Drawing
You change a chart in the Edit workspace. Its tools are on the rail at the left, and the options of the tool you hold are in the bar above the chart.
| Tool | Key | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Brush | B | Paint the colour in hand, or set the stitch type of stitches already there |
| Fill | F | Click a colour, then click a stitch to fill its region: the touching stitches of its colour and stitch type |
| Line | L | Drag from one stitch to another to draw a straight line, as thick as the brush |
| Rectangle | R | Drag from one corner to another to draw a rectangle, outlined or filled |
| Oval | O | Drag a box to draw the oval that fits it, outlined or filled |
| Lasso fill | G | Draw around an area; letting go fills everything inside it with the colour in hand, in one step. |
| Picker | I | Click a stitch or a backstitch line to take its colour; right-click takes it as the second colour. With a drawing tool, hold Alt to pick without changing tools. |
| Text | T | Turn a line of text into stitches: set it up in the Text tab, then Add, or press on the chart where it should go |
| Backstitch | K | Draw a line over the stitches, corner to corner. Click where it starts, then where it ends. Hold Ctrl as you place that end to carry straight on into the next line. |
| BS edit | J | Edit backstitch. Drag a line anywhere to move it; once it is in hand, drag either end to re-aim it. |
| Select | S | Drag a rectangle to select it, then copy, paste, move or flip it before it merges back. Ignores symmetry. |
| Lasso | Q | Draw around the stitches you want. The piece then copies, moves and flips like any other. Ignores symmetry. |
| Magic wand | W | Click a stitch to select its whole area of one colour; click a backstitch line to select every line of its colour. Ignores symmetry. |
| Crop | C | Cut the chart down, or grow it, with a frame. Drag an edge or a corner, or type how many stitches each edge moves in; a negative number adds empty stitches. Apply with Enter. |
| Move | V | Drag to reposition the whole design within the canvas. Ignores symmetry. |
| Pan | H | Drag to scroll the chart, or hold Space with any tool in hand |
| Zoom | Z | Click to zoom the way chosen, right-click or Shift-click the other way; the wheel always zooms too |
Text and backstitch have pages of their own. Select, Lasso, Magic wand, Crop and Move are on Selecting and moving.
The two drawing colours
At the left of the options bar are two squares: the foreground colour in front and the background colour behind. On a tablet or a phone they sit side by side, the foreground one outlined.
- Drawing with the left mouse button uses the foreground colour; the right button uses the background colour.
- Click a thread in the thread list to make it the foreground colour. Right-click a thread to make it the background colour.
- Click the back square to draw with it. The squares stay where they are; only which one is in use changes.
- Swap (X) swaps the two.
Both squares always hold a colour. A new chart starts with both on Empty (no stitch). The two colours, and which one is in front, are kept with the chart: they are still there after a reload, as the active layer is.
To rub stitches out, draw with Empty (no stitch) from the thread list. It clears the stitches it touches.
Stitch types
Every drawing tool has a Stitch type option: a whole stitch (to begin with), or a half stitch in either direction, / or \. An empty stitch is always whole.
Brush (B)
Press and drag to paint. Brush size sets how many stitches across one press covers: 1 (to begin with), 3, 5 and so on up to 15. Round (to begin with) paints the disc that fits that size, so size 3 is a small plus sign. Square paints the whole block.
The Brush's Stitch and Type only buttons set what a stroke changes. Stitch (to begin with) paints stitches of the drawing colour and the stitch type chosen. Type only changes the stitch type of the stitches the brush passes over and keeps their colours; empty stitches are left alone.
A whole stroke is one step to undo.
Fill (F)
Click a stitch to fill its area: every stitch touching it that has the same colour and the same stitch type. Two options set what counts as that area:
- Diagonal neighbours: with Diagonal (to begin with), stitches touching only at a corner are filled too. With Edges only, only stitches above, below, left and right are.
- Colour and type (to begin with) fills one colour and one stitch type, and gives the area the colour and stitch type you have chosen. Colour only fills every touching stitch of that colour whatever its type, and changes only the colour, so each stitch keeps its type.
A thread dragged from the thread list onto the chart fills the same way, with these settings.
Line, Rectangle and Oval (L, R, O)
Press where the shape starts, drag, and let go. The shape is drawn when you let go, as one step to undo.
- Line draws a straight line from one stitch to another, as thick as the brush.
- Rectangle draws a rectangle from one corner to the other.
- Oval draws the oval that fits the box you drag.
Rectangle and Oval have a Shape fill option: Outline (to begin with), as thick as the brush, or Filled, which is exactly the shape whatever the brush size.
Press Escape while dragging to drop the shape.
Lasso fill (G)
Draw round an area. When you let go, everything inside the line is filled with the colour in hand, in one step. Press Escape while drawing to drop it.
The line steps from stitch to stitch as you draw. To have it follow your pointer exactly, choose Follows the pointer under The lasso line in Preferences: every stitch the line passes over is then filled too, as well as everything inside it. The same choice applies to the Lasso.
Picker (I)
Click a stitch or a backstitch line to take its colour as the foreground colour; right-click to take it as the background colour. It takes the colour you see, from whichever layer it is on.
With any drawing tool in hand, hold Alt to pick up the Picker for a moment. Let go of Alt and you have your tool back. On a tablet or a phone, press Hold Picker at the bottom right of the chart instead (it says On while held), and press it again to have your tool back; Hold Pan does the same for Space.
What drawing obeys
- Drawing tools draw on the active layer only, and refuse a layer that is hidden or locked. See Layers.
- Lock transparency, the padlock at the end of the options bar, stops drawing and filling from turning empty stitches into colour or colour into empty, so you can recolour a shape without drawing outside it. See Layers.
- Symmetry mirrors what you draw across the middle of the chart. See Symmetry and mirrors.