вя✕зь

The chart editor: creating, importing, printing and photograph to chart

The editor is where you draw your own cross-stitch charts. It is also where you can bring a chart in from another program's file, print it or download it as a PDF, and get a rough chart from a photograph. Everything you create starts out private: only you can see a chart until you decide to share it or offer it to the gallery. How to offer a chart to the catalogue is covered in Catalogue and gallery.

How to create a new chart

  1. Log in at /en/login. You need an account: how to create one is described in Account and settings.
  2. In the top menu click «My patterns», then «+ New pattern».
  3. Fill in «Title», «Width» and «Height» in stitches (50 by 50 is filled in for you) and click «Create».

The editor opens straight away with an empty grid. A side of the chart can be at most 1000 stitches; the browser will not accept a larger number. A chart cannot be created without a title.

In the «My patterns» list every chart shows its size, its number of stitches and colours, and the buttons «Share» and «Delete». The title leads to the editor, and «Share» leads to the chart's page, where printing, the PDF, export and access for other people are gathered. A chart cannot be renamed on the site. Deleting asks for confirmation. Once a chart has been offered to the gallery, «Delete» is replaced by «Ask us to remove it».

How the editor is laid out

Along the top is a bar of tool buttons, on the left the palette, on the right the chart grid. The tool buttons are icons without captions: the name appears when you hold the mouse over a button.

  • Brush – places the selected colour. Next to it you pick the stitch type: «Full cross», «Half stitch» (with the buttons «Slant \» and «Slant /»), «Quarter stitch» and «Petite». A quarter or a petite lands in the corner of the cell you clicked. You can click cells one at a time or drag across them with the button held down.
  • Fill – fills every connected empty cell (or every connected cell of one colour) up to a border of other cells or the edge of the chart.
  • Line – «Back stitch», «Straight stitch», «Long stitch», «Bugle bead» and «Lazy daisy». A line is placed with two clicks or by dragging, and its ends snap to the corners and the midpoints of cell sides. Esc cancels a line you have started.
  • Point – «French knot» or «Bead». Beads have a list of sizes (from 15/0 to 6/0) and a «Turned 90°» button.
  • Move object – drags a line, knot or bead that is already placed.
  • Eraser – clears a whole cell; a line, knot or bead is removed with one click.
  • Picker – makes the colour in the cell under the mouse the active one.
  • Hand – moves the chart with the mouse. You can also move the chart with the right mouse button whatever tool is selected – it never draws.

A cell can hold at most two stitches, for example two quarters in different colours.

The palette, thread brands and symbols

While the palette is empty the editor draws nothing and says «Add a colour to the palette».

  • Above the search field is a list of thread brands: «All brands» or a particular brand (DMC, Anchor and others). Your choice of brand is remembered.
  • Click in the «code or colour…» field and the list of colours opens at once. You can type a number (for example 310) or a name. Pick with the mouse, or with the arrow keys and Enter; Esc closes the list.
  • Colours already in your palette are left out of the list until you type something – they are one click away in the palette anyway.
  • «Custom colour» is any colour from the colour picker, with no thread number.

Click a colour in the palette and the thread's brand, number and name appear below it, along with the lists «in this brand» and «substitutes in other brands:», each rated «excellent», «good» or «fair». The «＋» next to a substitute adds it to the palette – handy when you do not have the thread you need.

The site gives each colour a symbol by itself, and every symbol in a chart is different. At a large zoom the symbols show in the cells. Changing a symbol by hand, or swapping one colour for another across the whole chart, is not possible.

Zoom and moving around

On the right of the button bar are «+», «−», «Fit the chart» (⤢) and «1:1», with «Zoom …%» beside them. The mouse wheel scrolls the chart; the wheel with Ctrl held zooms in and out. On a phone you zoom and move the chart with two fingers.

Undo and keys

  • Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) is «Undo»; Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y is «Redo». The arrow buttons do the same.
  • Ctrl+S (Cmd+S) saves the chart.
  • Q turns the corner used for a quarter or a petite placed from the keyboard. The current corner is shown on the small square button beside the stitch types.
  • When the grid has focus, the arrow keys move a cursor frame across the cells, Shift with an arrow moves ten cells at once. Enter or Space applies the tool to the cell under the cursor, Esc cancels what you started. Plus and minus change the zoom, 0 is actual size, 1 fits the chart.

