A WIF file is a common way to save a weaving draft so different weaving programs can open it. The name stands for Weaving Information File. If someone sends you a draft, or you download one from a guild or pattern library, it often ends in .wif.
You do not need to know the full technical format to use one. Think of WIF the way many people think of a PDF for documents, or a JPEG for photos: it is a shared container so you are not stuck redrawing the same draft in every app.
What is inside a WIF file?
A weaving draft is more than a pretty cloth picture. It describes how the loom is set up and how the cloth is woven. A typical WIF file can include:
- How many warp ends and weft picks the draft has
- Threading — which shafts each warp end goes through
- How the shafts are controlled (tie-up and treadling, or a liftplan)
- Yarn colors for the warp and weft
- Optional notes such as a title or author
From that structure, a program can draw the cloth (the drawdown). The drawdown is usually calculated when you open the file; it is not always stored as a separate picture inside the WIF.
Why does WIF exist?
Before WIF, most weaving programs used their own private file formats. Sharing a draft meant redrawing it or hoping both people owned the same software. In the 1990s, weaving software authors agreed on WIF so drafts could move between tools. The version still in everyday use is WIF 1.1 (1997).
Bower can import and export WIF. So can many other weaving programs. That is the whole point: interchange.
Is a WIF file hard to open?
Under the hood it is plain text. You can open a .wif file in a text editor and see section names and numbers. You do not need to edit it by hand — weaving software and viewers do that for you.
If you only want to look at a draft quickly, use our free WIF Viewer in the browser. Drop a file in, see the classic draft layout, download an image if you like, or open the same draft in Bower when you are ready to edit.
WIF and Bower
In Bower you can import a WIF file to load a draft, and export a draft as WIF to send it elsewhere. Not every optional detail in the old format is used by every program. Bower focuses on structure, colors, and the usual loom modes (tie-up or liftplan) so drafts open cleanly for weaving work.
If you want the full field-by-field reference, including what Bower supports or ignores, see our WIF 1.1 file format specification. That page is for people writing tools or debugging a file that will not open. This page is the friendly overview.
Quick tips
- Keep the .wif extension when you save or share the file.
- If a draft looks wrong in one program, try another viewer or re-export from the original app — programs differ on optional extras (notes, symbols, yarn thickness).
- For a quick visual check with no install, use the free WIF Viewer on this site.
- For editing threading, colors, and structure, open the file in Bower.
Still stuck? Email us at [email protected] and we will help if we can.