Foreword

Navigation: <Root level>

EN Release Notes Cross Stitch Designer

New in this version

This is new in version 8.0 compared to 7.8:

-Highlight! New: Full special color series support:

DMC Standard, Variegated, Metallic, Neon, Glow-in-the-Dark, Metallic Pearl, Variations.

-highlight! New: DMC color palette supplemented with all available new colors, as well as all currently available colors of all color series:

The DMC palette now has 574 colors! This also includes all the new standard Mouline colors.

-Highlight! New: Our program now allows several thousand colors in one palette and also in one design.

-highlight! New: Introduction of symbol variants. This means that familiar symbols for colors can be retained even when using other color series. A white in standard color has the same basic symbol as a white in Aurora Borealis. In the special series, however, it also has a symbol variant as a marker.

18 symbol variants are available to choose from and can be assigned to the series as required using a new palette editor tool.

-Improved: Real preview with a more modern look and better colors.

-Highlight! New: World first: Convert "pseudo pixel art images" generated with your favorite AI into real pixel images and thus

quickly create "simple", roughly rasterized designs. E.g. rose, flowers, animals, snowman, ...

This is a very valuable innovation, especially for cross stitch. Create coarsely pixelated designs quickly and effectively.

-highlight! New: Color series map when printing, clearly shows where pixels with special color series are located in the image.

-highlight! New: Quick-switch profiles save almost all settings and allow quick switching of settings for different purposes. Up to 19 profiles.

-highlight! New: All profiles exportable and importable. This allows settings to be saved and also shared with friends or others in the team to ensure identical settings.

-highlight! New: Colored border printable around the design. Fixed color or Ambient-Color-Star-Effect(uses outer pixel colors and extends them in the border).

-highlight! Improved: Symbol colors (white/black) now much better matched to pixel color for optimal readability on the printed design.

-highlight! New: Symbol colors completely customizable (in the palette editor).

-highlight! Improved: Color replacement tool allows setting the maximum color difference allowed for automatic color replacement. Optional and switchable: marked area is included or excluded during replacement.

-highlight! New: New color replacement pen: This can be used to replace certain colors with others. Also with other

color series. For example, a normal white can be replaced by a Chrystal/Strass. By limiting to certain colors to be replaced, you can quickly paint "roughly" over an area and still only replace the defined details.

-highlight! New: Color tolerance adjustable for several tools: fill, eraser fill, color replacement.

-highlight! Improved: Real preview approx. 60x faster than before. This also makes printing the title page faster.

-Highlight! New: Screenshot feature for quickly taking AI images from the website.

Use your favorite AI and transfer the designs directly into our program with a click.

-New: AI image generation within our program with openAI (ChatGPT, DALL-E).

-New: Transfer of images from the clipboard directly for conversion into designs.

-New: AIDA "ct" (=count) unit added: is now fully supported. You can choose between millimeters or "ct".

Internal accuracy: Five decimal places. This enables precise printing with flatbed plotters on AIDA fabric.

-New: Cover page shows variants of your pattern in 12ct, 14ct, 16ct AIDA - in each case the size is calculated in cm/inch,

so that users have all the details available, depending on their preferred AIDA fabric, and are flexible.

-New: Grid and size information in title bar

-New: Fixed grid size when printing, independent of the real grid size. Typical: 3.5mm grid (adjustable).

-New: Export of the legend to Excel with symbols. Different display variants. Note: Local Excel required.

-Fix: Page numbers in table of contents and printout may not match.

-Improved: Support for "Cross Stitch 2 Machine" extended to be able to embroider exactly with real "ct" unit with machine. And date/time information is also saved in the design.

-New: Eraser fill function: quickly cut out background without crosses.

-New: Activate/deactivate colors. Colors that are not available can be switched off in the palette editor instead of having to delete them. You can switch them on again later at any time.

-New: Palette export and import in CSV Excel format. For professional purposes such as revision in Excel.

