Uniform fabric terms: P

P

Packing list

The document listing what is physically in a shipment, roll by roll, with numbers, lengths, gross and net weights and carton or bale marks. Customs and the buyer's receiving team both reconcile against it, so a packing list that does not match the rolls delays clearance regardless of whether the cloth is right. Read the guide on Packing list

Panna

The trade word for fabric width, used across Indian fabric markets. Quoting a rate without stating the panna makes the price meaningless, since a wider cloth yields more garments per metre. Read the guide on Panna

Pantone TCX

The cotton-based version of the Pantone colour reference system used for textiles, supplied as dyed cotton swatches. A TCX number names a target colour; it does not guarantee that a given fiber and construction can reach it, which is what the lab dip decides. Read the guide on Pantone TCX

Paraxylene

The petrochemical, refined from crude oil naphtha, that PTA is made from, which makes it the first link in the polyester cost chain a fabric buyer ever feels. It is traded internationally in dollars, so a crude move reaches a poly-viscose quote through paraxylene long before it reaches the loom.

Pass-through

How much of a change in an input cost (yarn, crude, freight, duty) reaches the next price in the chain, and how fast. A mill that absorbs a yarn rise for a quarter has low pass-through; a surcharge billed at cost against the carrier's own document is full pass-through. Ask which costs in a quote are passed through and against what evidence. Read the guide on Pass-through

Payment terms

The line on a quotation that says how the order value is split and when each part falls due. Common structures are advance and balance, full advance, letter of credit and telegraphic transfer; the split is agreed per order and per buyer relationship rather than fixed across mills. Read the guide on Payment terms

Peached finish

A mechanical finish that sands the fabric surface lightly to raise a fine, short nap, giving a soft, suede-like touch. Because the raised surface scatters light, it makes a shade look lighter and is directional when cutting. Read the guide on Peached finish

Peak season surcharge

A temporary addition to container freight rates applied by carriers when demand runs ahead of available space, typically in the run-up to a major buying season. Like other surcharges it sits outside the base rate, so a freight quotation held open across a peak can still land higher than the figure quoted. Read the guide on Peak season surcharge

Performance security

Security furnished after a tender is awarded, usually as a bank guarantee, and released only once the last consignment is accepted. Because it stays lodged for the contract term, it is working capital committed for the whole programme. Read the guide on Performance security

PET

Polyethylene terephthalate, the polymer behind both clear drinks bottles and polyester fiber. Made by reacting PTA with MEG. Read the guide on PET

PET chip

Small pellets of PET polymer, the form in which polyester raw material is stored and traded before it is melted and spun into fiber. Read the guide on PET chip

PFAS

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the family of fluorochemicals historically used to give textiles durable water, oil and stain repellency. They are the subject of tightening restrictions in several markets and of stricter limits under certification schemes, which is why a repellent finish specified today may be a different chemistry from one specified a few years ago even where the performance requirement is unchanged. Read the guide on PFAS

PFHxA

Perfluorohexanoic acid, one PFAS chemical once common in water and oil repellent finishes. Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/2462 restricts PFHxA, its salts and related substances under REACH, and the limits apply to clothing textiles for the general public from 10 October 2026, so a repellent finish on cloth for that use must be PFHxA-free. Read the guide on PFHxA

pH

The acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous extract of the fabric, tested to check that dyeing and finishing chemicals have been properly washed off. Buyer specifications and import conformity schemes commonly require a near-neutral range, on the reasoning that residues well outside it can irritate skin in prolonged wear. Read the guide on pH

Pick

One crossing of the weft through the warp on a loom, forming one row of the fabric. Picks per inch counts how many of these rows sit in an inch of cloth. Read the guide on Pick

Pick glass

A small magnifier with a marked window, used to count ends and picks inside a measured square of fabric. It is the standard way to read an unknown cloth's construction from a sample or a worn garment.

