What’s new in Stitchmate

• Stash tracker, redesigned: Based on your requests, the Stash tracker now keeps the quantities of the threads you own. It works with the Editor and the Progress tracker: for any pattern you can see whether you can stitch it from your stash and how much you need to buy, and print a shopping list. As before, you can convert images using only colors from your stash.
• Progress tracker: Mark a whole block at once, customize the grid's block lines, and choose how marked and unmarked stitches look.
• Print at finished size: Print a chart at its real stitched size, ready for printing your own canvas (File → Export).
• Letters and numbers as symbols: Two new symbol styles, ABC and 123, assign letters or numbers to your colors automatically.
• Color themes: Choose one of five themes, or set your own accent and paper colors, in Settings → Color theme.
• Plastic canvas: A new fabric type, in 5, 7, 10 and 14 count.
• Fuse beads: More bead brands to choose from.
• Fixes: Many fixes on iPhone and iPad, and a better Editor on mobile. Motifs now sync across your devices. Converting pixel art and images with transparent pixels no longer breaks.

• Symbol styles (Plus): Palette tools → Symbols lets you pick how your chart's symbols are assigned. Clear (default) mixes shapes and marks so touching colors never look alike. Tonal gives darker threads heavier symbols, so the chart reads like a pencil sketch, great for portraits and landscapes. Shapes uses solid, playful shapes and no letters, easy to spot on a small chart. Letters & Numbers gives each color one letter or digit, easy to say out loud ("now the B's"). Classic is the original order. Preview any style on your own chart before you apply it, and hit Shuffle for another arrangement. Clear and Classic stay free; the other three need Plus. Your existing patterns don't change appearance until you apply a style. Also in the PDF settings, under Chart pages.
• Keep and never-use lists: Tap a color to keep its symbol while you shuffle or switch styles; a symbol you pick by hand is kept for you. Switch off any symbol you don't like and Stitchmate won't hand it out again in any of your patterns. The list follows you to your other devices. The Check tab also spots touching colors whose symbols look alike and fixes them with the smallest change.
• Symbol size and empty squares: View → Customize has a Symbol Size slider, and symbols are a touch smaller by default. Choose Blank or Dots for empty squares in the editor, the progress tracker, the PDF and the PNG.
• Per-page legends in the PDF: A new setting, "Colors used on each page" (Export → PDF → Chart pages), puts a compact legend beside the minimap on every page, listing only the colors that page uses. Multi-page charts only.
• Overlay images: Crop and rotate any picture, free on every plan, and lay several pictures over your chart with Plus or Personal Lifetime. Move, resize, flip, set each one's opacity and drag them into the order you want in the new Overlay tab (on a phone, tap Overlay, then Images). Switch off Keep proportions to stretch a picture, and every step can be undone. Pictures now stay over their stitches when you resize, crop or scale the chart, or add and remove rows and columns. The Match canvas button is gone.
• Faster editor: Painting, zooming and large charts feel smoother.
• Fixes: Fixed importing a saved palette file not working. Also fixed undoing a pattern resize not restoring the old content properly.

• Blended colors: Importing a photo for cross stitch or needlepoint, switch on "Add blended colors" under Color count. Where two threads in one needle match your photo better than any single thread, they're added as extra colors. Tap Review to pick which ones to keep.
• Text tool fixes: A few bug fixes in the text tool.
• Colors used on each page: Charts that span several PDF pages now list, beside the minimap, just the colors that page uses, so you don't have to flip back to the thread key. Switch it on under Export > Pattern Pages > "Colors used on each page" (it's off by default). Turn off "Show color names" under it for codes only.

• Now in Indonesian. Stitchmate is now available in 15 languages! Bahasa Indonesia joins the list. Pick it from the language menu.
• Saved ZIP bundles (Plus). Save the set of files you put in a download ZIP under a name, then download any saved bundle in one click from the ZIP arrow. Your bundles sync to your account, and you can choose how the files inside are named.
• OXS files in ZIP bundles. Add the pattern as an OXS file to any bundle, so buyers can open it in other cross stitch software.
• More PDFs read correctly. The PDF reader now handles more chart styles, including charts printed several times in one file, blackwork charts drawn only in lines, and more key layouts and symbol types.
• Smoother on phones. Bottom sheets open straight at the right height without flashing full screen, PDF import settings open in their own window, and scrolling lists fade at the edges so you can tell there's more.

• Four new interface languages. Stitchmate is now available in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Italian, Korean and Russian. Pick one from the language menu.
• Backstitch thickness in PDF export. The backstitch pages section of the PDF export panel now lets you choose how thick the backstitch lines are drawn.
• Better PDF import. The PDF reader now understands more chart formats and designers, so more of your existing patterns import with the right colors and symbols.
• Tap to unmark in the progress tracker. Tapping a stitch you've already marked now unmarks it, so a slip of the finger is easy to take back.
• Specialty stitches library. Browse a new library of specialty stitches and add them to your pattern.

