Bring in artwork from Illustrator, CorelDRAW or Inkscape

Artwork from a drawing program comes into NextStitch as shapes you can stitch. Insert ▸ Import SVG… adds an SVG to the design as it was drawn — curves kept, scaled to fit the hoop and centred — and File ▸ Import… does the same for SVG and DXF. Each colour becomes a thread.

Save it as SVG

SVG is the format every drawing program writes. SVGZ — an SVG compressed to a fraction of its size — is read just the same.

• Illustrator — File ▸ Save As… and choose SVG, or File ▸ Export ▸ Export As… and choose SVG. Turn text into outlines first: Type ▸ Create Outlines.

• CorelDRAW — File ▸ Export… and choose SVG. Turn text into curves first: Object ▸ Convert to Curves.

• Inkscape — File ▸ Save As…, as Inkscape SVG, Plain SVG or a compressed SVG (.svgz). Turn text into paths first: Path ▸ Object to Path.

Text as paths

Text in an SVG comes in only once it is turned into paths: the file names a font that may not be on your computer, and the shapes of its letters are not in the file. Text left as text is left out, and the import says so. Convert it in the program that made the file, as above — or set the words in NextStitch with Insert ▸ Lettering…, where the letters are made for embroidery.

Paste it in

You need not save a file at all. Copy the artwork in your drawing program and press Ctrl+V (⌘V on a Mac) in the editor:

• SVG code comes in as shapes, as an imported SVG does. Inkscape copies SVG code, and Illustrator does when its clipboard preferences include SVG; so does copying the code of an SVG in a text editor.

• A picture — a screenshot, or an image copied in a browser — opens the trace dialog when the design is empty. On a design with objects Ctrl+V keeps pasting objects, so open Insert ▸ Import bitmap… and paste the picture there. See Trace a picture.

Objects you copied in NextStitch since you last came back from another app are pasted before anything on the clipboard.

What cannot be read, and the way round

• PDF, AI and EPS — not read. Open the file in the program that made it and save or export it as SVG. Someone sending you a logo can usually send an SVG too.

• CDR (CorelDRAW's own format) — export it as SVG.

• Pictures inside an SVG are left out: trace them on their own with Insert ▸ Import bitmap….

• Gradients and patterns are stitched in one colour; the import names which. Flat colours stitch best anyway.

• Shapes stacked on top of each other are sewn twice where they overlap. The editor offers to clean them up; see Remove overlaps.

• A picture saved as a PDF or a scan is a picture, not shapes: trace it — see Trace a picture.