| Tab | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Patterns | Everything you've made or imported |
| Motifs | Your saved motifs and the built-in ones, ready to stamp into a pattern |
| Palettes | Your color palettes: build one from the color chart, from a photo, or a file |
| Stash | The threads you own, so patterns can stick to them |
| Tools | Calculators, color charts and generators that open over Home |
Getting Started
Find your way around Home: start a pattern from a photo, a PDF, a pattern file or a blank grid, and find your patterns, palettes, motifs, stash and tools.
Location: Home (the screen Stitchmate opens on)
Keyboard & modifiers
- Cmd+FCtrl+F
- Search the pattern list (or palettes, on the Palettes tab)
Basics
Home is the screen Stitchmate opens on: your library, plus the ways to start a new pattern. When a handbook page says "Home → Create", it means the Create button here.
The top of Home has the library tabs (Patterns, Motifs, Palettes, Stash, Tools) and, on the right, Help, the light/dark switch, and your account (or Sign In).
Your first pattern
Until you've made something, the Patterns tab is a short start page titled Make your first pattern:
- Turn a photo into a pattern: the main card. Click Choose a photo, or drop a photo anywhere on the page. You see it as a chart right away, then set the size, colors and thread brand. See Image Import.
- Open a pattern file: a PDF chart, or a file from PCStitch, MacStitch, Pattern Maker or Stitchly. Click it to pick the format.
- Start with a blank grid: pick a size and fabric count, then draw it stitch by stitch.
- More ways to start: chips for extras such as Text to pattern and QR code, when they're available.
- Or start from an example: a strip of ready-made patterns to open and explore. Browse all examples shows the rest.
Once you have a pattern, this page is replaced by your library.
The Create panel
Click Create (the + button beside the Patterns heading) to start another pattern. The panel is titled New pattern and has two halves. Hover a row to see what it takes.
Start new
- From an image: convert a photo or artwork. JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC/HEIF and TIFF all work.
- Design from scratch: a blank canvas at a size you choose.
- Open sample pattern: start from a ready-made pattern.
Open a file
- PDF pattern: reads a chart off the page into a pattern you can edit and track. It works on charts drawn with symbols; scans and photographed pages can't be read. See PDF Import.
- MacStitch / WinStitch (.oxs), PCStitch (.pat), Pattern Maker (.xsd), Stitchly (iPad / iPhone) (.stitchly).
- Stitchmate backup (.stitchmate): a pattern you exported from Stitchmate, opened as you saved it.
- Aseprite pixel art (.aseprite, .ase): opens as pixel art. If the file has several frames, you pick one.
You can also skip the panel: drop a photo or a pattern file anywhere on Home, and Stitchmate opens it the right way.
The library tabs
In the Mac and Windows app, Patterns splits in two: On this computer (pattern files in your folders) and In my account.
On a phone the tabs move to a bar at the bottom of the screen.
Your patterns
When you come back, the Patterns tab opens with Pick up where you left off: one card for the pattern you had open last. Click it to open that pattern. If you left a photo conversion unfinished, Finish converting lists it so you can resume.
Below that is your library. Click a pattern card to see its details, with Open in Editor, Export PDF, and Track progress. Each card's ⋮ menu includes Edit, Select, Rename, Duplicate, Share and Delete.
The toolbar above the list sets the layout, the sort order and collections, and Select lets you act on several patterns at once.
Searching your patterns
Click the search icon (Filter by name) to show a search field, then type part of a pattern's name. Or press ⌘F on a Mac (Ctrl+F on Windows) to open the field and jump into it. Click the icon again to clear the search and hide the field.
On the Palettes tab the same key searches your palettes. When no Stitchmate search is on screen, the key opens your browser's own find bar as usual.
Help and the Handbook
Help sits in the top-right corner of Home and of the editor (next to View, Grid and Progress there). It has:
- Handbook: opens this handbook in a new tab, so your pattern stays open. In the photo converter, the first row links to the page for the step you're on.
- Report a problem… and Your reports: tell us about a bug and follow up on it.
- Feedback, Feature Ideas, Bugs: the public feedback board.
- About Stitchmate.
In the editor, Help → Keyboard Shortcuts (or ⌘/ / Ctrl+/) lists the keys. The Keyboard Shortcuts page has the same list with more detail.
What next
- Image Import: turn a photo into a pattern, step by step.
- PDF Import: read a PDF chart you bought into a pattern you can track.
- Editing Colors: change threads, merge colors and work with the palette.
- PDF Export: download a chart to print or sell.
- Progress Tracker: mark stitches off as you work.
- Canvas Navigation: zoom and pan around a pattern.
Tips & gotchas
- Drop files anywhere. You don't have to find the right button: drop a photo or a pattern file on Home and it opens the right way.
- Hover a row in the Create panel to see which files it takes and what it can't read.
- The Handbook opens in a new tab. Close it when you're done; your pattern is still where you left it.
- Can't find a pattern in the desktop app? Check both On this computer and In my account.
- ⌘F / Ctrl+F only takes over when a search is on screen. On other screens it's the browser's find, as usual.