n\ :<Key>h : help()\n\ :<Key>f : setTartan(0)\n\ :<Key>n : setTartan(+)\n\ :<Key>N : name()\n\ :<Key>p : setTartan(-)\n\ :<Key>P : sett()\n\ :<Key>q : exit()\n\ :<Key>t : info()\n\ :<Key>* : scale(+1)\n\ :<Key>/ : scale(-1)\n\ :<Key>+ : lineWidth(+1)\n\ :<Key>- : lineWidth(-1)\n\ :<Key>= : scale() lineWidth()\n\ :<Key>d : dark()\n\ :<Key>x : xpm()\n\ :<Key>g : gif()\n\ :<Key>a : fade()\n\ :<Key>r : root()\n\ :<Key>m : minimum()

When using line widths greater than one, there are often alignment problems when abutting the tartan tiles, and you can see a line delimiting the edge of the background pixmap where the tartan lines do not match properly. Strange patterns can be caused by using line widths which are large compared to the width of the color stripes in the tartan. The algorithm has been changed and you can now only go up to a scale factor of 11. Not all of the "tartans" are actual tartans; some are random patterns to test out the various drawing capabilities of the program. The tartan labeled "Mine" is not really a tartan, but is a plaid pattern in some cotton flanel I use for a great kilt. Not all tartans look good/accurate in dark mode. The dark mode algorithm was optimized to keep reds, yellows, and whites relatively bright while darkening the blues and greens. This works very well for clans like MacLeod and Sutherland. Odd colors like maroon and pink (Melville), or tartans with heavy blue-red blends (MacGilllivray) may become darker, richer, or more yellowish than they should be.

The sett descriptions came from a number of different sources. The source for each sett in the app-defaults file is indicated in a comment. The following sources were used:

"The Tartan Weaver's Guide" by James D. Scarlett, first published 1985 by Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd., 26 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DH. This book contains color pictures of 142 tartans, and thread counts for 228 tartans, plus a bit of history about each tartan (but not about the people associated with them). It contains the notice, "Copyright (c) Illustrations Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd. 1977." I presume this means that the illustrations in this book are copyrighted, but the sett information is not. The setts listed in this source have been taken from a number of other sources. The source for each sett is well documented, making this a good starting point if you are interested in tracing the history of a particular tartan. Setts from this source are indicated with (W) in the app-defaults file.

"The Official Tartan map of tartans approved by clan chiefs, the standing council of Scottish chiefs, or the Lord Lyon King of Arms" by Dunbar and Pottinger, published by Elm Tree Books in 1976. (Entered by J. Dean Brock (brock@cs.unc.edu)) Setts from this source are indicated with (D) in the app-defaults file.

"The Clans and Tartans of Scotland" by Robert Bain, published by Collins, London and Glasgow, in 1950 (first published 1938). I find no copyright notice in "The Clans..." nor any text restricting distribution of information nor reserving rights in any manner. This book does not contains thread counts; thread colors and counts for these setts have been estimated from the photographs, so there is a good chance that they do not exactly match any official sett. Each tartan faces a one page description of the history of the people associated with the tartan. Setts from this source are indicated with (C) in the app-defaults file.

Because of the difficulty of establishing the authenticity of tartans, there are a great many tartans for which more than one sett is listed. These are listed with various suffixes which generally indicated what authority was used for that version of the tartan (e.g. _VS for tartans which came from the Vestiarium Scoticum).

In many cases, photographic plates show a sett which is clearly not the same as the thread counts given. Usually the difference is in the size (thread count) for particular stripes, or in the color of a stripe (e.g. white vs. yellow). When the difference was more than this, I have included additional setts to reflect the photograph as well as the printed sett.

Please remember that the sett information here has been manually transcribed from printed material, and transcription errors may have occurred. In some cases the sources have contained errors, some in the printed thread counts, some weaving errors in the photographic examples; there may well be additional errors that I am not aware of. I have done my best to ensure the correctness of the information provided, but there are bound to be some errors remaining.

If you are serious about getting the correct definition for a sett, please do a little research and find some authoritative references. The list above is a good start, or you can go to your local library and look up "tartans" in their subject index.

This software is not copyrighted.

Xtartan and the sett definitions that are included with it have not been sanctioned by any Scottish authority; no guarantee is placed on the accuracy of the tartans it produces.

Jim McBeath

Globetrotter Software, Saratoga, California

jimmc@hisoft.uucp (Highland Software, Palo Alto)

Joe Shelby

jshelby@autometric.com