Programs for embroidery

Pattern Maker Program

http://www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/Hobby/General/pattern-maker.html

This is an easy-to-use program for the design of counted cross-stitch patterns. It is the tool of choice for many hobbyist and professional cross-stitch designers and is compatible with Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP.

PatternMaker for Cross-Stitch is produced by HobbyWare Inc, a US based company which has been producing cross-stitch programs since 1991. Secrets of Embroidery is proud to represent their products on the Internet.

Whether you are wanting to create a cross-stitch design from a photograph or create a design for publication, Pattern Maker provides the features you need. We offer two levels of Pattern Maker to meet the needs of both hobbyist and professionals.

The Standard version provides a feature set which is useful to the hobbyist. The Professional version includes additional features that are most useful to professional designers. We also offer a Machine Embroidery add-on product that can be used to export a design from Pattern Maker into one of the common home machine embroidery formats. This add-on is available for both the Standard and Professional levels of the program.

This sample screen shot of the Professional version with Machine Embroidery add-on, shows two windows opened for the same design. One window displays the design in the stitch view and the other window shows the symbolic view. The symbolic view shows the color-behind-symbol option enabled.




PatternMaker for Cross-Stitch Program Overview

Pattern Maker allows you to create and edit cross-stitch patterns. With this program you can see your patterns ‘come to life’ on the computer screen before you make the first real stitch. At any time you can print the pattern using any of several formats including a ‘symbolic’ view which can be used as a stitching guide.
Basic Features:
Stitch types include: full, half, quarter, petite, back/straight, over 50 different specialty stitches, French Knots, and beads

Up to 240 floss colors can be used per design from brands such as DMC and Anchor.

Designs can have up to 999x999 full stitches.

Complete printing support including print preview, color printing, and options for controlling the content and size of the printout.

Four ways to view a pattern including:

Stitch - each stitch is drawn similar to how it actually appears

Symbolic - each stitch is replaced with a symbol with color optionally behind the symbol

Solid - each stitch is replaced with a filled block

Information - pattern information is show including the floss list

Drawing and editing via the mouse simply by pointing and clicking.

Create a design by:
Drawing it using the various stitch tools.

Importing a scanned photographic or other graphics image.

Using clipart designs (50 included) and the text entry tool to 'build' a design. Additional clipart designs are also available.

Image Importing
The Image Importing feature of Pattern Maker is used to convert a scanned photograph or other graphics image into a new cross-stitch design. This feature automatically selects colors and uses full stitches to represent the scanned photo or image. Once imported, the new design can then be manually edited and enhanced as desired.

In addition to converting an image directly into a pattern, Pattern Maker also allows an image to be inserted into a new pattern as an image. This feature allows an image to be manually traced using the stitch tools. This feature is handy when you want to use a hand-drawn sketch as a guide for your design.

Page Layout
The Page Layout feature of the Professional level of Pattern Maker allows you to create a custom document layout for your design all from within the program. This layout feature consists of a built-in word processor that is customized for the creation of design layouts.

Exporting
The Professional level of Pattern Maker includes an exporting features that can be used to export the chart and information of a design into formats that can be used in other programs. This feature is useful when you choose to create your design layouts outside of Pattern Maker.

Machine Embroidery Exporting
The Machine Embroidery add-on of Pattern Maker allows you to very easily export your cross stitch designs into one of the common embroidery file formats for stitch-out on a machine.

Specialty Stitches
In addition to the basic stitch types used for counted cross-stitch (i.e. full, half, quarter, back, and French Knot stitches), Pattern Maker also supports the use of Specialty stitches. Over 50 stitches are included with the program. The stitches are represented using straight lines, curves, and dots to ensure a high-quality representation. The Professional level also includes a stitch editor that can be used to edit existing stitches or create new ones.