Digital Pattern Formats and When to Use Each One

What you take from this lesson: Choose the right format based on the equipment you have and your production volume.

A4 PDF

The pattern is split across numbered A4 sheets that you print on any home printer and tape together following the marks until the piece is rebuilt at full size.

It makes sense when you have no access to a plotting service, when you produce in small quantities or when you want to test a pattern before committing to it. It is the cheapest format to use: all you need is paper and tape.

The cost is time: a large pattern can have thirty sheets, and assembling it takes a while.

Plotter PDF

The same pattern, but on a single continuous sheet at true width: 90, 120 or 150 cm. You send it to a plotting service or a roll printer and it comes out ready to cut.

It makes sense as soon as your volume goes up. There is nothing to tape, you avoid the error that builds up at the joins, and the pattern is ready in minutes instead of an hour.

The width you choose does not change the price; you pick it based on the roll width of the plotting service available to you.

Sublimation file

This is the piece prepared for printing BEFORE it is cut. In sublimation, the print is applied to the flat fabric and only afterward is the piece cut out, so the file has to account for the printed area and for how the design matches up between pieces.

It makes sense for sportswear, team uniforms and any garment where the print crosses seams.

Editable CAD files: Audaces (.ads) and Optitex (.pds)

These are the working files of industrial patternmaking software. You can't open them with a PDF reader: you need those programs.

They make sense when your workshop already works in CAD and needs to modify the pattern, redo the grading using its own size chart or build markers. This is the format that gives you full control over the pattern, which is why it is the most expensive.

How to choose in thirty seconds

If you print at home: A4. If there is a plotting service nearby and you produce often: plotter. If the garment is printed by sublimation: the sublimation file. If you need to edit the pattern in a patternmaking program: CAD.

At Moldey, all four formats exist for every pattern in the catalog, so you can change your decision at any time without changing suppliers.

In short

A4 for printing at home, plotter for producing without taping, sublimation for printing before cutting and CAD for editing the pattern in a patternmaking program.