What Is a Marker, and How Is Fabric Efficiency Calculated?

A marker is the arrangement of every pattern piece needed for a cut — across all sizes and colorways in that cut plan — laid out within the width of the fabric roll being used. It is what actually gets placed on the cutting table, not the individual pattern pieces on their own.

Nesting software tries to position pieces to minimize gaps, testing rotations and flips (where the fabric has no directional nap or print) to fit pieces into the empty space next to already-placed pieces. Niche Studio's marker tool uses a bottom-left-fill approach: pieces are placed as far toward one corner as possible, then the next piece fills the largest remaining gap.

Marker (fabric) efficiency is the percentage of marker area actually covered by pattern pieces:

Total marker area is fabric width multiplied by the length used for the layout. A higher efficiency percentage means less unused fabric per marker, which lowers material cost per unit — a fabric with directional nap or a large repeat print will generally nest at lower efficiency than a plain, non-directional fabric.