The Liftplan Connection; Designing for Dobby Looms With Photoshop® and Photoshop Elements®

This 168-page book, soft-cover and spiral bound, black and white text with many diagrams, further explores some of the design techniques first introduced in The Woven Pixel, which I co-authored in 2006 with Bhakti Ziek. The Liftplan Connection (or TLC for short) is not a replacement for The Woven Pixel, but is a standalone book. TLC includes more specific material on Photoshop Elements, as many dobby weavers choose Elements, not Photoshop, as their primary graphics program. TLC also includes material related to the use of network drafting with Photoshop. It includes chapters on creating threadings for graphics-based liftplans, building a weave library, designing liftplans with two or more weave structures, divided weaves, indexing colors and applying weaves, producing a loom-ready file in a format your weaving software and loom driver can understand, masking, overlays, using text in dobby designs, and other techniques usable on multi-shaft looms.

TLC will be most useful for weavers with looms of 16 or more shafts, but those with eight shafts will also find useful information here. It has relevance for weavers with mechanical or computer-assisted dobby devices, and for table looms with manual shaft lifting mechanisms (levers). TLC explains how to design in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, with layers, filters, and layer styles, in conjunction with your favorite weaving program, and has specific instructions for graphic import into the six most popular weaving programs.

TLC does NOT include a CD with digital versions of weave structures; this is a unique feature of The Woven Pixel, and is not duplicated in TLC. It does NOT include the extensive chapters on Taqueté and Samitum, Lampas, Weft-Backed Structures, and Warp Tapestry, that are featured in The Woven Pixel.

TLC requires the use of Photoshop 7 or later (CS4 preferred) for Mac or Windows, or Photoshop Elements 4 or later for Mac or Windows, and your favorite weaving software.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Some Hazards
Conventions
What Is a Liftplan?
Usable Threadings
Brief Introduction to Photoshop
Pattern Presets and Building a Weave Library
Designing the Liftplan
Assigning Weaves
Modifying Designs
Multiple Weaves
Indexing and Applying Weaves
Circles and Polkadots
Text
Masking
Overlays
Edges and Borders
Divided Drafts
Creating Threadings in Photoshop
Photoshop to Loom
Weave Simulations
Appendix
Contact Information for Software Vendors
Pattern Presets Quick & Dirty
Dobby Liftplan Quick & Dirty
Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
Aspect Ratio
Bibliography
Registration

164 pages, black & white, spiral bound.
$42 plus shipping and handling.

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