Pattern Making Programs

[Rose]

I am setting up this thread for you all to come to and offer your expert opinion on the Pattern Making Programs that you have used/own. This is a chance for stitcher to find out, from those that have these programs, how good/bad they are and maybe get an idea of which ones have the best features. Please if you have a program give the others out there a fair assessment of how it works. How easy it is to get started, If the tutorials are good/bad. And if you do need customer support how you found their help, good/bad? Thanks in advance for your time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I started with the PC Stitch 6 and I was very happy with the operation of the program it was easy to learn and the tutorials were very helpful. The more I experimented the better it got. I then upgraded to the PC Pro. I found this a good program but I missed some of the options in the 6 version. Pro is a good program but the disc I got had a flaw and so I would lose my work some times even after I had saved it. Very frustrating to say the least. I contacted them and the CS person was friendly and we spent probably 1 1/2 hours trying different stuff to see if it was me or the program. It was the program and they said they would send out a new disc. 2 month later I had no new disc. I had been stitch so no problem but then I needed to make a pattern. Well called back and with apologies I was told a new one would be rushed to me. Sure enough with in 4 days I had the new disc so I don't know what happened but they did what they said just had to poke them to get it done. A couple other times I called for technical support and the wait was long and frustrating so that is a down side. But the program for the most part is easy to use and the tutorials are easy to follow. The new options are good but I find some times I wish they had left the old version ways intact.

Over all I would call the Pro good for those that already know what they want to do but not a beginners program. 3 stars

[Mabel Figworthy]

Good idea Rose -- we've given comments scattered around the forum, but it'll be useful to have them in one place.

I use Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Pattern Creator 2, and I like the fact that it's got quite flexible backstitch, will do blackwork fill patterns, knows about squashed stitches (or vertical and horizontal half stitch, as I think Heritage Stitchcraft calls them) and you can create and your own speciality stitches. Also, you can create your own fabric colours for showing a 'virtual stitched piece' on. It also has a floodfill feature to quickly fill blocks of colour, and an auto-outline feature which is useful for adding outlining backstitch -- you can choose between outlines only or between colours as well. It will convert photographs to whatever size you wish, and you can limit the number of colours, which is good. The finished result tends to be a bit dark, though, so it's a good idea to brighten up the photograph beforehand.

I would like it to be able to do variegated threads, but then I don't know whether there is any program which does those. My version also doesn't have the latest DMC colours, the ones before 200, but that may be because I got mine of eBay and it isn't the most recent version.

What I don't like about it is that its "undo" is erratic in the extreme, sometimes you want to get rid of your last few stitches and suddenly you've lost half your pattern, and also it's very hard to delete/undo french knots and beads.

It's not difficult to learn to use, which is a plus, and on the whole is perfectly adequate if you learn to live with the rotten Undo feature -- I use the eraser instead, but I can imagine that might be a bit of a pain if you like to design larger charts.
3 stars.

[charmagne_capalad]

Hello! I have the DMC Cross Stitch Pattern Maker but I'm not really that proficient enough on it. I have tried to create some small simple patterns and have tried converting a picture into a pattern. I just had a hard time editing since the program don't recognize backstitches..they are also converted into full xstitches. Are all programs like that?

Anyway, I will rate it at 4 at the moment...as I'm having fun with it!

[Smita]

Hi All

I have currently started to use the PC Stitch program, which i used for the first time to do a pattern for my Mother In Law.

It is a great program and i got through the tutorials and tried a number of different colour ranges before deciding on the final one. I will upload the picture once i have finished the piece. I guess my only complaint is that if you use the maximum number of colours (200) what the program doesn't tell you is that there are lots of single stitches and so it gets rather frustrating

But the program has worked so far!

[cathybruckbauer]

I have been using the PC Stitch program for a couple of years, but it was just last year that I really took off with it. The thing to remember is GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) -- the quality of the imported image will determine the quality of your pattern. You can tweak a lot of things once you're working on the image, but the cleaner original the better. AND it's helpful to lower your floss palette count to a manageable number. The human eye simply can't see the difference between 200 and 70 colors. The key is experimentation. Just play and have a blast !

The real payoff is in dimensional patterns -- I've refined it to where I'm selling my charts on timelessimagesinthread.com --- and they are SO worth the time (and eyesight) I've put into them. I'll post some finished projects in the gallery once I figure out how to do it, since I'm brand-new to this site. So glad I found other stitching maniacs! Cathy

[Mabel Figworthy]

They're lovely images, Cathy, but -- please don't take this the wrong way, I'm asking out of concern -- I'm a little worried that some of the source images like the Charles rennie Mackintosh ones are likely to have copyright on them; did you remember to sort all that out before you put the patterns online?

It's great to make patterns of things, but as we keep reminding each other here, even for your own use there are copyright issues to keep in mind, and it's easy to get all entangled in them when making patterns to sell. I'm thinking of Agi who wrote to Lego for permission to put her cross stitch design of her logo on the forum here, and they wouldn't allow it even though it wasn't commercial. Do any of the others have any thoughts on this?

