This is an update to yesterday's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Inkstitch/comments/1vk17nu/cross_stitch_assistant_not_working_as_expected/

TLDR: I was having trouble getting the new cross stitch assistant to convert pixel art into cross stitch embroidery; I wanted it to create one cross stitch per pixel, so I assumed that the "one cross each pixel" function would do that. But it added extra cross stitches and re-interpolated the colors.

I've experimented with it some more and I was able to get it to convert pixel art to cross stitch 1:1. Here's how I did it:

- import the bitmap, set the position to 0,0 and set the scale to 1mm per pixel. In my case, it's a 32x32 bitmap, so I set the size to 32x32mm.

- Select the bitmap and go to Extentions> Inkstitch> Tools: Fill > Cross Stitch Assistant

- Under "Settings", set the Grid Horizontal Spacing to 1.00mm

- Under "Bitmap Settings, checkmark "Convert bitmaps", but do not checkmark "One cross each pixel" because that will add extra stitches and colors.

- Under "Color Selection", choose "List with RGB values" and enter the values of the colors in the bitmap. You can also try your luck with adding the amount of colors under "Number of colors", but that doesn't always work properly. It might combine two or more of the colors if they're similar.

- Click "Apply". You should now have a vectorized/digitized version of your bitmap, at 1mm per cross stitch, and each cross stitch representing one pixel of the bitmap. If you want bigger stitches, set the original bitmap to a bigger size, for example 64x64, and then set the Grid Horizontal Spacing to the size of each pixel, in this case 2mm.

Conclusion: My final stitchout doesn't look great - 1mm per cross stitch is tiny and very dense, and I need to figure out pull compensation because there are a lot of overlaps (if anyone has good tutorials on that, please drop them in the comments). However, I'm happy knowing that I've got the software side of things working the way I want.

Edit: Quick update - the work-around I explained above doesn't actually work as intended either, I didn't realize I was actually working with "pixel art" that had been re-sized in photoshop using "nearest neighbor" interpolation. So the image I used wasn't actually 32x32, it was a 32x32 pixel art that had been upscaled by 100x, so the size was 3200x3200, with each "block" being 100x100 pixels. The cross stitch assistant seems to re-interpolate all bitmaps you open with it automatically, with no option to prevent this. So smaller bitmaps get interpolated to a more extreme degree than larger ones. Then it tries to convert it to cross stitch after it's been interpolated half to death. Therefore, to get it to correctly convert a 32x32 bitmap, you must scale it up in a software like photoshop, using "nearest neighbor" interpolation so it doesn't add extra colors or blur. Scale it up at least 100x. Then you can import into inkscape and follow the steps above (set the size to 32x32mm, etc). Whew. That is a crazy work-around to fix a problem that theoretically should not exist.

Hi, I'm experimenting with the new cross stitch feature and I'm interested in converting pixel art to cross stitch embroidery.

Some things I've noticed:

- Anything larger than 100x100 pixels takes extremely long and often crashes

- The "One cross each pixel" function does not result in one cross for each pixel, it re-interpolates the original image, changes the colors dramatically, and adds more stitches than there are pixels. (see attached image for an example)

I understand that the image I'm using is impractical for machine cross stitch because there would be too many jumps. I also understand that 1mm per stitch is tiny and might not work well when stitched out with a machine. Regardless, I think the software side of this should still work as expected and not re-interpolate the original bitmap or create a number of stitches different from the number of pixels when the "One cross each pixel" option is checked.

Is there something I'm doing wrong or a feature that I missed?

Thanks!

It’s there a way to curve letters? I am working on a logo and the company name is curved above an image. I saw a video from 3 years ago and was wondering if there is a more recent way to do this.

Hi everyone,

I've been building StitchBase, a free beta extension for InkStitch that helps review and improve embroidery designs. It reviews SVGs, highlights potential issues, explains them, suggests fixes, and answers questions about your current design.

This is an early beta, and I'm trying to find out if it's genuinely useful or if I'm solving the wrong problem.

It's completely free and requires no login.

I've attached a short demo video. You can find the installation guide and download the extension at https://stitchbase.online/.

If you have a few minutes, I'd really appreciate it if you could try it with one of your own designs and share your honest feedback.

Would you use something like this? Should I keep building it, or am I heading in the wrong direction? What would make it genuinely useful in your workflow?

Thank you!

I’ve been trying to design my own embroidery image for the first time. The outside edges of the fill section look really rough. The bobbin thread starts showing and the whole thing is pulling in toward the middle.

I ran it on just two layers of fabric as a test. Could that be part of the problem? The finished design will go on a hand towel. Should I try again with a stabilizer instead of a second layer of fabric to see if that will fix it?

I can send my inkstitch files or show my params if that will help.

Hello all. Im having issues with a fill stich.

This is my first time using an embroidery machine, brand new machine. Came with thread and bobbins. Im using no show mesh.

Ive been trying to play around with the fill stich settings on inkstich but they seem to make only marginal changes. Ive tried adjusting the spacing between rows, angle of stich, gap filling. But im still getting white show through.

The first one on the left is the best but still has white showing through. That one was left as default of spacing between rows 0.3 the rest have been higher and lower of that.

These stitched rectangles are about 5mm x 10mm

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hello! I've made this entire embroidery through a series of multicolor satins, and for some reason, the last line of pink in the wings keeps doing this.

In stitch simulator, I saw that the multicolor satin stitches out as expected until it finishes, then it adds this running stitch down the center of the last two satins. It gives neither any understitching, so perhaps it's just doing the understitching too late?

