Tips on scanning chart to graph
Phyllis Maurer
anyone help me out with the process of using my scanner to copy a hand
drawn chart, and import it into a software program, which converts it to
a computer drawn pattern.
The computer software I'm using is very good and I have no complaints
about it. But what I'm ending up with is a kazillion colors, instead of
the dozen or so I am expecting to see. I think the problem is with the
settings I am using, rather than the program, (so I won't even mention
the program's name.)
I'm scanning at a lower than normal resolution and with 256 color
images (as the software manual suggests), but I'm still not pleased.
I've tried both the DMC and Anchor floss families, with the same
results.
Do I need to set a custom floss family with a very limited number of
selections, or what? (The designs are from a private collection of very
old, very traditional Ukrainian designs. One of the characteristics of
this type of stitching is that they are worked in a limited number of
colors.)
Does anyone have any tips or suggestions as to where I'm going astray?
Thanks for any help given.
Phyllis Maurer
Kim Brown
I know what you mean! It takes a while and a good bit of massaging to
get used to the XS conversion software, doesn't it?
Phyllis Maurer wrote:
>
> I'm trying something new, and not having very good luck with it. Can
> anyone help me out with the process of using my scanner to copy a hand
> drawn chart, and import it into a software program, which converts it to
> a computer drawn pattern.
>
> The computer software I'm using is very good and I have no complaints
> about it. But what I'm ending up with is a kazillion colors, instead of
> the dozen or so I am expecting to see. I think the problem is with the
> settings I am using, rather than the program, (so I won't even mention
> the program's name.)
This happens because the scanner tries to interpret every dot in terms
of red/green/blue and it's darned well gonna fit *some* colour in there,
even if it's fluorescent purple! Also, the scanners and computers are
very good at detecting even slight variations of shade and hue, so they
often do a much better job than we want them to. This is why there are
so many colours in your finished result: believe it or not, some people
*like* working with a huge colour palette. But I don't, so here's some
tips...
> I'm scanning at a lower than normal resolution and with 256 color
> images (as the software manual suggests), but I'm still not pleased.
> I've tried both the DMC and Anchor floss families, with the same
> results.
Limiting your resolution can help. You can also use a good graphic
program (my favourites are SuperPaint for Mac or Corel Draw for the PC)
to limit the size of the graphic and the number of colours displayed as
well. If you're scanning a photo and it turns out to be 1,117 pixels by
2, 392 pixels, you've got a lotta stitching to do! Check that first:
make sure your graphic image is as many pixels wide and high as you want
the XS to be in stitches.
It can be a long, tedious process, but you need to choose colours you
can live without and replace each one with the nearest approximation in
its colour family. So, for example, you might have nineteen flesh tones.
You'd probably do well to decide on the four or five commonest ones (a
good idea is to check how many flesh tones DMC makes and use that
number) and replace fifteen of the flesh tones with the closest-matching
of the four you chose. (Is that clear? Hope so! :-))
Some XS programs will allow you to do this tedious editing process from
within themselves. I use WIN Stitch and it will allow me to limit the
number of colours I want to use or to choose exactly which colours I'm
willing to use or to replace colours as I edit the graph. This whole
process takes time and patience, so don't be discouraged if you think
the job is too big! Just be prepared to spend a while clicking dots on
and off!
>
> Do I need to set a custom floss family with a very limited number of
> selections, or what?
A good idea would be to tell your program to confine itself to the DMC
palette, or the Anchor one, or whatever. In that way, you won't end up
with heaps of spurious colours on your graph: you'll only have actual
colours from the available palette.
> (The designs are from a private collection of very
> old, very traditional Ukrainian designs. One of the characteristics of
> this type of stitching is that they are worked in a limited number of
> colors.)
Yummm... want to give us a broader description??? Another thing you
*ought* to be able to do from within your program is set a custom
palette. So, if your design is going to be in, say, nothing but shades
of turquoise and white, you could save precisely that palette and your
graph should require much less editing than a full colour rendition.
>
> Does anyone have any tips or suggestions as to where I'm going astray?
> Thanks for any help given.
>
> Phyllis Maurer
Hope this helps, Phyllis! If not, you may want to say which program
you're using so someone more familiar with it can assist.
--
Trish {|:OI}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia
F.James Cripwell
Phyllis Maurer (pm1...@navix.net) writes:
> I'm trying something new, and not having very good luck with it. Can
> anyone help me out with the process of using my scanner to copy a hand
> drawn chart, and import it into a software program, which converts it to
> a computer drawn pattern.
>
> The computer software I'm using is very good and I have no complaints
> about it. But what I'm ending up with is a kazillion colors, instead of
> the dozen or so I am expecting to see. I think the problem is with the
> settings I am using, rather than the program, (so I won't even mention
> the program's name.)
>
> images (as the software manual suggests), but I'm still not pleased.
> I've tried both the DMC and Anchor floss families, with the same
> results.
>
> old, very traditional Ukrainian designs. One of the characteristics of
> this type of stitching is that they are worked in a limited number of
> colors.)
>
> Thanks for any help given.
>
> Phyllis Maurer
Having been around this problem for some time. I have a couple of
comments. If you are a good designer, then you can make a wonderful
looking pattern using a minimum of colours. Hence the reason people like
stitching the designs of the designers we all love, even including TW with
all her blended threads and colour changes. Patterns generated from
scanning images, and using computer software achieve stunning results by
using a very large number of colours. At the present time, between these
two techniques, east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall
meet. Whether in the future the software will be able to achieve the
beautiful patterns artistic designers achieve with few colour changes, I
dont know, but I somehow doubt it. The human brain is still something
that is way beyond the capability of any computer to emulate.
