Export presets

What's an export preset?

A preset is your PDF look, saved. It remembers your house style — the paper, which way it turns (portrait or landscape), the margins and units, the chart style, which pages print and how each one looks, the fonts and headings, your watermark and license line — so any pattern's PDF can come out looking just like your last one.

What a pattern says stays with that pattern: its cover title, its notes, and how many pages its chart is split into. Files are always named after the pattern, whichever preset you use. For a tour of the export panel itself, see PDF Export.

Save and reuse a preset

The Preset menu sits at the top of the export panel, next to the search, and starts on Color, one of Stitchmate's own looks.

1. Set up a PDF the way you want your patterns to look.
2. Open the Preset menu, choose Save as new preset…, and give it a name, such as "Etsy shop". The dialog lists what a preset includes and links back to this page.
3. On another pattern, open the Preset menu and pick Etsy shop. It applies right away, the preview catches up on its own, and a toast says Applied “Etsy shop” with an Undo button.
4. Change a setting and the menu reads Etsy shop · 3 changes. A dot marks each changed setting, and the same dot appears on its page in the list, on the Setup card, or on the Every page row. On Color or B&W, the dots compare against that look instead.
5. To keep your changes, choose Save changes to “Etsy shop” in the menu. To drop them, choose Discard 3 changes. Either way, a toast offers Undo.

Here's the Preset menu, from the top:

• Color and B&W, Stitchmate's own looks, sized to the chart you have open. Both split the chart by pages.
• More presets, a submenu with the built-ins from before the looks, such as "A4 · B&W Symbols · 30/page".
• Your own presets, under Presets, most recently changed first.
• Save changes to “Etsy shop”, when one of your presets is selected and has changes.
• Save as new preset…
• Save to another preset, which saves your changes over a different preset of yours. It asks first, and you can undo it.
• Discard 3 changes, which takes you back to the selected look.
• Rename “Etsy shop”… and Delete “Etsy shop”…
• What's in a preset?, which opens this page.

A few settings in the panel carry a tag. This pattern marks the ones that belong to the open pattern: the cover title, the cover picture you upload, and the number of chart pages once you pick one. Presets never change them.

What a preset saves

Everything below goes into a preset when you save it and comes back when you pick it. The list comes straight from the export panel, so every setting has the name you see there, grouped by page and card. Settings that only some crafts have say which.

A preset changes only what it saved. If it doesn't include something — say, a setting we added after you saved it — that setting stays as it is.

Setup

• Setup
  • Paper
  • Chart style

Your cover PDF

• Your PDF
  • Upload a PDF

Cover page

• Include the cover page
• Words
  • Author line
  • Description
• Preview image
  • Style
  • Fabric behind it
  • Draw a border
    • Shape
    • Corner radius
    • Width
    • Padding
    • Color

Section map

• Include the section map
• Words on the page
  • Heading
    • Text
  • Subtitle
    • Text
  • Caption under the map
    • Text

Instructions

• Include the instructions
• Your instructions
  • Heading on the page
    • Text
  • Instructions text
• Finished sizes table (cross stitch and needlepoint only)
  • Fabric sizes

Thread key

Called Color key for diamond painting, fuse beads and C2C crochet.

• Include the thread key
• On the page
  • Heading
    • Text
• What each row shows
  • Sort colors by
  • Thread length needed (cross stitch and needlepoint only)
  • Color names
  • Strand count (cross stitch and needlepoint only)
  • Stitch count per color
  • Color comments
• Extra thread (cross stitch and needlepoint only)
  • Extra to buy
    • Custom extra, %
  • Note under the heading
    • Text

Written instructions (C2C crochet only)

• Include the written instructions
• How the rows read
  • Start corner
  • Work
  • Color blocks instead of names
  • Color codes next to names
  • Direction arrows
  • [RS] / [WS] markers

Chart pages

• How it is split
  • Split by
  • Squares across
    • Width
    • Height
  • Square size (inches)
  • Cover print warning (not for cross stitch)
    • Text
  • Calibration bar (not for cross stitch)
    • Caption
  • Repeat on edges
  • Chart sits
• On the page
  • Page label, bottom-left
    • Text
  • Minimap showing which part this is
• Grid & numbering
  • Count from
  • Numbers sit on
  • Number every
  • Block line
  • Grid line
  • Highlight every 5th line
  • Show center lines
    • Center line
• Symbols
  • Symbol size
  • Drill style (diamond painting only)

Backstitch pages (cross stitch and needlepoint only)

• Include the backstitch pages
• These pages
  • Page label, bottom-left
    • Text

Your back page

• Your PDF
  • Upload a PDF

Every page

• Paper & measurements
  • Margins
  • Units
  • Number format
• Type & page furniture
  • Typeface
  • Text size
  • Running header (top left)
    • Header text
  • Page numbers
    • Wording
• Watermark & footer
  • Add a watermark
    • Watermark text
    • Opacity
  • “Created with Stitchmate.app”
  • License line
    • License text

A preset also remembers what your bundle holds. See Presets in a bundle below.

What stays with each pattern

These belong to the pattern you have open. Each pattern remembers its own, and picking a preset never changes them.

