MacStitch New features We've been listening...

New Features in the 2017 editions..
Want to upgrade? Click here:
add-funds


As far as possible, each year we add as many things that we have been asked for by email, as well as tidying up bugs along the way.
2017 is no exception: here’s What’s New recently...

NEW FEATURE Enter wording as sentences, using backstitched letters.
textentry
  • Choose a font from the drop down.
  • Type your words in the text box.
  • Choose a color if you want to change it
  • Then click either ‘Paste’ or ‘Paste as Layer’

If you choose Paste, then the screen disappears, and you can paste your words where you like in the design.
If you choose Paste as Layer, the pasted words are not ‘fixed’ in place, but can be moved around as a layer object, for finer placement.

NEW FEATURE New backstitch alphabets
Some of the alphabets that can be used in the ‘style’ option above..
bsalpha

NEW FEATURE Color Tunisian Crochet Charts
Now available in color printouts as well as the previous text output.
newtunisian

Pasted Graphic 1


NEW FEATURE Contextual help
An optional popup window that can be left open, detects what part of the application you are using, and displays some guidance notes.
(This can be printed, and turned on or off for people will less screen space available)
context


NEW FEATURE Open the Launch Wizard at any time, not just once when the app starts.

NEW FEATURE On screen Markup!
If you have a multipurpose tablet style computer, why print the design at all? You can markup on screen as you stitch and save the paper!
markup


NEW FEATURE Free running backstitch
freebs
In addition to the existing ‘one line at a time’ and ‘automatic outline’ backstitch, now you can draw freehand and the backstitch will follow the mouse, along gridlines as you draw. This lets you create a shape in backstitch to work within, for example.

NEW FEATURE PDF Footer page.
We’ve long had the ability to insert a cover page into the PDF export, now you can insert a footer page too.. perhaps a list of instructions or a copyright page?
NEW FEATURE Extra options for Tunisian Crochet
The recently added
diagonal output for Tunisian can now start Left to Right, or Right to Left

NEW FEATURE Flood fill using motifs/copied stitches
You can select a motif, or copy a few stitches, and flood fill an area with the result.
flood

NEW FEATURE Number the rows from Bottom to Top
By request from our crochet customers, the PDF and printing screens now have an option to have the row numbering start at the bottom and work upwards, instead of the more usual (for cross stitch) ’top down’

EXTRA Sample files
EXTRA Thread definitions
EXTRA Palettes (including ready made black & white only/grey/sepia)

2016...
NEW FEATURE Added optional single-key shortcuts for common toolbar items.
toolbar shortcuts

NEW FEATURE
Blended colors : two colors in one needle.
Pasted Graphic 2

NEW FEATURE Recent clipboards
- See and use anything you copied during the session, not just the last item

NEW FEATURE Canvas view .. a view that resembles color printed onto canvas
Canvas view


NEW FEATURE Layers.. motifs become movable objects that can be ordered, hidden, and flattened when required.
Pasted Graphic 5



NEW FEATURE Images as Layers: insert photos or stitch diagrams etc as a moveable, resizable layer.
Pasted Graphic 7

NEW FEATURE Onionskin layers
- Images can be inserted under the grid, to act in the same way as onion skin images, but in a localised area.

NEW FEATURE Page map at end of printout or PDF to help you lay out pages
Pasted Graphic 4

NEW FEATURE Many dialogs now resizable for larger monitors. Text too small? Stretch until it’s easy to read.
NEW FEATURE Can set a default copyright which is applied to every new chart
NEW FEATURE Can insert a small key into chart using current view style
NEW FEATURE Can produce estimate as 8m Skeins
NEW FEATURE Option to have thin lines dashed when in design mode (mac)
NEW FEATURE Change all backstitch to the active color with one click.
NEW FEATURE Option to affect ’Backstitch only' in search and replace



What was new for 2015
A
revised launch window, making it easy to ‘just get started’
Launch1 recents


Apertures and Templates, so you can work to a frame shape, or re-use a common set up.
Pasted Graphic 2

Better conversion of
Fonts to Stitches, including free rotation:
Pasted Graphic 3

Massively changed PDF system, now outputs to named page sizes.
Pasted Graphic 4

PDF can now put a key on each page:
Pasted Graphic 5
PDF can also optionally have title
PDF key page allows you to
overtype all the text if you wish: say what you want to say!
pdfscreen8

PRINTING is much simplified (easier to get sensible symbols sizes: just tell us how many symbols across the printed page and we’ll handle the rest!)


print options


When viewing in virtual stitches mode, the background resembles cloth.
This can be Aida, even weave , or other styles.
When you select one of these options, you can now choose whether to have your stitching appear ‘over 1’ or ‘over 2’


Pasted Graphic 1


Drag the chart around the screen instead of using the scroll bars, if you wish. And Arrow Keys also work...

draghand

..and many more lovely new features!






New for 2014
MacStitch and WinStitch now incorporate the features of ‘Canvas’ (our free plastic canvas app), but with extra functionality added.



