Software Vault: The Sapphire Collection/Software Vault (Sapphire Collection) (Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/cyberr01.zip/PCSTITCH

Text File | 1994-09-08 | 6KB | 109 lines

                             PC-Stitch
                       by Gail B.C. Marsella


    I asked to review PC-Stitch - without knowing a thing about it -
because I've been doing needlework for years and would like to start
designing my own projects instead of following purchased
instructions.  Initially, I was a little disappointed.  PC-Stitch
bills itself as a "tool that allows you to design and print
customized needlecraft patterns," but that's really an exaggeration.
It's almost completely limited to counted cross-stitch, not the more
elaborate stitches possible in embroidery or needlepoint.  It cannot
do any of the shaping necessary to produce a garment, so that leaves
out knitting and sewing patterns, too.  (It might be usable for
certain types of rugmaking that use evenly spaced knots, or for
intarsia patterns on a knitted fabric, although knitted stitches are
rectangular, not square, and the design would distort somewhat.)

    As a full-featured design program, it falls short, too (in spite
of a reasonably good mirroring function so you can draw symmetrical
objects.).  Counting squares individually is the only way to measure
something, for example, because there's no ruler.  There is also no
way of copying and pasting irregular shapes, although you can do so
with squares and rectangles.

    Additionally, I wish there had been a clip art library
containing outlines of objects common in needlework - flowers,
leaves, animals and so on - or at least a way of creating a
user-generated library for quick access.  The main tools are the
computer equivalent of a box of crayons and a sheet of graph paper -
usable for design, but not great.  Having said all that, though, I
think it's still worth a look.  Consider what the program does
manage to do.  The import function translates graphics files
directly to the stitch counting grid, where they can be edited.

    You can paste more than one imported image on the same page, and
then rotate or flip portions of the image.  (The program's features
begin to look a lot better when you consider them editing tools
rather than design tools.) The colors of the imported image are
automatically matched to embroidery floss color codes, and the codes
print right out with the pattern.  Additionally, substitute codes
are provided so you can mix and match equivalent colors from all
three of the big floss manufacturers (DMC, Anchor, and J&P Coats.)
Nice.  Very nice.  No more fiddling around with making up symbols,
cross matching them with floss colors, and writing them in little
boxes on a grid.

    For taking the drudgery out of translating a design into
cross-stitch instructions, this program may be invaluable.  That's
what it does well.  The requirements for running PC-Stitch are: an
IBM compatible computer (at least a 386), with two MB of RAM, a
mouse, a printer, and Windows 3.1.  The installation instructions
are standard: select Run...  from the File menu on Program Manager
and run setup from the source drive.  The manual's illustrations are
too small and low-resolution to be helpful (the whole booklet needs
a rigorous proofreading, too), but it is well-organized, small
enough to be non-threatening, and will get the user started fairly
quickly.  A brief tour of all the menu items is followed by a
thoroughly worked out example.  I am unfamiliar with the stitch
terminology used here - whole, half, and quarter stitches - so I
will just mention that they are available for placement in the
pattern; the quarter stitches can be placed at various corners of
individual grid squares.

    The program opens to a main screen with a grid on it.  You can
select the stitch count and grid size for your pattern, and zoom in
and out on the grid.  (Very complicated patterns take a long time to
be drawn on the screen if they are fully in view, so it saves some
time to zoom in on a portion of the pattern.) A menu bar runs across
the top of the main screen, and a toolbar runs vertically on the
left side.  The last two buttons on the vertical toolbar are
confusing.  They're both toggles, but each changes the choices
available on the other, and the combination of choices determines
what tool you get.  Presumably the program designers did this to
avoid cluttering up the screen with icons, but I don't like it.
Call me a reactionary, but I want tool icons to do one thing, or at
most toggle between two.  I don't want them interfering with their
neighbors on the toolbar.  The same choices are available through
the menus, however, so I ignored the offending buttons.  To import a
picture, you put a placeholder called an Edit Box on the main screen
grid, and then open a very well designed Import Graphics File dialog
box.  It has a preview area for the various graphics files, and
access to .BMP, .PCX, .GIF, and .TIF formats.  Additionally, you can
choose to vary the size of the Edit Box to match the imported
picture proportions (to avoid distorting or clipping it).

    Printing is a memory intensive process for PC-Stitch, and the
larger the grid, the longer it takes.  I exceeded the memory in my
laser printer for a pattern on a ten inch square canvas, and had to
make it smaller.  The printout itself is clear and understandable,
with a color symbol in each square of the grid, and every tenth line
in boldface so you can find your way around more easily.  The color
codes, symbol key, pattern size in inches, number of stitches per
inch, and the pattern file name print out on a separate sheet of
paper.  The program allegedly supports color printing, although I
don't have the equipment to try that out.

    In short, here's what you do with this program: first design
your images with regular drawing or CAD software, or scan
photographs or the kids' drawings, and then use PC Stitch to do the
translation, editing, color matching, stitch counting, and printout
of the instructions.  Viewed as an overall design package, it has
severe limitations, but viewed as a design utility it works very
well indeed.  I plan to keep it and use it for just that.

                          M&R Enterprises
                PO Box 9403, Wright Brothers Branch
                     Dayton, Ohio  45409-9403