The keys work in any keyboard layout.

How to save a chart

The editor does not save on its own. After any change the word «unsaved» appears beside the buttons. Click «Save» or press Ctrl+S – you will see «Saving…» and then «Saved · … stitches, … colours». If you try to close the tab with unsaved changes, the browser asks whether you really want to leave.

If someone else is editing the chart at the same time (you gave them «Edit» access), or you have it open in a second tab, the site will not silently overwrite their change. You will see the message «Pattern changed elsewhere – reload the page.» Reload the page to see the latest version and make your change again.

Someone you gave «View» access sees the editor marked «View only»: they have no drawing tools and no colour search.

How to import a chart from another program

The «+ New pattern» page has an «Import a pattern» block. The site accepts .oxs files (MacStitch, KXStitch, Pattern Keeper) and .xsd files (Pattern Maker).

  1. Click the file chooser and pick the file.
  2. The «Title» field can be left empty – the title is then taken from the file. If you type your own, yours is used.
  3. Click «Import».

Usually the editor opens on the new chart straight away. If an .xsd file held something our chart cannot keep, a «Pattern imported» page opens instead, with a link to the chart and the list «What the file carried and the pattern could not hold:». An import always makes a new private chart and never touches existing ones.

Printing, PDF and export

Open the chart's page («My patterns» → «Share»).

  • «Print» opens a separate page with the chart drawing and the key: tables «Crosses», «Back stitch and lines», «French knots», «Beads», «Bugle beads», «Lazy daisies» – only those the chart actually has. The «Colour» and «B/W» buttons switch the view, and «Print» opens the browser's print window. Only the chart and the key go on paper.
  • «PDF» downloads a file for printing. To the left of the button is the «Colour treatment» list: «Full colour», «Muted (usual)», «Symbols only, white cells», «Full colour, haloed symbols», «Muted, outlined cells» and «Black and white». Your last choice is remembered; the same choice is in «Settings» under «Colour treatment». The PDF has a first page with the size in stitches and centimetres and the number of colours and pages, a «How the pages fit together» page, the chart sheets numbered «Page N of M», and a «Key» page. The sheets carry a QR code, «Open this chart online».
  • «↓ Export JSON» and «↓ Export OXS» download the chart as a file. An OXS file can be opened in another program or imported back into the site. A JSON file cannot be uploaded back to the site.

If you have a PDF downloaded from this site, open the «Open a chart from its PDF» page and upload it – the site opens the chart it was made from. It opens only if you have access to that chart. The site does not read or recognise other people's PDFs.

How to make a chart from a photograph

The «Photograph to chart» tool is in the «Tools» section (the link is in the footer of every page). Anyone can read about the tool, but making a chart requires logging in.

  1. Choose an «Image» – JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF or BMP. The largest file size allowed is written under the field.
  2. Set «Width, in stitches» – the height follows from the photograph's proportions. Width decides almost everything: for a portrait, take 150 stitches or more.
  3. Set «How many colours» and the brand in the «Threads» field. Colours are matched to the measured colour of that brand's threads.
  4. Click «See what it would look like». Within a second the «Choosing the settings» page appears with a small preview. Change the settings and click «Redraw the preview» as often as you like – nothing is saved.
  5. When you like the picture, click «Make the chart». The «Working out the chart» page opens and refreshes itself, usually within a few seconds. You may close it and come back later.

The finished chart is in «My patterns». It is private – only you can see it. The «Open in the editor» and «Chart page» buttons lead to it. Treat the result as a draft: remove lone stitches, clean up the background, merge close shades.

The site may limit the width, the number of colours, the file size, and how many charts from photographs you can make per hour and per day. The photograph is kept only while the chart is worked out and is deleted right after.

A chart from a photograph is an ordinary chart of yours. If you want to offer it to the gallery, choose honestly what fits in the «Where this chart came from» field. A chart made from someone else's photograph must not be published or sold without the rights to that photograph.

Where a chart's pictures come from

The picture of a chart shown in lists and in the gallery is drawn by the site itself from the chart's cells – you do not upload a cover. It is updated after you save; for very large charts with a short delay. The picture carries no symbols; symbols appear only in print and in the PDF.