I've been reading through the archives here and there hasn't been a good discussion on sofware to use for designing beadwork.
I've done some searching and also own several programs.
What I am looking for is simple.
- A chance to download the program for a trial. This is vital as I've already spent far too much money on programs that I ended up not using.
- Ease of use. I have two programs that are almost inpenetrable to use. My benchmark is the cross-stitch program I use (PatternMaker Pro) which would be ideal for beads if they had a bead palette. I am in the middle of working on one for Delicas but it's a massive undertaking and only gets done in my very rare spare time. It is also only useful for loomed pieces as the grid is set for needlework so it's simply a square grid, so no use for anything else.
- Bead palettes. Yes. That's the one. The big one. I want to be able to swap between Delicas or seed beads or whatever. They're all based on RGB values anyway so swapping from one to another is not impossible, it just means that someone has to produce the palettes. If I were locked away for a month with lots of tea, ginger biscuits and no distractions I'd have them already.
- Layout. That's vital. PatternMaker does this nicely, they give a wondrous layout tool. If I could finally convince Scott to put out a version for beading, I'd be a happy bunny!
Anyone have any thoughts on particular programs, pros and cons?
-Su