Learn
Documentation
Step-by-step guides from a blank hoop to a finished file, tutorials for one thing at a time, and the reference when you need the detail.
Everything in the docs
What's new
Cross stitch counted as a cross-stitcher counts it — a fabric count, two, four or six threads, the half cross, crosses along a line and lettering in crosses, a grid on screen that the canvas grid can match, a picture turned into one cross per pixel, and a pattern that keeps its cells when you move or resize it (cross stitch). Appliqué gets more tack-down and cover stitches, pieces without their holes, each piece's own fabric shown in its colour on screen, on the templates and in the cut file, a name's letters sewn together, and cut files of any selection. The stitch preview pauses at colour changes, stops or trims, replays an object, goes to the stitch or colour you type, shows ties, jumps and stitch lengths, and sets thread width, contrast and brightness; Design info gives the figures of a selection, and free-standing lace is checked for parts that would fall apart. Machine files can be uploaded to My Files, each with its picture, size, colours and sewing time, found by filters and listed as a table under Details; tick several to move, download or write out together, print a contact sheet, browse a folder on your computer, or convert a file on your phone (projects and files). The Shapes tool has a rounded rectangle, more shapes and frames; Object ▸ Add frame… lays a frame round the selection, Object ▸ Envelope… bends shapes, and Insert ▸ Rosette… draws one. Object ▸ Convert turns text into shapes, shapes into stitches and stitches back into shapes, and a machine file can be touched up stitch by stitch: take it apart, move, delete, split and connect its stitches.
The fabric can change the stitches — with Apply fabric settings in File ▸ Properties…, Automatic chooses the underlay and pull compensation for jersey, towelling, caps or leather (fabric and stabiliser) — and new designs start with your thread line, grid and gaps, new shapes with the settings you make current, and Settings ▸ Preferences… and stitch Presets keep the rest. Lettering gets a font browser with each font's smallest size, fitting a text to a width or to its path, word spacing, a slant, letters that stay where you moved them, and a names list sewn as one file with stops. Tracing advises on the picture, crops and tones it, reads TIFFs and gives each colour its own stitch type; artwork can be pasted, and SVGZ files open. The Pen draws curves through the points you click, the Pencil draws by hand, lines continue from their ends, satin columns are drawn by their two sides, and fill angles and turning lines are set by dragging. Machine files open with their own name and hoop, from zips and by dropping them anywhere; Brother owners see how their model takes a file; a new fill ends at its last row; and the new Help menu leads to the keyboard shortcuts and to coming from other software.
Eight references that explain the stitch settings in depth — fills, satin, Satin (area), underlay and pull compensation, contour and spiral fills, guided fill, meander and ripple, running and bean stitch and travel, trims and ties — with figures drawn from the real stitches, and this list of what is new on the docs hub.
Precise placing and new stitch options. Positions and sizes count from a point of the selection you choose, in millimetres or inches; guides come out of the rulers, points snap to the grid, the guides and the hoop's centre once snapping is on in View, and Measure can scale, turn and mirror to what it measured. Satin spacing can follow the column's width, with its own corners and pull per side, and a text too small for satin can be sewn as a triple run. Select same, Alt-click to select what lies behind, Alt-drag to copy, aligning to a key object, Lock and Object ▸ Density… help with arranging; the Path menu gains node types, Offset…, Simplify… and holes. Trim after, Repeat the whole line, hiding connectors under the next object, a preferred colour order and Redwork decide where the needle goes.
Fills close up: pull compensation and overlap are two settings, and new imports overlap their neighbours a little. Remove overlaps, Divide and Add outline arrange shapes; Save selection as design…, Insert ▸ My design or project file… and Paste in place reuse them, and each browser tab keeps a draft of its own. Tracing says how many colours it found and can make cross stitch. Print / PDF… prints on A4 or Letter, at actual size and with appliqué templates, appliqués export as cut files, and projects in your account keep their earlier versions. Also new: Show only selection, the tie size, the stitch-over gap, and thread lines read from their makers' own charts.