Picks per inch

The number of weft yarns packed into an inch of finished fabric, written PPI on a spec sheet. Always read it on relaxed finished cloth, because a fabric measured under tension reports a lower figure than the one you receive. Read the guide on Picks per inch

Piece length

The length of cloth on a single roll, as against the total length of the order. A delivery of the right total metreage can still be hard to cut if it arrives as many short pieces, so the useful thing to fix in the order is a minimum acceptable piece length and a maximum share of the delivery that may arrive below it. Read the guide on Piece length

Piece-dyed

Fabric woven first and then dyed as finished cloth. Simpler and faster to reorder than yarn-dyed fabric, and the normal route for solid institutional shades. Read the guide on Piece-dyed

Pilling

Small balls of tangled fiber forming on a fabric surface under abrasion. Carded yarns pill more readily than combed, because the short fiber ends that cause it are still present. Read the guide on Pilling

Pilling grade

The 1 to 5 rating given after a pilling test such as Martindale or ISO 12945, where 5 is no visible pilling. Uniform specifications commonly set a minimum of 4, and the grade only means something with the test method and cycle count named beside it. Read the guide on Pilling grade

Pirn

A small bobbin of weft yarn that sits inside the shuttle of a shuttle loom. Modern shuttleless looms, such as rapier and air-jet looms, pull weft straight off a large cone instead, so they need no pirns. Read the guide on Pirn

Plain weave

The simplest weave, each weft yarn passing over one warp yarn and under the next. Flat, stable and economical, with no diagonal line on the face. Read the guide on Plain weave

Ply

The number of single yarns twisted together to make the yarn actually woven. In a count written 2/18, the 2 is the ply and the 18 the count of each single, so a two-ply yarn is heavier and more even than a single of the same count. Read the guide on Ply

Poly-cotton

A blend of polyester and cotton. It trades some of cotton's breathability for polyester's strength, faster drying and lower shrinkage. Read the guide on Poly-cotton

Poly-viscose

A blend of polyester and viscose, the workhorse of Indian uniform suiting. Polyester brings durability and shape retention, viscose brings a softer handle and better drape. Read the guide on Poly-viscose

Polyester

A synthetic fiber made from petrochemicals (PTA and MEG). Strong, quick drying, wrinkle and shrink resistant, but absorbs little moisture, so it feels warmer than cotton or viscose. Read the guide on Polyester

Polyester staple fiber (PSF)

Polyester produced as short cut lengths rather than as continuous filament, so it can be spun on cotton-system or blend spinning machinery. It is the polyester input in a poly-viscose or poly-cotton blended yarn, and its price tracks the PTA and MEG chain rather than the cotton market, which is why a blend can move in a direction cotton is not moving in. Read the guide on Polyester staple fiber (PSF)

Polymer

A long chain molecule built from many repeating small units. Cellulose and wool protein are natural polymers; polyester and nylon are synthetic ones. Read the guide on Polymer

Polymerisation

The chemical reaction that links small molecules into long chains. For polyester, PTA and MEG are polymerised under heat and vacuum to make PET. Read the guide on Polymerisation

Poplin

A plain weave with a fine warp and a slightly heavier weft, producing a smooth surface with a faint crosswise rib. It presses crisply, which is why it is a standard shirting for formal and corporate uniforms. Read the guide on Poplin

Powerloom

In Indian textile usage, a power-driven loom in the decentralised weaving sector, typically an older shuttle or plain loom run in small units, as distinct from shuttleless rapier and air-jet looms. The powerloom sector weaves most of India's cloth by volume.

POY

Partially Oriented Yarn, the intermediate polyester filament yarn taken off the spinning line before it is fully drawn. It is not woven as it is; it is the feedstock that texturising converts into DTY.