• Setup › Setup: Chart pages
• Cover page › Words: Title
• Cover page › Preview image: Cover image (under Style)
• Chart pages › How it is split: Split into

Until you pick a number of chart pages for a pattern, its chart is split by how many squares fit on a page — and that part does come from the preset.

If you used Stitchmate before each pattern kept its own, the cover title, notes, and chart split you had then are where every pattern starts until you change them there.

Units in the PDF and in the editor

Your PDF and the editor each have their own units. Units, under Every page › Paper & measurements, decides what the PDF measures in: sizes in inches or centimeters, thread lengths in yards or meters. A preset saves it.

• Match editor follows whatever the editor measures in, and the line under it says which that is. Every PDF starts here.
• Inches or Centimeters keeps the PDF in those, whatever the editor uses — handy for a preset you make for buyers in another country.

The editor's own units are in Settings. They start from where you are: inches in the US and Canada, centimeters almost everywhere else. Picking a preset never changes them.

Number format works the same way. Match editor writes numbers the way Stitchmate does, which you set under Settings — on Auto, a point with inches and a comma with centimeters, so a finished size reads 7.14″ (18,1 cm). 1,234.56 or 1.234,56 writes every number in the PDF that way, whatever the editor uses. A preset carries the choice, like the units, so a preset for buyers abroad can write commas while your editor keeps points.

What presets leave out

A few settings stay out of presets on purpose, and some aren't saved at all. Each one says why.

• Pattern Keeper file (What you’ll download). Where the file goes, not how it looks: picking a preset switches back to a PDF to print.
• Chart layout (Chart pages › How it is split). Chosen for each export and not saved: every export starts across pages.
• Keep symbols as vectors (Every page › File). Part of the Seller Pass, so it follows your pass rather than a preset.

Presets in a bundle

A bundle is one ZIP with several versions of your pattern: the Every version as one ZIP row in the What you’ll download card, at the top of the export panel. Edit contents… on that row opens the list of files, and ZIP builds the archive (see Bundles). Every file in the bundle has two menus:

• Contains decides what goes in the file, chart style included: Color chart, Black & white, and so on.
• Settings decides everything else. Same as the panel uses your current settings; under Presets, pick one of yours.

So one ZIP can hold an A4 file in centimeters and a Letter file in inches, a landscape copy for wide charts, or a branded copy next to a plain one. When the two menus disagree about the chart style — a Color chart with a black-and-white preset — Contains wins for the chart, the preset sets the rest, and the file's row tells you so.

A preset also saves what your bundle holds, so picking the preset brings that bundle back. A file that uses a preset takes the preset's settings, never its bundle.

If you delete a preset that a bundle file uses, the bundle asks you to pick another one for that file before it builds.

Presets on your other devices

When you're signed in, your presets sync to your account and show up wherever you sign in, a few seconds after each change. In the desktop app, they sync once Allow Stitchmate to use the cloud is on in Settings and your account is connected.

Signed out, presets stay on the device where you made them, and signing out doesn't delete them. The first time you sign in on a device, the presets you made there join your account, unless that device has already synced with a different account.

If the same preset changes on two devices before they sync, you keep both: the version from this device is saved as a new preset, for example "Etsy shop (edited on this device)".

Two things don't travel: what each pattern keeps (its cover title and number of chart pages stay on the device where you set them), and the panel's current settings. To get your look on a new device, pick your preset there.

What happened to the old built-in presets

The Preset menu used to start with a list of built-ins such as "A4 · B&W Symbols · 30/page". They're now under More presets, below Color and B&W, with the same names and settings. Each one sets a paper size, a chart style, and a number of squares per page, and splits the chart by squares, as it always did.

If you had one selected, or one of your bundle files uses one, it stays that way and your PDFs come out as they did. Like the looks, you can't rename, overwrite, or delete them; to change one, save your changes as a new preset.

FAQ

Does picking a preset change my cover title or the number of chart pages?

No. Your cover title and number of chart pages belong to the pattern, so each pattern keeps its own. A preset remembers how many squares fit on a page instead, and a pattern you haven't split yet starts from that.

Does picking a preset change the editor's units?

No. A preset saves the units your PDF prints in, and the editor keeps its own. Leave Units on Match editor and the PDF follows the editor, or pick Inches or Centimeters to fix them for that preset, say for buyers in another country.

What are the Color and B&W looks?

Stitchmate's own starting looks, sized to the chart you have open. Color prints symbols on colored squares; B&W prints black symbols on white, which is cheaper to print and photocopies cleanly. Picking one turns the pages back upright (portrait) and leaves your paper and units as they are, and the watermark, the Stitchmate credit, and the license line too, because those follow your plan. You can't rename, overwrite, or delete them.

What happened to the old built-in presets?

They're under More presets in the Preset menu, below Color and B&W, with the same names and settings. If you had one selected, or a bundle file uses one, it stays that way, so your PDFs come out the same.

Do my presets sync to my other devices?

Yes, when you're signed in: a preset you save on one device shows up on the others. Signed out, presets stay on the device where you made them, and signing out doesn't delete them.

Can one bundle use two presets?

Yes. Each file in a bundle has its own Settings menu, where you pick Same as the panel or one of your presets. So one ZIP can hold an A4 file in centimeters and a Letter file in inches, a landscape copy for wide charts, or a branded copy next to a plain one.