-New: Ghost view and original image (image section in reduced resolution) can be extracted from the design again later.

-Improved: Bitmap/TIFF export: Automatic setting of the grid size, according to the design.

-Improved: Print dialog, bitmap/TIFF export consistently use the grid size from the design (unless "Fixed grid size" is set). Can be changed under Design settings.

-Improved: Bitmap/TIFF export only for design, therefore the print dialog is much clearer.

-Improved: Improved support for letters/numbers instead of symbols. New symbol files.

-Improved: OrtmannArtSymbols Font now contains the whole alphabet in upper and lower case letters, numbers and some currency signs in an easily readable "normal" font. This means that letters and numbers can also be combined with the Art symbols. This means that no other font is required. Note Only the OrtmannArtSymbols font is supported.

-Improved: New and extended symbol files (default, letters, numbers). Attention Symbols of colors may differ compared to V7.

-Improved: Symbol assignment to colors is now done comfortably in the palette editor (not in the characters editor).

However, the Characters Editor is still available.

The idea is that everything that has to do with colors and symbols should preferably only be edited in one place, namely in the new palette editor.

-New: Colored symbols can be printed on a white background (can be used with CSD for pre-printing on AIDA fabric).

-New: Two new color palettes for machine embroidery: Madeira Machine Embroidery Thread, Brother Embroidery Machine.

-Improved: Faster saving of the design, smaller files.

-Improved: Print dialog clearer.

-New: Symbol preview in the print dialog for easier operation.

-New: License Manager checks license at program start. Note: Internet connection required to start!

-Improved: Color selection and setting options in the palette editor greatly improved.

-New: Several new tools in the palette editor.

-New: Subsequent change of the color series in design settings possible.

-New: Mystery background image (landscape with question mark) can be switched on discreetly as a gray background. Mystery background cannot currently be changed.

-New: Color series filter in the print dialog to enable multiple color series also in cooperation with "Pattern Keeper".

-New: Grid size now adjustable down to 1.00mm. Upper limit is 10.00mm.

-New: Mini preview can be switched on during printout via the legend on the side of the design.

-Improved: Color replacement tool in automatic mode automatically filters and selects the least common color in the palette when opening the tool. Simply get started right away.

-New: Palette format is now JSON, allowing easy expansion in the future, and better compatibility with various future program versions. Palettes found in the palette directory in the old format are automatically converted to the new format when the program is started.

-Improved: More symbols in the OrtmannArtSymbols font so that the 35 new standard DMC colors can be displayed in cross stitch. At Diamond Art, the new official DMC colors are not yet offered by the Diamond manufacturers.

-New: Color names can be specified in the palette in English, German and French. For the printout, you can set the language of the color names independently of the language of the user interface.

-Improved: Selection frame in the wizard is now more accurate.

-New: The ruler can now optionally be present on each page for multi-page printouts.

-Improved: When loading PNG files with transparent image parts, these are automatically made opaque so that there are no black or white areas in the image in transparent areas.

-Changed: File extensions are now .csd and .pad. However, the old extensions are still supported.

-New: Multi-language support: User interface and online help now in German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese.

Improvements in Version 8.0.2

-Improved: Grid setting allows resolution of 1/1000mm.

-Improved: Information on Title Page.

-Improved: Print page order improved, in case of multi page printouts with separate color legend.

-Improved: Old symbol color calculation method can be activated, alternatively to the better new one. For compatibility reasons.

Fixes:

-Colornames were missing, when opening old design files.

-CSD: Fixed grid setting for printing, was not remembered by the program.

This is new in version 7.8 compared to 6.9:

Very high quality improvement with the colors and many more of your wishes have been realized!

-New(from v7.8) Support for narrow wide labels, in this case the symbol is on the left instead of at the top.

-Improvement(from v7.8): 5-digit number of packages (PAD)/yarn-cm (CSD) is not shortened in the legend.

