Cross-stitch software?

Just about all the software for sale meets your requirements. Personally I use Pattern Maker by Hobbyware. However, be warned. Turning a picture into a pattern is not an easy thing to do. Any picture can be turned into a pattern, but finding a picture that, when you have a pattern, you find that pattern to be worthwhile to stitch is a horse of an entirely different color. Producing a pattern from a picture that you or anyone else wants to stitch is a major challenge. Jim.

Thanks for the warning. Can you please explain a bit about what makes this such a difficult task?

I have written to you off line. Rctners have already heard enough of my ramblings. Jim.

Oh oh... Thanks for your efforts, Jim, but my e-mail address isn't a working one. :o( Sorry that you went to all the trouble, but I appreciate the try.

It has not bounced yet, but here is the gist of my thoughts. It is a question of detail. Pictures are around 1500 dots per inch (dpi); we stitch normally at around 14 or 16 per inch. So this causes a loss of detail. Basically you need to look at any potential picture at one pixel per stitch. You need to decide how big, in stitches, the final picture needs to be before you are prepared to all that stitching, then reduce the picture to that many pixels and take a good look at it. If it has lost too much detail, you wont be satisfied with the result.

Similarly with number of colors. My Pattern Maker allows 90, which I always use. This produces lots of detail, but also lots of "confetti" stitches; widely scattered single stitches. These are a b*tch to do. Both objections can be partially overcome if you have the capability of editing any pattern, which I cannot do. Pat Porter knows quite a bit about this, I believe.

My email address works. If you want to, send me a picture and let me look at it for you, and I will offer some advice. Jim.

Thanks again, Jim. I appreciate you taking the time to explain here. I understand what you are saying and will do some PhotoShop conversions to my pictures before trying to convert them. That will change pixel size and give me a better idea of the final result.

Hope this will be helpful. I purchased Easy Cross 2004 Enterprise and did the vista update when I received it from the UK in the last

It works pretty well for most things, including the converting of pictures or photos to a pattern. Editing the results at that point can and does make the chart come out to your final likes and also lets you add things such as words and motifs if you require. Not being one to smooth over things, some pictures can be a pain the a** and seem to take forever to get a perfect result that works for you. Yet, unless you just don't care you can have a chart finished in about 5 minutes using the pre-sets which will work for the average amount of photos. Then it would seem that one just happens to get that one odd pic at the right time, and it takes what seems to be forever to complete a chart that will look great when worked.

My version is the professional edition, yet the standard version will still complete the conversion for you just the same. The major difference between the 3 versions is how much legal detail that is added to the file and what method of final output you get as in settings for the local printer shop, the standard home user doesn't need this and so it is not in the cheapest standard version. While the middle version is, as one would figure be the middle ground between the home user and the semi-pro.

I also have the program PC Stitch that I was given a couple of years back to use. It does have a bit of different GUI but overall they are not that much different. It is just the details, such as the method one programmer picked to do the conversion. I do find the convert method in PC Stitch easier and a little faster for that final chart when one counts doing the adjustments but then you can do like at times that I do and that is do the photo in PC Stitch and move it to Easy Cross 2004 for the printing output setup. I just like the output format better in one over the other for most chart due to how I put them together with my comb binder.

As a side note, if you can get an older program called PM Stitch Creator it does the conversion right away using a method that is like how Paint loads graphics. As with all, it does allow adjustments but it has the picture in a chart just by loading. I have a copy that has a notice from the early 2000's, so far I haven't found a newer version. I don't use this program but have left it installed cause of this feature, it lets me see how hard the conversion might be and if it is worth doing.

Thanks! Very helpful!

J. H. T./B.D.P. wrote: