Turn a photo into a chart

Open the photo wizard#

Press From a photo on the start screen, or choose File › New from photo… (Ctrl+Shift+N). The wizard is called Make a chart from a photo and has three steps: Picture, Size and Colors. Make my chart is on every step, so you can stop as soon as it looks right.

The picture doesn't have to be saved first. If you copied it (a screenshot, or an image you copied in your browser), press Ctrl+V on the start screen, or choose Edit › Paste picture, and the wizard opens with it. Pressing Ctrl+V in the wizard adds the picture to the ones already open, like Add a picture.

Picture#

How much of the picture? Choose All of it, Just part of it or Just one thing. With Just part of it, drag the frame. With Just one thing, click the thing you want and everything else is left out. Rotate 90° turns the picture, Draw freehand lets you trace an outline, and Use the whole photo starts over with the full picture. Switch on Remove the background to leave the background out.

On Picture, use Brightness and Contrast (−100 to 100, starting at 0) before choosing colors to help a dark or washed-out photo make a cleaner chart; Reset puts both back to 0, and the settings stay with your chart.

On the Picture step's More options, clearing the background by color is free. Find the subject, which picks the dog and not the sofa, comes with the paid plans and shows with a lock in the free version.

If the picture is a small logo or drawing, StitchWing offers to sharpen it first. Remove something paints out a date stamp or a stray object before you chart it. Just one thing, sharpening and Remove something come with Own It and All Access; in the free version they show with a lock. More in Just one thing, line drawings, sharpening and Remove something.

Size#

If you chose your own chart size first, the wizard keeps that exact width and height (within your plan’s size limits).

How big should it be? Pick a size for your project, or Custom for any size.

With Custom, type the Width and Length. The lock between them decides how they behave:

• Locked: width and length keep the picture's shape. Change one and the other follows.
• Unlocked: you set them separately, and the crop takes that shape.

Select the lock to switch. Its tooltip says which way it's set.

On the free version, charts go up to 100 × 100, and the wizard tells you if a size is over that.

Colors#

What kind of chart? Full color uses every color in the picture. Line drawing makes just the lines, in one color, and comes with Own It and All Access. See Line drawing.

How many colors? Move the slider. The Recommended mark is a good place to start.

• Tidy up stray stitches (recommended): lone stitches take the color around them.
• Match to real yarn: every color becomes a shade you can buy, with its name and number. Choose yarn picks the line; Add another line mixes lines. See Colors and real yarn.

More options#

Each step has a More options fold-out: background removal, yarn weight, and on the Colors step Match every pixel exactly and Blend colors (dithering).

After the chart is made#

Open Chart in the side panel, then Tidy rows and colors. Choose Gentle, Medium or Strong, check the preview, then press Apply or Leave it. Check small lettering before applying. One Undo puts it back.