Request for input on Pic2Pat improvements

[lammert]

Hi Pic2Pat users,

Exactly ten years ago, the Pic2Pat website started as a small personal site to generate cross stitch patterns from pictures. Use of the site has grown exponentially from 16 visitors in the first month to a few thousand visitors per day now. A staggering 5,233,493 patterns (yes, that is more than five million) have been generated and the number is counting. This is all still done with primarily the same software as ten years ago.

A lot has changed in ten years. The original design of the site was targeted at novice internet users where a few clicks should be enough to generate a nice cross stitch pattern in downloadable PDF format. Mobile phones and apps emerged and the way people use website changed significantly. For this reason, I have planned a mayor overhaul of the Pic2Pat software to make it even more useful for everyone, while keeping its usage simple and the costs for the users entirely free.

The first step will be an upgrade of the PDF generator. The new generator will allow larger patterns, and more colors to be used in a pattern. It will also print the page layout and information about the floss brand, stiches per inch and number of stitches. These are the most often requested missing features.

The next steps depend on your input, and all input is welcome.

Do you prefer another user interface, more functionality in selecting colors, functionality to edit the input pictures, downloading the patterns in other formats or anything else?

Please mention it in the comments below and I will see what can be added to the new Pic2Pat software.

Happy stitching!

Lammert

[lammert]

The faster PDF generator is on-line now. If you experience problems with the new smaller PDF files, please let me know in this dedicated topic.

The new PDF files generate about five times faster, are ten times smaller and patterns should be easier to copy to progress tracking software because you can now click-copy-paste the pattern from your PDF reader to another application.

Happy Stitching!

Lammert

[lammert]

The new PDF generator does not only increase processing speed and reduce the file size of the resulting pattern in the PDF file, it also allows for larger patterns to be processed efficiently.

I am therefore pleased to announce that I have increased the maximum pattern size to 52 inches or 130 cm, which is more than 920 stitches wide when using 18 stitches per inch. The resulting PDF file is less than a megabyte in size, generated in a comfortable 7 seconds and using the Pic2Pat's own proprietary symbol set with easily distinguishable fully scaleable cross-stitch symbols. I am confident this result is currently unmatched in the industry.

But to quote Churchill in 1942, "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, it is the end of the beginning"

From this point on, Pic2Pat will be subject to frequent rolling updates to add functionality and increase the user experience. So keep a close watch on the product and this forum and if you have any suggestions for the development road-map, don't hesitate to share them here!

Happy Stitching!

Lammert

[lammert]

The PDF generator now adds an extra page to the output with a drawing explaining how multiple pages should be glued together. Sometimes users found it difficult to find the right page order.

Happy Stitching!

Lammert

[lammert]

The number of supported colors is now increased from 75 to 150 per chart. This was a much requested feature for large patterns with much color details.

Happy Stitching!

Lammert

[lammert]

In recent weeks, six new languages have been added to Pic2Pat. Users can now convert pictures and generate PDF files in simplified and traditional Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and Korean. This adds an extra 1.5 billion people who can use Pic2Pat in their native language.

Happy Stitching!

Lammert

[lammert]

De PDF generator has been improved even more. It now takes a maximum of three seconds to generate a PDF file with the maximum possible stitch count and more than 100 pages.

In the next development stages, the user-interface will be rewritten for better usability on mobile devices and more functionality. So stay tuned

[entrekin]

I didn't see any comments here, so perhaps they've been hidden as they were addressed or something. If there's a better place to make this request, point me to it.

I'd like to be able to select a color and exclude it from the pattern. This would accomplish the same thing as using a transparent background. As an example, I have several images on white backgrounds. Any pattern I create from them will be stitched on white fabric, meaning that I don't really need 80 skeins of white floss. An alternate approach could be to let me specify the symbol used for each color - then I could choose the faintest/smallest symbol for the color in question. Maybe an interim page that shows the colors and lets the user pick the symbol for each before the PDF is created?

Regardless, this is an amazing tool!

[Karysky]

Hello,

I wondered if it was possible to include in the PDF file the number of stitch of each colors there is. I don't use the patterns to cross stitch with thread, I rather use them for diamond paintings. And so, knowing how many stitches there are would make it much more easier to know how many diamonds of each color to buy. Right now, I have to put the patters in Pattern Keeper, then I have to manually enter the DMC for all the colors, and then extract how many stitches of each color there are... It's a lot of steps with a lot of room for error. I would rather have this information directly on the pattern.

Thank you very much !
Superb tool!

[Sophie Castel]

Hello,

I wondered if it was possible to include in the PDF file the number of stitch of each colors there is. I don't use the patterns to cross stitch with thread, I rather use them for diamond paintings. And so, knowing how many stitches there are would make it much more easier to know how many diamonds of each color to buy. Right now, I have to put the patters in Pattern Keeper, then I have to manually enter the DMC for all the colors, and then extract how many stitches of each color there are... It's a lot of steps with a lot of room for error. I would rather have this information directly on the pattern.

Thank you very much !
Superb tool!

Oh yes ! I wanted requesting the same thing for the same reason ! 

[lammert]

That's two people requesting a feature, I am almost convinced 

Please stay tuned...

[lammert]

The number of stitches for each color is now in the color list 

I could also sort the color list based on the number of stitches, but I am not sure if that would be helpful. Input on that is really appreciated.

[PACAVI]

seria posible incluir el delineado? hay en algunas imágenes que es importante

[tx_wright]

One thing that would be great would be the option for the color to be shown on the PDF patterns. The idea is to have the symbol still there but the background color of the table to match the thread color. My wife finds this useful while she is stitching.

Thanks for all the hard work and the great program!

--Scott

[lammert]

Your wife is not the first with the request for colored patterns. I am afraid that the symbols in the pattern will be less distinguishable for people with eyesight problems.

Before I make this feature available, can you tell more about when this color pattern is most needed? When gluing the pages together, finding specific colors to stitch or while stitching? Depending on when it is used most, I could either make it a choice when generating the pattern, always create a colored pattern or generate each PDF with both a black-and-white, and a colored section. The latter method would obviously double the page count.