Embird Cross Stitch - Set Size of Image

Embird Embroidery Software Tutorial

1 - Run Embird and click the "Editor" menu to switch to the Editor window.

2 - Select the "Insert > Cross Stitch Design" menu to open the Embird Cross Stitch window.

3 - The Cross Stitch plug-in will be launched, and its "Preferences" box will appear on the screen (Picture No. 1). Specify the cross size and the size of the Work Area. In this example, the cross size is 2.0 mm (i.e., there will be 5 crosses per centimeter), and the size of the Work Area is 50 x 50 crosses - this means that the design we'll create will fit the 100 x 100 mm hoop size. Confirm these settings by clicking the "OK" button.

Note: The auto-digitizing process will convert one pixel of the image to one cross on the Work Area. The size of the cross can be adjusted from 1 mm to 10 mm.

Example: If the hoop area is 140 x 200 mm and the cross size is 2 mm, the image (and also the Work Area) should have 70 pixels in height (i.e., 140/2) and 100 pixels in width (i.e., 200/2) to utilize the most area of the hoop and not exceed the boundaries of the hoop. If the cross size is adjusted to 3 mm, the image should have 46 pixels in height (i.e., 140/3) and 66 pixels in width (i.e., 200/3).

1. Set size of Work Area

4 - In the Embird Cross Stitch window, select the "Image > Import" menu (Picture No. 2).

2. Select "Image > Import" menu

5 - A dialog box will appear on the screen allowing you to choose the background image file. Browse to the folder with the image, select it (1), and click the "Open" button (2 in Picture No. 2).

3. Open file containing background image

6 - If necessary, crop the background image: Move the mouse pointer to the left-top corner, depress the left mouse button, and drag the mouse cursor to the right-bottom corner. Release the left mouse button there. Check the crop rectangle; it is possible to move its edges to make it accurate. Then click the "Crop" button. Finally, click the "OK" button to continue (Picture No. 4).

4. Crop background image

7 - Agree to scale the image to the Work Area size (Picture No. 5).

5. Scale image to Work Area size

8 - The image is imported to the background of the Work Area in the Cross Stitch window (Picture No. 6). Now it is possible to manually draw crosses on the Work Area over the background image, or automatically digitize crosses from the background image.

6. Imported scaled background image

9 - Select the "Image > Autodigitize Crosses from Image" menu to convert each pixel of the resized image into a cross on the Work Area (Picture No. 7).

Note: The auto-digitizing process is not suitable for converting multi-color photos into a cross stitch design. This would lead to designs with too many jumps connecting the crosses. Use it for simple images containing only several areas of solid color (cartoon-like).

7. Autodigitize Crosses from Image

10 - A dialog box will appear on the screen allowing you to adjust the width and height of the cross. Adjust the cross size to 2 mm (Picture No. 8). Click the "OK" button to continue.

8. Specify cross size

11 - Another dialog box will inform you about the design size and the number of crosses. Because we have already adjusted the image size in step 7 above, the design fits the hoop area of 100 x 100 mm (Picture No. 9). Click the "OK" button to continue.

9. Check design size

12 - You can reduce the number of colors to a lower value (Picture No. 10). The lower the number of colors you choose, the lower the number of jumps in the final cross stitch design that will be created.

10. Reduce colors

13 - You can choose the transparent color (the color of the background that will be skipped and not converted to crosses) or ignore this selection if you want to convert every pixel of the image into a cross (Picture No. 11).

11. Consider some color as transparent?

14 - Choose the transparent color in the dialog box which appears on the screen and confirm the selection by clicking the "OK" button (Picture No. 12).

12. Choose transparent color

15 - Confirm the application of the noise filter, which decreases the number of isolated points and therefore reduces the number of jumps in the final cross stitch design (Picture No. 13).

13. Apply noise filter?

16 - The image is automatically converted to crosses on the Work Area. Check the 3D preview of the design by selecting the "View > 3D Preview" command from the main menu, or by clicking the "3D Preview" button on the Main Toolbar (Picture No. 14).

14. Autodigitized design from background image

17 - The 3D Preview of the design will be displayed on the screen (Picture No. 15). Click the "Close" button to close this window.

15. Check 3D preview of design

18 - Click the "File > Save As" menu to save this cross stitch project into a file on your hard disk. Specify the file name and location in the dialog box which appears on the screen.

19 - Click the "File > Compile and Put into Embird Editor" menu to compile the cross stitch project into stitches and return to the Editor window.

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