Send a CAD. We’ll return a weavable file.

Can we weave from a CAD?

Yes, in nearly every case — a CAD, a sketch, a photograph, or a hand-painted rendering is enough to start. The sentence that follows is where custom rug programmes go wrong at other factories: an artwork approved on screen is not the same artwork once it is on the loom. The job of the studio before weaving is to resolve the gap between what the design looks like in a browser window and what the yarn can actually hold.

Everything on this page is about that resolution. If you are briefing a size and a quality we have already quoted, send what you have — we return a weavable file for your review before any yarn is dyed. MOQ is 1 piece, so the same process applies whether you are commissioning a single rug or a 500-piece private-label programme.

What file we can start from

We work from most sources designers already have on hand: pixel-based artwork, vector drawings, flat photographs of a scheme reference, and hand-painted plates. [NEEDS: canonical accepted-file list from the studio — precise formats (PNG/TIFF/JPG, PSD, AI, PDF, SVG), version floors and maximum file sizes].

In practice the format matters less than two things: the aspect ratio needs to match the rug you want produced, and the artwork needs enough detail at final size that the construction’s grid can describe it. A thumbnail stretched to 10 × 13 ft loses everything the artwork promised. If you only have a reference image, send it with notes about what matters — the colour, the geometry, a specific motif — and we will redraw to that intent rather than copying the reference pixel by pixel.

The resolution a knot grid needs

We weave from a knot map, which is a one-cell-per-knot translation of your artwork at the final rug size. The grid is coarse because knots are physical objects; a hand-knotted rug at 100 KPSI holds roughly 10 knots per linear inch, so the knot map resolves at about 10 cells per inch at 1:1 scale. A single 250 × 300 cm hand-knotted rug at 100 KPSI holds around 1.16 million knots, each one a yarn colour decision from a reduced palette. A hand-tufted rug has a different grid — one tuft per back-cell — but the principle is identical: whatever the construction supports is what the design can carry.

Send artwork at or above the final rug size, at a resolution the construction can register. Anything above that is useful for proofing but will be reduced to the grid before weaving. Below it, our studio has to interpolate, and interpolation introduces decisions neither of us wanted.

RGB on screen, Pantone TPX/TCX in the dye house, ARS 1400 on wool

Three different colour systems describe one colour at three different stages, and conflating them is the most common source of a lab-dip surprise. RGB is additive, screen-only, and gamut-dependent — the same hex value renders differently on a laptop, a printed proof, and a loom shed with afternoon light coming through the roof panels. Pantone TPX (paper) and TCX (fabric) are reflective and physical, which is why they are the reference most designers already work in. ARS 1400 is a yarn colour library used across Indian hand-knotted and hand-tufted production, and it is what our dye masters match against in wool.

Send Pantone TPX, TCX, or ARS 1400 references wherever you can. If all you have is a screen value, we match from a swatch book under D65 light and send the lab dip for your approval before pulling the colour into production. The lab dip takes about ten days per colourway, and we do not skip the light-box check.

What is lost between screen and pile

A rendering shows pixels; a pile shows yarn. The difference is physical, and it is non-negotiable. A sharp edge in Illustrator becomes a stepped edge once it is resolved onto the knot grid. A gradient that looks continuous on screen becomes a sequence of yarn colours chosen from the library — smooth from eye height, visibly discrete at reading distance. A photograph with a thousand slight hues becomes a reduced palette, usually eight to twenty-four colours, chosen to carry the design without over-matching to a specific print run.

We tell every new buyer the same thing: the rug will not look identical to the screen. If it did, that would be a printed carpet, not a handmade one. The question is whether the translation keeps the design’s intent, which is what the strike-off exists to settle.

Why we redraw before weaving

The CAD you send is almost always a design file, not a weave file. Our studio redraws it onto the construction’s grid: knot map for hand-knotted, back-marked grid for hand-tufted, warp count for handloom, pick sequence for flatweave. The redraw is where edges get aligned to grid cells, pile heights are specified for carved relief, and colour counts are rationalised to the dye recipes we are about to commit yarn to.

Redrawing is why your original file is never literally woven. It is also why the redraw file is proofed back to you before any yarn is pulled. We will not weave from a weave file you have not seen.

What a hairline serif does at 100 KPSI versus 150

Fine detail is where KPSI matters most, and where overspec and underspec both cost money. At 100 KPSI — roughly 10 knots per linear inch — a half-millimetre hairline cannot physically be rendered, because each knot occupies about 2.5 mm of width. At 150 KPSI — roughly 12 knots per linear inch — the same hairline resolves to about one knot wide and remains legible, but the lead time doubles. Our published range for hand-knotted is 20–180 KPSI; coarser constructions carry different detail limits again, which is why the choice of construction and the choice of design have to be made together.

If your artwork has text, logos, or a thin serif face, send a close-crop at final size and we will quote the KPSI that actually renders it. We quote the lead time against that density — 45 days at 30 KPSI, 90 days at 150 KPSI for hand-knotted, scaled linearly between — so a long production run is not a surprise if the artwork demanded it from the start.

Who owns the artwork

You do. Your CADs, colourways and constructions are ring-fenced to your account and never shown, resold, or adapted for another buyer. The redraw file we build to weave from is also yours; we keep a copy only for repeat orders of the same programme. This is written into the design agreement before sampling begins, and it is the same policy whether you are a brand, a hotel, or a one-off private commission.

We also do not photograph a buyer’s rug for marketing use without written permission. The rug you commission is yours — floor rights and image rights both.

What we send back, and when

Within the same working day of a confirmed brief, you receive a quotation with the construction options, lead time against KPSI (where applicable), and the sampling plan. Lab dips are sent in about ten days per colourway. A physical strike-off follows about fifteen days after CAD approval. Production starts after your strike-off sign-off, and we commit the specific delivery date in the pro-forma invoice against the construction and KPSI you chose.

[NEEDS: typical CAD-approval round-trip — days between first redraw and buyer sign-off, so this page can state the full artwork-to-strike-off horizon].

What goes wrong

Four things go wrong on custom-artwork projects, and all four happen upstream of the loom:

• A low-resolution reference is sent as the final. A phone photograph of a pin on a mood-board does not have the detail to resolve a 10 × 13 ft rug. We will redraw up as far as the construction allows, but faithful detail requires faithful source.
• A screen value is approved as a colour. If the only reference is a hex code, we match it as best we can and send the lab dip under D65. The surprise moment, if there is one, happens then — not after production.
• The artwork and the chosen construction mismatch. A photorealistic portrait at 60 KPSI will not look like the file. We quote the KPSI the artwork needs, and if the budget cannot support the density, we offer either a different artwork, a different construction, or a reduced size.
• The design file is approved without the redraw file. This is the one we insist on preventing. The redraw file is weavable; the original design file usually is not. Final sign-off is on the file we actually weave from.

Related reading on this site

The next steps once your artwork is approved are the lab dip process, the custom development programme, and the specification documents we attach to the pro-forma. The knot map journal entry explains what the file we weave from actually looks like, and certifications covers the GoodWeave, RWS and Oeko-Tex paperwork that ships with the finished rug.