Pixel art

Pixel art is a picture made of square cells, like a tiny mosaic or a cross-stitch chart. Open it from Home or the Pixel art view.

The tools#

• Pencil (B) paints cells. Drag to paint many.
• Fill (G) fills a connected area of one colour.
• Erase (E) clears cells. A cleared cell has no stitches.
• Eyedropper (I) picks the colour of a cell.
• Line (L) drags a straight line.
• Rectangle (R) drags a rectangle. Filled rectangles switches between outline and solid.

Undo, Redo and Clear sit under the tools.

Colours#

Pick a Palette brand and Palette line. Click a swatch to paint with that thread. Colours in the picture lists what you have used.

The grid#

Set the Grid width and Grid height in cells, then press Resize. Set the Cell size in millimetres. A 32 by 32 grid with 2 mm cells makes a 64 mm design.

Stitch style#

• Tatami: each cell is a block of fill rows. Solid and flat.
• Cross: an X in each cell. Looks like cross-stitch.
• Satin: a satin bar across each cell. Shiny.

From a picture#

Press Import a picture… to turn a picture into pixels. Set Most colours and decide whether to Keep the background. Then tidy it with the pencil.

Preview and send#

The Stitch preview on the right plays your pixel art. Press Send to editor to add the stitches to the editor's design, where you can resize, combine and send it. Or press Export… to save a file.

Tips#

• Use big cells (2 to 3 mm) for a clean sew.
• Use few colours. Each one is a thread change. Read Fewer colour changes.
• Test sew first. Tiny cells can pile up thread.