-Fix(as of v7.7): even changed DPI value is correctly adopted when the program is restarted, instead of default value.

-New The color change was completely new with the best possible color fidelity.

-New The dithering was also completely rewritten for the best possible color fidelity.

-Improvement Reducing to a very small number of colors gives much better color results, rare but important colors are preserved.

-New: The color comparison function is our brand new self-developed "Standard" method as well as the function "Delta E according to CIE 2000" function is available.

-Improvement (from v7.5): Library now also supports backstitch.
-New (as of v7.6): User-defined arbitrary large formats for PDF/printing can be set directly in the print dialog without having to create special formats in the printer settings.
-New(from v7.3) Support for Pattern Keeper: Import design and DMC color legend compatible in PK. A font symbol"+" changed.

-Improvement(from v7.4): The PDF export for Pattern Keeper can now be set with one click. New file format for future new functions.

-Brand new: Color replacement and reduction tool, an absolute highlight and often requested by you!

With this new tool, you can quickly and easily remove colors that rarely occur.

It is even possible to automatically combine all colors with similar colors that occur less than 10 times, for example.

But you can also easily replace colors manually; several suggestions are made that allow you to make an individual selection.

-Improved: From v7.2.7 also enabled for Advanced Version!

-New Quickly create variants of an image with the "Wizard Recall", not only the number of colors can be changed afterwards,

but can even be increased again, or the palette can be changed, or dithering can be carried out again with different settings,

without having to reload the original image.

This allows you to quickly experiment and create variations of the same design, e.g. 110 colors, 200 colors, etc.

-New Export of the legend for Word and Excel possible

The new HTML export function can be used to export the legend with symbols and colors for a website.

The HTML can also be opened directly in Word for further processing as a document,

It can also be transferred from Word to Excel.

Opened here in Word, for example:

-Improved Export to CSV has been improved. Import into Excel and processing with many other apps possible.

-New Quickly create a design that includes all palette colors. Useful for printing or exporting your legend for documentation purposes, as PDF, Excel, Word, HTML:

-Improved The Print Color Correction Tool replaces the previous CMYK tool. The functionality has been improved,

allowing you to adjust the printed colors. Some artificial colors such as light blue/cyan look different on a printer than on a monitor,

This can be adapted to your printer if necessary. Or you can print black boxes slightly lighter instead of black,

then black grid lines remain visible, even with black boxes.

-Improved The palette editor now also allows the fine adjustment of colors via corresponding +/- buttons.

-New Rotated images can be corrected directly in our wizard, saves preparation with external tools.

-New In the color replacement tool, an area can be selected so that the colors are only replaced in the selected area.

-Improvement The grid setting can now be set in 1/100mm resolution in all program areas.

-Improvement: A program instability occurring on some systems when converting many images one after the other has been fixed.

-Improvement Calculated size in mm and pixels of the image are displayed in the footer.

-Improvement: The format of the text area on the info page has been adapted to different page sizes and enlarged.

-Improvement: Size and format of the print dialog improved, for monitors with smaller resolution.

-Improvement: The page size is better utilized when printing the stitch step list (from v7.2.6).

-Improvement: When printing with backstitch, the corresponding backgrounds can now be switched off in addition to the backstitch symbols (from v7.2.6)

This is new in version 6.9 compared to 6.8:

-New: Original image is displayed in the wizard in the conversion dialog parallel to the converted image, for a better comparison of the result.

-Fixed: When making major changes to the raster correction in the print dialog, instead of setting the raster in the design,

in combination with round circles without a grid, the grid size sometimes did not adapt.

-Improved: The grid can now be set in all dialogs in high 1/100mm resolution in all dialogs.

-Improved: In the Wizzard, the preview is updated immediately when contrast/brightness is corrected.

This is new in version 6.8 compared to 6.5:

-Printing: Grid could not be switched off under certain circumstances.

