This app can turn virtually any picture you have (from a digital camera, the web or your own design) into a needlework project.
It's the culmination of about 35 years' experience as a cross-stitcher and a programmer.
What it does do:
- Generates a PDF file of charts of your chosen image to work from - with the standard bold line every ten stitches, but also a semi-bold line every five, to make stitch-counting much easier
- Reduces the image to a realistic size and number of colours for your project. You can go as large as you like, but it may take you some years to complete...
- Colour-matches to your chosen range of threads: Anchor, DMC, Madeira and Lecien Cosmo stranded cotton, and Anchor and DMC tapestry wools are supported.
- Allows visual comparison of the original image - with both a reduced palette version of that image, and one with your chosen number of colours from the selected thread range. If it doesn't look right, you can increase and try again until you have a pleasing result. Up to 256 colours are supported.
- Although symbols can be pre-allocated for you, you can also create a set, or sets, of your preferred symbols, should you wish. Any considered visually similar are automatically eliminated.
- Enables you to maintain a record of spare skeins you may have left over from previous projects, and flags those that could be used on your new project.
- Offers a range of output options, aside from the charts, such as:
- a Key Page listing the symbols, their colour numbers from your chosen range, as well as stats, such as how many stitches of each colour will be required, percentages and approximate numbers of skeins required
- a Thread Card, which can be used to organise partially-used lengths of thread as you work
- a full-page rendition of the image you are working, for reference - in the same definition and reduced colours as the project
- a Shopping List, containing the threads required (in colour number sequence) and the size of the fabric required at the count you have chosen, as well as identifying any you can source from your listed spares.
The app is designed in an easy-to-use single window layout, with a minimal amount of clicks required to have your output generated and ready to start work. It's laid out in a series of tabs across the top of the window, and you progress from left to right to follow the intended workflow of the app. A Next > button is there to tell you when you've done enough to move on to the next tab.
You can follow this workflow via this Process link.
What it doesn't do:
- Complex image adjustments, such as brightness, contrast, colour cast and de-skewing: all these things can be adjusted in apps freely available for your Mac, such as Photos or Preview
- Interfacing with scanners and digital cameras - for the same reason, the app leaves it to Photos or your camera or scanner's own supplied software to handle this
- Creating your own designs - for the same reasons, use apps more suited to this purpose
- Printing and viewing the output PDF - again, readily available apps such as the Mac's Preview are more than capable of this.
IMPORTANT: Bear in mind that if you are choosing images from the internet, you may need to license use of that image, or obtain the image owner's permission to proceed; you most certainly will if you plan on selling the output commercially as part of a kit.
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