Let{\145}s have the attention of all you men out there whose wives always want to know what the dreaded computer can do for them! Here is one answer: Cross-Stitch Designer, produced by iSV Products, which converts sprites into cross-stitch patterns.
The first version received for review, 1.7, had a few niggling little faults which detracted from the overall impression of the package, but a quick telephone call to iSV had version 1.8{font MathGreek}b{font} winging its way through the postal system. With this new version, it would seem that all the faults I moaned about had been put to rights {\153} plus a few unknown ones too! By the time you read this, version 1.8 will be the current version.
{"Heading" on}What do you get?
{"Heading" off}You get one floppy disc presented in a plastic box. The current version has a manual on the disc as a hypertext file, but if, like me, you prefer to read paper print, you can by-pass this and make yourself a hard copy (approx. four A4 sheets) via Edit or your chosen text editor. The rest of the disc contains the program (approx. 104Kb), a special font for use within the program, a reference card showing the colour symbols, and a folder containing some examples.
{"Heading" on}The program
{"Heading" off}There is no disc protection on this package, so back it up first or install it onto hard disc in any location of your choice. Before running the program, the special font must be installed. This font is a combination of text and Dingbats, with full skeleton lines, and it has obviously had a lot of time and effort spent on it, to get the right combination of characters which will be easily distinguished from each other.
Double-clicking on the application icon installs the program onto the right hand side of the iconbar. The iconbar menu will only give you two options, info and quit, both of which are self-explanatory.
{"Heading" on}Input
{"Heading" off}The best way to start the program is to select the sprite you wish converted and drag it to the iconbar icon. There are a few points to bear in mind before selecting your sprite file; one pixel translates to one stitch, and a limit has been set by the author of approximately 250,000 stitches, which is more than adequate, I would suggest! The maximum number of colours in a picture is 64, so any pictures with more than this will need modifying using ChangeFSI or a similar program. If you try to load too large a file, or an incorrect file, the program objects and then lets you try again.
Dropping your selected sprite onto the icon opens two windows; the sprite window, which shows the loaded sprite, and the main information window, which shows details of sprite name, sprite size, resultant cross-stitch size and the number of stitches in the resultant design, along with an approximation of the time required to stitch the pattern. This is an educated guestimate, presumably based on the stitching times of the author{\145}s wife, but would no doubt be a useful guide for school use. At the bottom of this window are two buttons which work on the loaded sprite {\153} 'Show Colours' and 'Make XStitch'.
{"Heading" on}Conversion configuration
{"Heading" off}Before making your cross-stitch design, select the configuration menu. From here, you can make selections for your conversion. You can set the colour of the material used, the number of holes per inch for your chosen material, the type and style of grid display, the way the text of the colour listing is saved: standard text, Draw text object or Impression script file. You can also select whether to keep the picture as a coloured print or symbols or a combination of both. Once decided, click on the 'Make XStitch' button and wait.
{"Heading" on}Output
{"Heading" off}Once the design has been calculated, two new windows open, one with the final design and one with a listing of the colours. From the design window, you can zoom, save out as a drawfile, or print out to hard copy.
A quick word of warning here {\153} these printouts can be very large, although they are tiled with an adjustable overlap. The default output is at 200% for ease of reading. To give an example of size, a sprite of 290{\215}195 pixels will translate to a cross-stitch of 20.7{\215}13.9 inches, and the printout of this pattern will need eighteen A4 pages at 200% scale (too much smaller and you are entering the realms of eye strain).
For those with printers that don{\145}t have a sheet feeder, an option exists for pausing between pages. The colours window can be saved or printed to accompany your design. If you do not print your design from cross-stitch, it can be saved as a draw file for later use. I would suggest the colours are incorporated alongside the final design, and printed out as one piece of work.
A quick note about the colours. At present, the colours are matched to the 'Anchor' colour list, as supplied by 'Anchor'. I believe they have a range of approximately 512 colours and shades. According to the author, 'Anchor' have been so impressed by this software that they readily agreed to supply all their colour information and were more than happy to have their logo and name associated with the product on release. Enquiries were also made with 'DMC' along the same lines, ('DMC' are another thread manufacturer), but they do not seem so enthusiastic to supply their information. Work is still, apparently, continuing along this line, and will hopefully be included in a later version.
{"Heading" on}Conclusion
{"Heading" off}As I said at the beginning of this article, I was a little sceptical, having seen the first version I received for review (1.7), but after the corrections were sent out, virtually by return of post, as version 1.8, what a different package! On a scale of one to ten, this package scores ten from myself and my daughter and is thoroughly recommended for home and school use. Well done iSV! Excellent value for money.
Talking of money, Cross-Stitch costs {\163}21.50 inclusive from iSV Products or {\163}20 though Archive.
{"Rule" on}Anyone who purchased this software prior to this latest version can upgrade free of charge by returning their original disc with a stamped addressed envelope to iSV. No stamp {\153} no upgrade.{\160}{font Dingbats}u{font}{\160}
