Technical Questions

[The Nerdslinger]

Hello all. Three questions from a noobie stitcher:

One, I checked out several of the Sprite resources, but I can't figure out how to pixellate or isolate them so I can break them down into a graph format and make my own patterns off them. The only thing I can figure is basically inputting them into Paint and then zooming in until I can get an approximate pixel count. Is that what y'all do, or is there a much easier way or program that you use?

Two, once you've downloaded the sprites from a resource (and by download, I mean I've been right-clicking and copying -- is there something I'm missing?) how do you determine which colors of DMC floss to use? I know that there is supposedly a way to match RBG colors with DMC, but I don't know how to find the original colors. Or do you folks just kind of guesstimate? Or whatever the technical term is for when you stare at the endless floss gauntlet and just wing it?

Three, when I import the PDFs or the STHs, they come out massive and broken up into seven or eight pages. Is there a way to shrink or condense them, either in KG or with a different program? I'd prefer the tiny square breakdown and burning out my eyes than trying to cut and paste a couple of them images together.

Thanks so much. This site is amazing. The entire reason I got into cross-stitching was to do 8bit style images and this has been a boon.

[funkymonkey]

Zooming in with Paint is a good way to start; make sure your original image is a .png. If it's a .jpg, you'll likely have artifacts around the edges (not distinct colors.)

It sounds like you already have KG chart installed; instead of copying your source image, right click and save it, then through the File menu in KG you can import and it will choose colors for you (or you can specify the number of colors you want it to be limited to). A word of caution though; KG's colors are notorious for being off. They get you in the general area, but if you want to be authentic, use your eye to pick the colors you want.

As far as multiple pages goes, you can specify on the print settings how many squares per inch you want on the grid (over on the right side of the screen somewhere... sorry I don't remember, I've been using PC-Stitch more than KG these days.) Generally you want to keep the grid bigger though if you're going to print it, otherwise it can look blurry and hard to read the symbols. If you're just looking at it on the screen, you can make it whatever size you want.

Hopefully this helps! There's a helpful KG-Chart thread here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=475

[The Nerdslinger]

Thanks! That's extremely helpful.

[monkeypeaches]

Zooming in with Paint is a good way to start; make sure your original image is a .png. If it's a .jpg, you'll likely have artifacts around the edges (not distinct colors.)

Thanks funkymonkey! I think you just answered why my Professor Layton pattern was turning out so crappy! I'm pretty sure that the picture I chose was a .jpg file, so when I imported it to KG Chart, it was extremely blurry. It took me almost an hour to clean it up the way I wanted to.