Designing with WOVNS Color Palettes in Illustrator

  • Requirements Image

    Requirements: Adobe Illustrator

    Difficulty Image

    Difficulty: Easy

    Time Image

    Time: 10 Minutes

  • Step 1.

    This tutorial covers how to apply a WOVNS color palette to your design in Illustrator.

    First, select a WOVNS quality and color palette.

    *Note: you can create your design in Illustrator and export as a PNG or you can design in Photoshop. The Gimp (free) and Processing are other platforms available for pattern creation. See our tutorials on creating repeats for more on how to create your design.

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    Step 2.

    Download the swatches (ASE file) and color table (ACT file) associated with the WOVNS quality and color palette of choice.

    The ASE file will be loaded to the Swatches menu in your Illustrator file for easy color management of your design.

    The ACT file will be used to index your design in Photoshop before submitting (optional).

    *Note: upon download, these files will be saved to the Downloads folder on your computer. You can keep them there for now or move them to a preferred location.

    *Note: loading the ACT file to your exported Illustrator file (in Photoshop or Gimp) is an optional step used to ensure that only colors from a WOVNS palette exist in your finalized file, thereby preventing potential error messages upon upload. See Step 9 for details.

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    Step 3.

    Open a new Adobe Illustrator file and input the file specifications for the WOVNS quality you have selected. For the Divan quality, for example, you will set the Illustrator file at a a width of 13.5″ and a height of 36″ .

    See Step 8 for details on exporting your Illustrator file at the correct pixel dimensions prior to submitting to WOVNS.


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    Step 4.

    Open the swatches associated with the WOVNS palette of your choice (ASE file). Go to the Swatches menu. In the dropdown menu (located in the upper right hand corner) select Open Swatches Library > Other Library.

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    Step 5.

    Now, open the ASE file that you downloaded in Step 2 and click “Open”.

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    Step 6.

    Once your selected palette is loaded, use it to create and / or color your design.

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    Step 7.

    When you are finished creating and / or coloring your design, export your file as a PNG. Go to File > Export .

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    Step 8.

    When the PNG Options dialogue opens, select Other and type the DPI (aka PPI) of the WOVNS quality you have chosen. In this example, we input 177 for the Divan Quality. 13.5″ x 177 = 2389 pixels wide, which we will round to 2400 pixels in Photoshop (Step 9). Be sure to set the Anti-alising drop-down to None before saving; doing so will prevent unwanted dithering when you open your file in Photoshop.

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    Step 9.

    To re-size and finalize your design, open your file in Photoshop. Go to Image > Image Size and update your file’s pixel width and height to match the specifications of your chosen WOVNS quality. In this example, we update our width to 2400 (This is a very slight increase from 2389, and should not visibly affect the design) and check to make sure that our height matches the Divan quality height specs (6372 pixels).

    You are now ready for the optional steps of indexing and cleaning your file: See Designing with WOVNS Color Palettes in Photoshop and Cleaning your Photoshop File for Submitting tutorials.

    *Note: “Indexing” is an optional step that ensures only colors from a WOVNS palette exist in your finalized file, thereby preventing potential error messages upon upload. “Cleaning” your file, refers to cleaning or eliminating any unwanted pixels / colors that result from dithering or indexing, prior to submitting your file.

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    Step 10.

    After you have finalized your file, save it as an (*Indexed) PNG and upload it to WOVNS. On the WOVNS website, go to Create > Submit Design.

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    Final Product Image

    Final design woven.