PPI

Picks per inch: the number of weft threads in one inch of woven cloth, counted along the length. Written after EPI in a construction line, as in 120 x 80. Read the guide on PPI

Pre-bid query

A written question a bidder sends the tendering body during the window the tender document sets before bids close, asking it to clarify or correct a clause. It is the place to challenge a brand name without "or equivalent" or a specification copied from an old template, because the answer is usually issued to every bidder, while the same objection raised after award usually changes nothing. Read the guide on Pre-bid query

Pre-dispatch inspection

Inspection of a finished lot before it leaves the mill, as opposed to inspection on arrival at the buyer's end. Some destination conformity schemes require it, and where they do it has to be arranged before the goods ship rather than after. Read the guide on Pre-dispatch inspection

Pre-export verification of conformity

A scheme under which imported goods are inspected or tested in the country of origin, before shipment, by a contractor appointed by the destination country's standards body. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda run schemes of this shape. The defining feature is that it cannot usually be completed once the goods have sailed. Read the guide on Pre-export verification of conformity

Pre-production sample

The last sample cut before a full run starts, taken from the actual bulk lot and finished the same way, so the buyer can approve shade, handle and weight against the earlier approved standard. Once signed off it becomes the reference the bulk delivery is inspected against. Often shortened to PP sample. Read the guide on Pre-production sample

Pre-shipment inspection

A check of the goods carried out in the exporting country before despatch, either by the buyer's own agent or by an inspection body appointed under the destination market's conformity programme. Where a destination requires it, the certificate it produces must travel with the shipping documents or the goods are held at the port of entry. Read the guide on Pre-shipment inspection

Pre-shrunk

Cloth whose residual shrinkage has been taken out at the finishing stage, by controlled compressive shrinking or heat setting, so that it changes little in the wearer's laundry. Pre-shrunk is a claim about a process, so ask for the residual shrinkage figure and test method rather than the word alone. Read the guide on Pre-shrunk

Preferential certificate of origin

A certificate of origin issued under a trade agreement, and the document an importer's customs needs before it will apply a concessional duty rate. What qualifies the goods is the product-specific rule in the agreement's origin annex; the certificate only evidences it. Read the guide on Preferential certificate of origin

Price chain

The sequence of stages a fiber passes through before it becomes finished fabric: fiber, yarn, greige and finished cloth. Each stage adds its own costs, so a fiber price move reaches the finished fabric smaller and later. Read the guide on Price chain

Private label / white label fabric

Cloth a distributor, uniform company or reseller buys from a mill and sells on under its own brand rather than the mill's. The mill's role is unchanged, weaving, sourcing processing and finishing through its usual route, but the buyer takes on the branding, the spec sheet issued to its own customers and, depending on the shipping terms agreed, the origin paperwork. It is a commercial arrangement, not a different fabric. Read the guide on Private label / white label fabric

Processing house

A unit that takes greige cloth from the weaver and carries out dyeing, finishing and testing before the fabric is despatched. Weaving and processing are often separate businesses, which is why a lead time has a loom stage and a processing stage. Read the guide on Processing house

Proforma invoice

A pre-invoice issued before goods ship, setting out quantity, specification, price, Incoterm, payment terms and delivery, so the buyer can open a letter of credit or arrange payment against it. It is not a demand for payment; it is the document the commercial terms are agreed on.

Proof of origin

The document that supports a claim for a lower duty rate under a trade agreement. Under the India-New Zealand agreement it is either a certificate of origin from an issuing authority or an origin declaration. Read the guide on Proof of origin

PTA

Purified terephthalic acid, one of the two feedstocks behind polyester. It is produced from paraxylene, traded internationally in dollars, and its price is a large part of why a polyester or poly-viscose quote moves without anything changing at the loom.

Puckering

A wavy or gathered surface that appears around stitching or after wash, caused by thread tension, dense stitch areas pulling a loosely set cloth, or differential shrinkage between cloth and thread. It reads as a fabric fault to the wearer and usually originates at the making stage. Read the guide on Puckering

Purchase order (PO)

The buyer's document that confirms an order against a quotation, fixing specification, quantity, price basis, delivery and payment terms. On custom shades the lead time counts from shade approval, not from the PO date, so the two dates should be planned separately. Read the guide on Purchase order (PO)

PV fabric

Short for poly-viscose: a blend of polyester and viscose, sold in India as TR or terry rayon. The ratio is not in the name, so ask for the percentages. Read the guide on PV fabric

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