Program Description:

Print 'n Stitch is a program that lets you turn any JPG, GIF,
ICO, WMF, EMF or BMP image into a cross-stitch pattern.  Requires
a color printer that can handle letter-size sheets and a video 
system that can handle more than 256 colors.

Platform:

Windows 95, Windows 98, NT 4.0

Distribution:

This program is freeware and may be freely distributed.

Installation:

No need to install.  I suggest running it straight from
the zip file by double-clicking the file pstitch.exe from
within the WinZip window.

Special Requirements:

You'll need the Microsoft Visual Basic 5 runtimes, available
from most large archives on the internet.  Mirage Technologies
Canvas Ink Jet paper is available and recommended for direct
needlework on printed patterns.  Mirage products are available
at Frye's Electronics.

Use:

The first thing you need to do is select the size of the
printed pattern.  The white work area represents an 8 by 11
sheet of paper.  Use the vertical scrollbar controls to select
the width and height (in inches) of the printed pattern.

Next, select the stitch size with the horizontal scroll bar
controls.  Normally you would use .120, .090 and .060.  The
larger stitch sizes are for thick yarn.  Next select the type
of graph lines to use.  Use white for dark images and black
for lighter images.  You can select None to supress the 
drawing of the graph lines.

Once you have things set up, click the Load Image button and
locate a GIF,JPG,ICO,WMF,EMF or .BMP image to use for the pattern.
Double click on the file once you find it to load it into the
white view area.  Alternately, you can shop for your file by
using the thumbnail view on this dialog.  Click once on a file
and use the up and down arrow keys to view the thumbnails.
Click OK when you see the one you want to load it into the
view area.  You may still change the width and height after
loading the image, if necessary.

When everything looks ok, click the Make Pattern button.  This
may take some time, depending on the stitch size and the pattern
size.  A circular indicator will appear in the Lines frame to
indicate the progress.  Once the pattern is displayed, you can 
still change the stitch size and the line color and click 
Make Pattern again to experiment if you wish.  Note that at this 
point, you can no longer alter the size of the pattern without 
reloading the image file.

When the pattern looks ok, click Print to print the pattern to
your default printer.  Note that no printer configuration can be 
done from the program, so you must set your configurations before 
you print the cross-stitch pattern.

Tips:

* Check the No Stretch box before loading the image if you don't
  want the image to become distorted.  If it is unchecked, the
  image will be stretched to fit into the selected work area.

* If you need to re-orient the image, try using a graphics program
  like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.  Just use the Flip and 
  Rotate tools included with these programs.  Save them and use 
  the saved file with Print 'n Stich.


* After loading an image, you can select any portion of the image
  and blow it up.  To do this:

  1) Point the mouse at the top-leftmost area of the part of the 
     picture you want to select.
  2) Press the mouse button and hold it down.
  3) While holding the mouse button, slowly move it diagonally to
     the bottom and to the right.  A red rectangle will appear as 
     you move the mouse.
  4) When the red rectangle is around the portion you wish to 
     select, let go of the mouse button.  The image in the white
     work area will be replaced by the blown up area you selected.
  5) To abort the operation while holding the mouse button down,
     move the mouse above or to the left of the original point and
     release the button.
  6) If you check "No Stretch" before blowing up (or cropping) a 
     section, it will appear with the same aspect ratio as the
     original image. Otherwise it is stretched to fit into the
     selected work area.
  7) To reload the cropped image, use Load Image and then click on
     the thumbnail view instead of the file.

* The printed grid line-width can be user selected.  In the Lines 
  frame is a very small grid of four boxes.  Clicking on this 
  cycles through the available line widths (Thin, Medium and Thick,
  as indicated by the thickness of the boxes).  The line width of
  the view area is not affected.  Note: You must click Make Pattern
  before a changed line width will take effect.  To use symbols, 
  your line widths must be set to Thin.

* The number of colors can be limited to a selectable 8 to 4096 
  different colors, using the "Colors" button and dialog.  The 
  number of colors is generated on a linear scale rather than by 
  a custom palette, so images with thousands of colors will look 
  more blocky.  This is a more "real world" method than using a 
  custom palette, ie; "Harvest Autumn Brown" isn't available in 
  sixteen different brightness levels!  You must click Make Pattern 
  to apply a new color limit setting. 

* You can also limit colors by selecting the number of colors 
  available to Windows. Just right click on a blank spot on the 
  desktop and use Properties>Settings. Try changing 16 Million 
  colors to 65536 or 65536 to 32768.  I don't suggest using 256 or
  16 colors.

* A report can be generated, after making a pattern or printing, 
  that tells you which of, and how much of, each color thread is 
  needed. If you printed the pattern, you can also print the report.
  The colors can be sorted by length of thread or by color map.  Use
  the Colors button to get at these features.  Click on the report 
  to return to the pattern.  Note:  A printed report will only show
  a maximum of 1024 colors.

* After creating a report, you can assign names and symbols to 
  colors and save and load them to .pns files. There are a total of
  4096 colors that can be assigned, which is scaled down linearly 
  if you are limiting to less than 4096.  Some basic colors are 
  assigned with names automatically.  The names and symbols are 
  included in the report.  The symbols can be printed on any pattern
  .090 pitch or higher with thin grid lines.  Use the option in the 
  Colors dialog to include custom symbols in the PRINTED pattern 
  (they can't be seen in the preview).  To edit a color, generate a 
  report and click on the color you wish to edit.

  Notes:  Before assigning a name to a color, print out the pattern 
          and report.  The color printed on your printer will likely 
          look very different from the screen color.

          If you have created a custom .pns file for your printer, 
          please email it to me. I will place it in my webspace so 
          others can download it. Be sure to indicate what printer 
          you are using and the brand of thread.

* If you don't want to name colors, but want to use symbols anyway,
  you can select Auto Generate instead of Custom Symbols.  While 
  Custom Symbols gets its symbols from the built-in memory database
  (which is saved and loaded with .pns files),  Auto Generate will 
  over-write the symbols in the database when a pattern is made, 
  automatically creating a symbol for each color. 

  Note:  To automatically generate symbols requires the following:

         1) Stitch size is .090 or greater.
         2) Grid lines are set to Thin.
         3) The number of colors in the pattern does not exceed 189.

  These limitations are imposed because of the physical size of the 
  grid and the finite number of characters that can be used as 
  symbols.

* The form is re-sizable to allow you to see at least a portion of 
  the high-res image used for the printer.  If you have enough 
  resolution, you can see the whole thing even with thin lines.  I
  originally used this for debugging purposes, but I figured that 
  others out there might find it useful.

New in version 1.2b:

* Converted the Offe floss database to the included .pns file 
  "Offe.pns".  The database includes standard DMC, Anchor and J&P 
  thread conversions to screen colors.  To use, extract the file
  to your hard disk and note the folder you extracted it to.  Then
  use Colors>Palette Load and locate the file.  Double click to
  use it when you Make Pattern.  Suggested Max Colors setting is 512.

  Note:  This database can be found at the following URL:

         http://www.lysator.liu.se/~offe/kors/floss.lpc

	 I'm not responsible for the accuracy or completeness
         of the Offe Database!

* A tool has been added to help users create their own .pns
  files.  Please see PnsTool.txt for information on this tool.


Any problems?

Ernie Negus
enegus@teleport.com