You can create realistic looking plastic canvas designs, with scope for having cut-out shapes.
And in MacStitch/WinStitch you can also have the tent stitches in different directions, to allow for texturing:

Pasted Graphic 1 Pasted Graphic 4


Also new for 2014



Improved Launch Window
The launch window is now tabbed 3 ways:
New Chart, Open existing, and Help / Questions

Pasted GraphicOpen Tab

Variable size symbols within the grid, so you can make the charts ‘lighter or darker’ as you wish.
bigsymlightsym

Brighter Stitched View:
Pasted Graphic

Advanced Cropping options in the Import screen: allows you to use freehand selection to eliminate the background, or to crop to oval or rectangular areas.
freehand
Here, we have selected an area around the Lion
(shows in red)

Oval
Here, we have cropped an oval around the dog’s head.

PDF export can now :
  • -Include a Cover page (from a picture or another PDF sheet.. add your branding!)

  • -Specify the grid line colour

  • -Change the symbol size within the grid

  • -Include page number

  • -use a font you choose


Import:
New: Convert to
Sepia or Convert to Greyscale during import.
Extra thread colour definitions added.
Thread Sorter option added to print menu

New import Method for Photos!
Over the years, we spent a lot of time improving the image import to give the best results using
very small numbers of colours.
This is because we believed that most people would want to minimise the number of different threads they wanted.
But recently, we heard more and more from people wanting
as many colours as they could get.
So, we listened, and now we offer both types of import, (because we still need to keep the colours down for clip art pictures, yet get as much detail as possible for some people.)
So now, if you really want to, the program will use hundreds of colours to convert your image!


On the left, a photo converted into using just the ‘default palette’ ( a small selection of 25 random DMC shades)
On the right, around 110 shades taken from the full DMC range.
Image size: 266 x 255 pixels / stitches
Pasted Graphic 1

Original Image:
Pasted Graphic 2


Archiving:
Lost a file? In future, you should be able to recover an older version of any file you have saved from our archiving.

Rotate whole design by 90 degrees: (saves having to ‘select all’ first)

..and some bug fixes from 2012



Search and Replace screen now allows multi select: replace many colours at the same time
Improved flood fill. Now respects backstitches too.





New for 2012:


Framed View


Quickly see what your finished piece would look like in a variety of frames and borders.
Export that to the clipboard or a picture file.
And you can add your own frames!



Launch page. Now you could create a chart from a photo in less than 10 seconds!




Insert your logo into a design



PDF Compression

PDF files in 2011 could easily reach many megabytes in size. Now we have compression in the PDFs, and the file size is much smaller, making them easier to email or download.

Savings of up to 90% in file size!


Tent Stitch View



Motif Browser



Just one click to add a motif to your design. And now you can categorise motifs into folders and sub folders.

Alphabet Browser and Alphabet Designer


Just click a letter and place it on the grid.


New Thread Definitions

The 2012 editions ship with 30 manufacturers threads, adding such names as
Cosmo, Crescent,Dimensions, Belle Soie, Danish Flower Threads, HDF, Mayflower, Rosace
and with revised versions of the standard DMC, Anchor etc


Rotate through 45 Degrees

to

BackStitch Lines totally flexible, (not limited to 9 points on square), IF you press SHIFT




And more, including:


Added thin and thick line settings to Export to PDF to allow for lower res printers
Added choice of dotted or solid lines for the thin lines in PDF
Added option to have overlaps in PDF
Added bounding and crop areas to PDF to improve compatibility with Adobe
New: automatically archives every chart you save into a ZIP file in the application data folder. If you lose a file, or overwrite one at a later date, this means that you can usually recover it in an emergency.
Larger symbols and letters on printed key
Help files come from the web instead of being installed which speeds up the download and allows more languages to be provided. But can be printed or turned into a PDF file with ease.
Threads can be sorted in the thread chooser
Bold and Italic on text option
Hold CTRL when choosing flip or rotate actions and the selected area will be deleted instead of left alone.
New Features in 2011 editions..
Where to begin?

We’re really excited about the new version!!
The 2010 release finally saw the introduction of features that customers have been requesting for some time, and the
2011 release adds a few extras...
In fact, during the last year we believe we have added every new feature request we received in 2009/10!!
Are your favourites here?
To upgrade, use the links on the left.

Lasso Selection Tool (Version 6.6 onwards)

Now you can select any shape area and copy/paste just the part you want.