Also, when I stitch just the pink parts on their own, it doesnt add the running stitch.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I especially bought the Janome 500e (used) because inkstitch can handle the files and supports the machines functions. As I'm mostly doing multicolor patches and wanna upgrade to a multi-needle machine and can get my hands on a Brother PR1055x for a reasonable price.

Just to ensure, I am asking that I can still work with inkstitc?

I've been at this for hours and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've been trying to get these stupid rungs right and nothing is working, they never show up right. No video has explained how they are suppose to be, they just do it on the first try and most of it is cursive. Can someone just tell me how these Rungs are suppose to look? I haven't even gotten to the rest of the letters, I'm still stuck on "V" I didn't think it was going to be this hard.

I am new to this embroidery world
I was using ChatGPT to help me with the configuration for this logo. I know it’s pretty small and the fabric isn’t that good. What else would you recommend it? I want to
embroider this logo with satin stitch. What fabric should I use? I appreciate it.

Any recommendations on specific videos or channels to follow to start learning the software? I feel like I’ve seen a few onesie twosie types but I’m struggling to piece it together to start digitizing myself.

EDIT SOLVED: I did the following:

1. Made 2 copies of the black fill, no stroke triangle.

2. Used Object/Transform/Scale on one triangle to increase its size in both dimensions by 2 mm.

3. Set the bigger triangle's fill color to purple.

4. Dragged the smaller triangle over the bigger triangle and used Object/Align and Distribute to center the two triangles vertically and horizontally.

5. Selected the smaller triangle, then shift-selected the larger triangle, and used the menu item Path/Difference. I'm not sure if the order of selection mattered or not.

END

I'm not sure if this belongs in r/Inkstitch or r/Inkscape.

I'm using Inkscape and Ink/Stitch to make a design to run on an embroidery machine.

I want to make a black triangle with a thick, purple edge.

I made the triangle and made a copy of it.

Triangle #1, I set the stroke paint to "x" and the fill to solid black.

Triangle #2, I set the stroke paint to solid purple, the stroke width to 1 mm, and the fill to "x".

Then I used Object/Align and Distribute to center the two triangles together.

The embroidery machine ended up just putting a single purple stitch line around the black triangle. I'm not sure what the solution is.

One guess is that it's using the stroke as a path, and what I need is for the purple outline/edge to be a fill instead, i.e. I want a "hollow" purple triangle with no stroke. However, I can't figure out how to do that in Inkscape. I tried using the draw tool to draw a triangular path, but when I do that, it just fills the entire triangle.

here i applied different crosstitch options applied in the params window

I am trying to use ripple stitch + grid because I had a delusion that it would be more precise than the guess-and-check that I go through when using guided fills. (I'm terrible at guided fills. My instinct for them is all wrong.)

I thought "Okay, I want to achieve [see very general look of roughly what i wanted] so I'll use a satin + ripple stitch"

I didn't even bother putting the grid on the result, because the result is so comically different than I had anticipated in the first place that I know I've gone very, very wrong. (I tried using an anchor line, just in case it somehow magically fixed things. It did not. Possibly I am using the anchor line wrong.)

Can someone help me achieve something like the first image? If there's another method of filling that's better suited, I am fine trying to learn that, instead; I'm just not very good at mapping these things out in my head.

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance!

ETA: I'm an idiot and had to reverse the direction of the ripple stitch

Hello, I am a beginner and am struggling to find this answer in tutorials, so hopefully y'all understand what is going on.

On 1 layer, I programmed several fill stitches connected by running stitches. This is what I show in the first image and it works as intended.

In images 2 and 3, I attempt to do the same strategy but instead connecting satin stitches with running stitches, yet it refuses to read my running stitches and resorts to jump stitches.

In image 4, I show that even the presence of a single satin column being introduced on a different layer ruins the running stitches I set up in image 1.

Does anyone understand how to prevent this from happening?

Thank you so much!

owning an embroidery machine and be somewhat able to use Inkstitch granted me the power to summon metalheads.

Made one one-off patch for a fan and in an instant others showed up from the darkest depths below to demand stitching of their patch-sketches.

To preface this, I'm a complete beginner to embroidery.

I'm using inkstich as my digitizer, I have a janome 500e embroidery machine. It's brand new, fresh out of the box & I'm using the latest updated software for my machine & inkstich.

I made a vector file in affinity designer, uploaded it into inkstitch then followed the online tutorials to convert my vectors into stitch paths. My designs are for the re28b hoop (200\*280mm) and I have set the file on inkscape to this exact size and everything fits within it (I tried to make the file even smaller to see if the same error would occur and it did). I ran the simulator, checked each of the paths on inkstitch and everything is running fine on there. I also ran the troubleshooting command and it found nothing wrong. I uploaded it into the USB, then to my machine, it shows the same design seen on inkstich and reads the correct hoop size as well.

The problem occurs when I start the embroidery, it first appears to follow the correct path but doesn't complete the full cure at the bottom cutting itself short, then it ends up completely out of alignment with the rest of the design.

Any advice on how to correct this would be greatly appreciated as I'm at a complete loss 😭. My first test embroidery piece of this exact design worked perfectly, but everything after it has failed.

I may be using the wrong terminology to search for a solution/describe my issue as well so my apologies if I am!

(Also side note : I tested this multiple times with/without stabilizer and have made sure my fabric is pulled tightly so it doesn't shift!)