-Bitmap export: The pixels are now always calculated automatically, you no longer have to set the pixels yourself.

-Bitmap export: Improved, more comprehensive calculated information on the sizes in mm.

Precision of the true-to-scale export/printout improved.

-Border settings completely revised and improved.

-Label print settings completely revised, new and improved concept, with consideration of the print margins.

-Position of the logo corrected/improved.

-Compact legend made even more compact. Distance setting between design and legend corrected and improved for better page utilization.

Attention: With this version you have to readjust your label settings, if necessary also readjust your print margins/spacing.

-Significantly improved preview in the print dialog: For the design page, all important elements are displayed in detail, design, legend, margins, title, logo, banner and now also non-printable areas of printers. For a better estimation of necessary margins etc., even before printing.

-Legend can be printed separately with symbol/color (not with compact legend).

-Settings for bitmap export: Many settings are now in mm instead of pixels, so you no longer have to convert them yourself.

-DPI setting: The DPI setting for bitmap export is now fully taken into account in the size calculations of the bitmap.

-Printing: Title/comment can now be switched on/off in the print dialog, and the empty area above the design is no longer displayed when switching off.

-CSD: Bitmap export and printing of backstitch/knots on a separate page could sometimes hang.

-Fixed font compatibility with one character with PowerPDF.

This is new in version 6.5 compared to 6.3:

-Bitmap export: Grid setting now possible in 1/100 pixel. For fractions of a pixel, the result is generated using half-tone and anti-aliasing algorithms.

-The sorting of the legend (and labels) in the printout can be changed.

-This also gives you the option of using letters/numbers instead of symbols when printing

to create an alphabetically sorted legend, see Help.

-New: Auto Fit to Size for design page bitmap export. You no longer have to click on "Fit to size".

-Palette DMC: Color numbers for some colors corrected (6000->BLANC, 5200->B5200, 6001->ECRU).

-Bitmap export to TIFF format added.

-dpi resolution hint is now saved in bitmaps and can be set.

-Bitmap calculations in mm, based on pixel, dpi resolution are displayed as hints in the print dialog.

-Image wizard: The maximum possible design size based on the loaded photo is already displayed on the first page.

In addition, a warning color indicates that the setting is too large.

-Image wizard: The window size can now be changed.

-Fix: Label printing now also possible for ADV version.

-Real preview (photorealistic) added.

-Real preview can optionally be switched on when printing on title page.

-Fix/New: Setting the grid color in the printout did not work. Now this can even be set separately.

-Smaller screen when printing, down to 1.5mm possible.

-New: Black/white decision level possible for printing symbols. This enables

This improves the visibility of the symbols in the printout.

-Changed: Sorting of colors by color number improved.

-Large palette: Sorting of colors improved, and is now identical to small palette.

-Palette editor: now allows letters in the color order numbers.

-Font Symbol corrections: ASCII $A0 (mirrored S symbol) moved to $023D. ASCII $012F/$0130 (telephone symbol) position improved.

Old/new palettes/symbol lists are corrected automatically.

-And many many small improvements and additional information in print, settings and other dialogs.

This is new in version 6.3, compared to version 5:

Valid for: Cross Stitch Creator (WinStick) / Pixel Art Designer

Some functions are only available in ADV or PRO.

For current allocation/details see our homepage.

1. now also runs under Windows 11 and Windows 10 - 64bit (32bit is no longer supported!).

System memory/RAM: Recommended 8GB. For small/medium image sizes also 4GB.

2. introduction of an ADV (Advanced) version. There are now STD (Standard), ADV (Advanced) and PRO (Professional).

The ADV version is aimed at users who want to use most of the professional functions, but do not want to use them commercially.

designs and therefore do not want to integrate their own logo/banner, as well as a few other differences that are not relevant for private use.

for a more favorable price. For exact differences see our homepage.