[cathybruckbauer]

So glad you like them --- they took HOURS to do! And yes, I was careful about copyright. The Mackintosh tile is one I own and photographed, as is the case with several other tiles. The images I use are from my own photographs, or are in the public domain. Other tiles were used with the permission of the original artist (Rick Rivadeneyra and Lin King, for example). If there's any inadvertent infringement, I trust I'll be alerted and would immediately take down the offending design. In the meantime, I'm so glad I found something I love doing that I can carry on into retirement, which (stunningly) appears to be in the next few years!!

[godzoned]

I use PC stitch 6. I'm very happy with it. got it about 4 years ago and still functions wonderfully.

Might need to have to upgrade if I get Windows vista though. Not sure if it will work with vista. lol

[Iona]

I've recently bought Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Gold, and have no complaints at all. In fact it has a tutorial that talks you through using it, so you don't have to be very computer-savvy.

Previously, I'd forked out nearly £100 for Easy Cross Professional. What a waste of money that was ( - I cringe to think...) When I got a new computer, Vista was already installed, and I found that Easycross would not work with it. I wrote to the manufacturer for a update, but got no reply.

I chose Jane Greenoff's software, because it was the only one I could find that specifically states it'll work with Vista.

[Kute Kitty]

I have Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Designer, and I have Vista, and they work just fine together Cross stitch designer annoys me sometimes, as Mabel said the "undo" function is unpredictable, but in general it's OK. I've used it to convert a painting to a chart, and to create a number of charts from scratch.

Interesting point - cross stitch designer won't give you any evenweave options. You can see what your design will look like stitched on aida, but not on evenweave; and there are no options for squashed stitches, only full or fractional stitches, and back stitch.

The program seems "unfinished", for lack of a better word, in a number of ways. If I'm writing a word using the pre-loaded alphabets, I have to open the alphabet new again for every letter. So, when I designed a sampler for my mother-in-law with the family surname on it, I had to open it eight times just to put the name in. That's frustrating. Also, it's meant to allow me to save motifs to the library, and it doesn't; or if it does, it's complicated to the point that I can't do it.

For the basics, it's definitely useable; but it's not always user-friendly. I have been thinking about replacing it with something more friendly, but I'll be careful to check that anything runs with vista!

3 out of 5.

[kymbaker]

i have Jane Greenoff's and i have only printed of two patterns so far and have only recently started stitching them so will let you know what I think once i have completed them.

the program itself is easy to use and you can scan in your own photos which is why I got it

[MrXStitch]

I'm a PC Stitch Pro girl - er, man - myself.
Been using it for quite a while and over time you find the best ways to make it work for you. Simple things like setting the maximum number of floss colours to use (I never do more than 36) and how you want the pattern to print out are very helpful. You can specify which font you want to use and all kinds of stuff.
I'm starting to get my head around blackwork and may use the program to make some geometric patterns as well.
It's not perfect, but it's not bad.

(Although their customer service is non-existant!)

[biggrins]

I see all these programs for Windows machines, but does anyone know of any Mac programs? I would love to have a chart maker, but I don't use a PC.

Hey after some searching I found the program for Mac OSX. It's called MacStitch 4.7.

[Rose]

If you do a google of pattern programs you will find that most of them will have a trial version that you can download. The problem is that you can not save what you have done. So you have to do a pattern in one setting. If you are patient that could work but with myself I have to take it over a few days so I had to buy the program.

[Busy_B]

Some one found this site a while ago that is freeware. I downloaded it and made a couple of test patterns with it. I haven't stitched either one, but it seems pretty easy to work with.

[Moon2fire]

My main computer is a Mac and I am still struggling to find programs, but I did findthis and it seems to be quite good although I am still a bit of a novice

[Kuschelschaf]

I use Pattern Maker for Cross-stitch by Hobbyware. It works really well and has a 4-day full-featured trial where you can both print out and save all the patterns created during the trial period. The only problem is that it is a bit pricey; it costs about 60$ or so. My mom and I are going to split the cost and buy the program together. I used that for my current WIP and I must say that I do recommend it to anyone because it does a nice job. It doesn't seen to be compatible with mac or linux, but there is a version for Vista.

[flosaxby]

Hi All,

I'm new to this site but I just wanted to add a comment about cross stitch software on Macs.

I have a Mac and I have an extra piece of software called Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/uk/) which allows me to have a "virtual PC" inside MacOS.

I don't really understand how it works but I sort of get a 2 for 1 deal - A Mac and a PC running on the same monitor!

This means that I was able to install Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Gold in the Parallels bit and it works fine (although the undo function is annoying as others have already commented).
Flo

[helbel]

Remember flosaxby you'll need anti-virus etc for your Parallels windows copy, just because you're running it on a Mac won't mean you're safe (assuming you are connecting to the internet with it) .

Bootcamp is another option for Mac users that want to run a copy of Windows, I think this comes as standard in Leopard.

Personally I've decided not to inflict Windows on my Mac so I'm looking at the Mac stitching program options.

[Craftamatic]

I use PC Stitch Pro. Love the idea to take a photo or clip art and make my own pattern. I've done a picture of my dogs that came out great! I'm 8 months pregnant and our little boys room is a woods/forest theme. I couldn't find a turkey or a buck that looked good so I downloaded a picture on line of each and made a pattern with that. Both patterns came out great and hanging in his bedroom wall. There are some things I still need to play with (like figuring out how to do outlines of the photos on the pattern than freehanding it) but other than that I'm very happy with the software. It makes life much easier when your looking for something specific.