--
Jim Cripwell. And oh my darling! Oh my pet! From The Gondoliers
Whatever else you may forget, by
In yonder land, beyond the sea, Gilbert and
Do not forget you married me. Sullivan.
snj
>Can
>anyone help me out with the process of using my scanner to copy a hand
>drawn chart, and import it into a software program, which converts it to
>a computer drawn pattern.
>what I'm ending up with is a kazillion colors, instead of
>the dozen or so I am expecting to see. I think the problem is with the
>settings I am using, rather than the program, (so I won't even mention
>the program's name.)
>I'm scanning at a lower than normal resolution and with 256 color
>images (as the software manual suggests)
>Do I need to set a custom floss family with a very limited number of
>selections, or what? (The designs are from a private collection of very
>old, very traditional Ukrainian designs. One of the characteristics of
>this type of stitching is that they are worked in a limited number of
>colors.)
Phyllis,
Very simply you have indicated too many colors for your software to
handle. I don't know what software you are using, but I would suggest
the following:
Look at what you are scanning. Decide how many colors you want in
your finished design. Enter that number (I asume there is a place in
your x stitch software to enter the limit number of colors).
Generally I use fewer colors than I might need and then add colors
into the design rather than starting with more colors and then
reducing them.
Hope this helps, or you could write to me privately and I will try to
walk you thru your problem.
Jane
John and Pat Porter
import to say 25 colours - if this results in an over simplified efeect,
just add any additional colours afterwards "by hand", so to speak. Hopefully
your program should also include a Spot Removal facility, which will cut
down on excess colours.
You`re on the right lines keeping the resolution down - all you need to do
now is limit the number of colours the program imports. Your program SHOULD
also allow you to pre-select the colours you want - there you`ll have to
select them by eye, matching them up with the appropriate shades. You`ll
probably need a floss colour card to do this properly. Your local needlework
shop should be able to get one for you - or you could just take your picture
to the shop and match your required colours from the floss display stand.
Good luck - e,mail me if I can help at all.
Pat Porter
East Anglian Cross Stitch Designs
http://homepages.tesco.net/~porter
Kathleen Mary
(my mom's name was Philomena !!!!!!)
I've had nothing but trouble trying to do this. I even wrote E-mail to
Pattern Maker - I honestly think I heard laughing when they read it !!! What
Happens is that the graph, itself, is made into a chart (hence your
thousands of colors.) AT least that is what happened to me - I wanted to
import a pattern from an old Dover publication in black and white and color
it, myself, - pure genius, right... NO matter what I did (including
manually erasing all the graph lines and importing just the little squares)
Nothing worked - so there is no way to import some perfect little border and
recolor it and put your perfect little design in the middle. <sorry about
the sarcasm> So it will YOURS alone !
I even tried importing the picture of the graph as an underlay ( page 84 of
manual) But I could never get the lines of the underneath graph and the
lines of the program's graph (mind you the dimensions of the two patterns)
to match and I was very careful scanning. So I could not do it that way.
I tried to scan at 200dpi - even lower... but I just lost too much detail
and the graph still showed up. (but a great deal of the pattern didn't) And
yes, the book says to match the dpi to the number per inch. 200 for 20 per
inch, 300 for 30 per inch.. etc. (p103)
I do know a way to limit the problem of too many colors - but if I
understand your question it is useless because it won't solve your ultimate
problem - In Pattern Maker, at least, there is a way to save a palette and
then use it (page 71-72 of the professional version manual).
You can save a palette - can save several for any design.
I found NO way to import an already made graph into Pattern Maker without
the graph lines becoming part of the design, itself. The thousands if colors
seemed to have something to do with the process of scanning, by the way (my
opinion) .
I tried scanning several pictures of Christ and had the same exact problem.
I even down loaded pictures from the net.
My husband who is a computer programmer had no suggestions, either, sorry to
say.
After much frustration I finally went to the world wide web and downloaded
every cross stitch program preview I could and did some experimentation - I
did find One which naturally limited the number of colors that would appear
( it was part of the import process, itself.) But I forget the name and
would have to backtrack myself to find it again - I remember it being in the
$200+ - pricey, even for me ( MY husband owes me - some of his programs are
$300+, right now we are trying to save money, But...)
So, Phyllis, I think (if I understand you/me/pattern maker/what you are
trying to do, at all) WE are back at the beginning - a blank page, coloring
pens and our own natural intelligence. That, or we count the pattern by hand
into the program - square by square, color by color.
I may return to the whole problem some other time - WHO knows maybe the
solution was staring me in the face the entire time... but for now, I do
something a little easier, look for the unified theory of relativity,
maybe.... (;
sorry not to be a bearer of good news. Next time, maybe. Kathy
PS : sorry for the length - but I think this function may be a future
possibility. WRITE to your program's source company and tell them what you
are doing... most of these companies are rather small and if enough of us
ask for something they will do their best to make it a future feature.KMH
You wrote:
Phyllis Maurer <pm1...@navix.net> wrote in message news:3771
o3BA412....@navix.net...
> I'm trying something new, and not having very good luck with it. Can
wol...@pacbell.net
<snip>
>After much frustration I finally went to the world wide web and downloaded
>every cross stitch program preview I could and did some experimentation - I
>did find One which naturally limited the number of colors that would appear
>( it was part of the import process, itself.) But I forget the name and
>would have to backtrack myself to find it again - I remember it being in the
>$200+ - pricey, even for me
I have Easy Cross De Luxe 6.0. It allows you to choose the exact number of
colors you want to use during import. You can also have it use a palette of
colors you have previously selected and saved.
HTH,
Nan Evelyn