3 - In the conversion wizard, the desired final image size can already be specified in [mm],

The required resolution is calculated and preset based on the box size etc.

Useful if the image is to fit exactly into a specific frame later on.

4th - Own logo image can be integrated into the printout (PRO only).

5 - Custom banners can be integrated in the header and footer when printing (PRO only).

...

Here you can perfectly integrate your logo, or information about your social networks, or QR codes.

6 - New palettes/symbol tables, now all DMC colors with color names:

Selectable palette, with German or English color names.

7 - Different color themes/looks can be selected for the user interface, e.g. night look (slate grey),

as is common with many of today's image editing programs, so as not to be affected by the

distracted from the design colors:

8th assignment symbol->colors with new possibility extended/all revised.

A wide range of options are available depending on your requirements:

a. Dynamic assignment of symbols to colors (default):

Fully automatic, easiest to handle. Disadvantage: minimal control over the colors used.

symbols used.

b. Fixed symbols from the "CharactersList":

The symbols are displayed in the order in which they appear in the CharactersList

to the color palette used.

This means that you can place the more popular symbols at the beginning of the list and the less popular ones at the end.

This is advantageous if you often switch between different palettes and want to create a

automatic assignment is preferred.

Advantage: the most popular symbols are always used first.

Disadvantage: the same colors can have different symbols for different palettes.

c. Fixed symbols from the "color palette":

The symbols can be specified in the color palette itself.

This is an advantage if you later expand the color palette or change the order,

the symbols for the existing colors remain assigned unchanged.

To do this, each symbol must be set when the palette is created.

Advantage: Full control. Disadvantage: More effort when creating the color palette.

9. symbols can also be set as "bold/bold" so that they are visible on smaller printouts.

better readable on smaller printouts .

10 - Extensive revision of the print dialog, for faster workflow in professional applications.

11. export as bitmap (PNG/JPEG/BMP) with extremely high resolution possible (500 megapixels!), also as whole image

in one file, for print shops.

12th - Extremely large images possible, e.g. 1000 diamonds/stitches width.

Or images in DIN A0 final size and larger (may require PDF Creator, which can handle custom and very large formats,

e.g. Kofax PowerPDF, or Adobe Acrobat). Our program also supports free non-standard sizes,

for example for certain existing picture frames etc., provided that the printer/PDF creator can offer this.

Large formats from special canvas plotters are also supported.

(STD only up to 200x200 pixels, which corresponds to a size of up to 60x60cm with a 3mm grid,

ADV and PRO up to 500x500cm, or limited by system resources).

13. legend can be exported as CSV for further processing in Excel (PRO only).

14. position of the legend on the printout can be adjusted.

15 - Own text can be added at the bottom of each page, e.g. own copyright info,

or URL web address.

16th diamond painting: The sum of all packs is also printed at the end of the legend,

and the number of stones, handy for recounting. Pack size can be set and is also saved.

17. colors of the grid lines can now be set as desired.

18 - Cross stitch designer only: Embroidery steps list has been completely revised and improved.

19th - The thickness of the grid lines, as well as every 10th line are for printout/bitmap export

individually adjustable in order to always have the optimum for each medium. Improved precision.

And it's easier to count.

20. options dialog has been improved and significantly expanded.

21st -Dithering function, quality and adjustability improved.

22. stability extremely improved!

23 -New symbol font that supports bold/standard. Bold for better readability

when printing very small screen sizes.

24th legend now also shows color names from the palette, selectable German/English,

calculates the sum of color packets and displays the number of pixels.

25th - Various column configurations can be set for the legend, with/without color names, etc.

26 -Professional placement of the legend on the same page as the design, to the right or below.

27. symbols of the legend can now be adjusted in size independently of the design.

28.-When creating/printing a "book", you can include your own URL web address/company name etc.

(PRO only).

29. precision of design expression, position of symbols/grids extremely improved.

30th online help completely revised and expanded. Now also available in English.