Import and Export to other Chart Types (Windows only, sorry)

From 2010 r6.5, Winstitch can make use of the pattern converter plug-in from MyriaCross.
This inexpensive add-on (approx 17 UK pounds) allows you to open charts created by many of our contemporaries,
such as
PatternMaker pro, PCStitch, Cross Stitch Professional, Jane Greenhoff, ILSoft and more.
You can also save your work in PAT or XSD format, to share with, or sell to people who have other programs.
You can import and export to a number of
machine embroidery types too!
Import any of these file types:
Cross Stitch Patterns: JGG;ACX;BPT;CRX;MCX;PAT;PT6;PT7;SCC;SPF;UXS;XSD;XSM;XSP
Embroidery: 10o;DST;DXF;EXP;KSM;PCS;PCD;PCM;PCQ;PES;PLT;JEF;JEF+;SEW;STX;THR;VP3;XXX;KRZ

Export as any of these file types:
Cross Stitch Patterns: PAT;;XSD;CHART;MOTIF;PDF
Embroidery: 10o;DST;DXF;EXP;KSM;PCS;PCD


Place a mini-key right where you want it




Non-square grid (for knitting)

We've had a feature to allow you to change a cross stitch pattern into knitting for a while, but all the knitters out there kept asking for knitting shaped grids.
So, here it is at last, together with a new view mode that represents stocking stitch.

Cross Stitch vs Stocking Stitch (extra rows added)




Icons showing a preview of the chart (Mac only)

You can optionally choose between a preview of the whole chart, or just the part you were looking at when you saved the chart.



Continuous Erasing with the Right Mouse Button (Windows AND Mac)

For a long time, to erase things, you had to choose the cloth color before drawing, or hold down CTRL while drawing.
That’s how it is when your mouse has one button.

Well, we’ve made it so that ‘left mouse button draws, right mouse button rubs out’.
Just as it should be on Windows, and it works on the Mac too, if you have a 2 button mouse!
Sorry it took so long...


New thick brush styles

For when you need to cover a big area in a hurry..




Improved print quality and image export

We have improved the quality of the printouts (3 quality settings to choose from), and switched from Export to JPG to use PNG files instead.
The boring image below (sorry!) shows a close-up comparing the 2009 version on the left (using JPEG) , with 2 of the new settings (using PNG) shown on the right.




Editable PDF export for professional printing

The previous export to PDF option still exists in the program (which simply inserts the page images into a PDF document), but this new menu item provides a fully configurable PDF export facility, at even higher quality, and in a form that lets you insert into other documents, print with margins, and so much more.
Right Click or CTRL-Click(Mac) on the image below, and save the sample PDF to disc to view it.
(Opening it in your browser window may cause the PDF to display in lower quality)



ZIP up the PDF output (Version 6.6 onwards)

The high quality PDF files can reach a few Mb in size. We’ve added a new .PDF.ZIP output in July so that as well as creating the PDF file, the program can also zip it up. That gets the file size down from 3Mb to 150Kb in some cases!


New stitch types!
Quarter Stitches / Petit Point (i.e 4 colors in one square)
Horizontal and Vertical halfstitches
Full stitches placed off centre..
And improved stitched view, allowing stitch over one , or over 2...






Text Boxes!
As many one-line text boxes as you like, plus the ability to show the comments you have applied to the chart.
(oh yes.. and note the varying thickness of backstitch)




Improved conversion of fonts to stitches!
Preview, centering, and right alignment.



View and Edit as Balloons

Which speaks for itself...



Quick access to area options after you select an area

You select an area... so it seems obvious that you want to do something with it.
Therefore the most common options now appear immediately as a popup menu.


Image Editor built into the Import Screen

New editing options for image import, including
Free rotation/ flip /mirror/ sharpen/smooth /
SEPIA tone/ RGB sliders



New to R6.7 (the 2011 release)



New: Crop to area
New: export to Word in WinStitch
New: Added Contrast button to import screen
New: Added 'remember last palette width'
New: Added 'remember last view mode'
New: Added new 'add copyright here' option for chart text boxes
New: Added Italian ,Spanish and Catalan manuals
New: Can now show centre lines in the Export to PDF option
New: If an onion skin image is present when saved, the program will attempt to reload it when the chart is re-opened.

Fix: 'help' in Mac version was reporting a PDF error
Fix: half stitch icons were reversed in meaning
Fix: Image import defaults to last used hpi setting
Fix: WinStitch sometimes showing MacStitch logo
Fix: Rotate 180 was losing part if not square shape
Fix: Borders again show thumbnail views in the list.
Fix: recent files menu now shows previews of saved borders
Fix: removed 'install myriacross' issue.. (was repeatedly asking to install)
Fix: Toolbar buttons now correctly show previously selected drawing mode after fill or eyedropper operation

Change: main grid background to a more neutral grey color
Change: blue marker lines now show as full pink row/columns to better highlight position
Change: revised color matching in image import
Change: centre weighting now has only 3 settings: centre weighted, no weighting, weighted towards edges
Change: Image import preview now pops up a preview window, as the 'live' preview caused problems on some machines by firing over and over.
Change: File selector shows external drives on Mac
Change: Add Border leaves original chart open to allow for experimentation
Change: Program remembers settings on the PDF export screen for next time
Change: PDF output now uses smaller previews (Adobe having trouble displaying although other viewers OK) and produces smaller files.
Change: Increased range of possible HPI settings for petit point use


And numerous smaller details...

Go on.. upgrade now. You know you want to!