• Sync all in the desktop app. Every pattern in your account now syncs to the desktop app, and a pattern that only lives in the cloud opens right where it is. A new Sync sheet shows what's waiting, with a badge on the button so you can see at a glance when something needs attention.
• Custom page sizes in PDF export. Need something other than Letter or A4? Choose Custom in the PDF export panel and enter your own page width and height.
• Quarter stitches behave. Moving, selecting, copying and pasting, flipping and rotating now keep quarter (and other partial) stitches exactly as you placed them, instead of snapping them to full stitches.
• PNG and SVG exports match the editor. Backstitch and partial stitches now come out in the exported image the way they look on screen.
• Eyedropper picks up more. It can now sample a backstitch line or a French knot, and it hops back to the draw tool you were using as soon as you've picked a color.

• Evenweave and linen over one thread. Stitching over one instead of two? Pick it in the fabric selector and the count, finished size and thread estimates all follow.
• Green stash dots. Threads you already own now show a green dot in the editor palette and in Progress mode. Hover it for a reminder, and edit your stash from the Home screen.
• Better PDF reading. Charts printed as numbered sections now come through, Pic2Pat charts with two-digit stitch counts and codes are read correctly, and stray backstitch no longer shows up where a cell edge was.
• Cover page respects your margins. The preview on a PDF cover now fills the page up to the margins you chose, instead of always using the standard ones.
• ZIP bundle settings are kept. The files in your ZIP bundle are part of an export preset, and switching to a preset saved before you customised the bundle no longer resets it.
• Backstitch: undo puts a line back on the layer it came from, duplicating or deleting a selection is one undo step, layer order decides what draws on top, and you can duplicate a selection and nudge it with the arrow keys.

Happy stitching!

• Printed charts from a picture. Got a chart as a scan, a screenshot or a phone photo? Open it from Home, choose Printed chart, and Stitchmate finds the grid for you. Check it with the magnifying markers (drag a corner, or the 10 marker to set the square size), then we read the symbols and the key and link them to your threads. Compare the result with your picture side by side, zoomed in, before you start tracking or open it in the editor.
• PDF import reads more charts. Rotated pages, keys that list DMC and Anchor side by side, charts split into tiles of different sizes, and a picture saved with a .pdf name now come through. Both imports ask you to sign in before they start, then carry on by themselves.

Happy stitching!

• No more missing stitches. Stitches pasted after Reduce colors could vanish on the next open. That was our bug, and it's fixed: saving can no longer drop a stitch. A paste that adds colors is now one Undo, and backstitches, French knots and text follow their color when you merge or remove one.
• Thread finishes. Metallic, satin, silk and neon threads show their sheen on the chart and in swatches.
• A new thread brand picker, grouped by kind with real shades and search. Thread search also finds shades by maker names and old names.
• More accurate thread colors. Petite Treasure Braid now has 100 shades and Simply Wool 90. Kreinik Silk Mori, Anchor Marlitt, J. & P. Coats and Glissen Gloss colors come from photos of the real thread, and discontinued shades are marked.
• More files open. PDF import reads charts saved as a picture, and FlossCross and PixelStitch patterns open from Home > Create.
• PDF export. Backstitch pages show the whole chart, chart pages can be switched off, presets keep the chart layout, and lettering over stitches now prints.
• Phones and tablets. Easier touch controls, a tool tab bar and zoom pill on tablets, and a cleaner export screen.

This is a big one. Turning a photo into a pattern is rebuilt from the ground up, and the FLOW score, the palette, the PDF export and the backstitch generator all got a lot of attention along the way.

Photo to pattern in three steps

Many of you asked for this: converting an image is now much simpler, and you don't give up any control or features to get there.

• Photo, Pattern, PDF. Start from Home > Create > From an image. The converter walks you through three steps under one top bar, and you can go back to any step you've finished. Your conversion is saved as a draft, so Resume in the launcher brings you back to the step you left. How it works
• Crop & straighten. Crop to a shape that fits what you're making: Square, Hoop, 8 × 10, 5 × 7, 11 × 14 or A4, in portrait or landscape. A dial straightens a tilted photo, and you can turn, mirror or flip it.
• Erase background. Remove the background automatically, or by hand with Erase, Restore and a magic wand. It's all optional, and a wrong photo is easy to swap: drop a new one anywhere on the step.
• Every setting in one list. The Pattern step has no tabs now. Size, Fabric & threads, Colors, Detail and Clean up sit in one list, and each one opens its own settings with Back and Done. Size starts from Small, Medium, Large and Extra large, each with its finished size and time to stitch.
• Keep details brush. Clean up has its own section. Press Paint and brush over eyes, text or fine lines so Clean up leaves them alone. Clean up also works the same way here as the Confetti Cleanup tool in the editor, so the same strength gives the same result.
• Color styles. Pick Natural, or browse Monochrome, Duotone, Tritone, Tracing and Art styles like Pop Art, Watercolor and Neon Noir. An Art style can grow to 30 colors with shades of its own. Color styles
• Change a thread before you open the editor. Select a color in the palette and press Change thread… to try a different thread on the preview. Keep it with Use it, or go back with Try the color from your photo. The Highlight on chart switch shows the selected colors on their own.
• The PDF is the third step. Get your printable pattern right in the converter, with the same settings and presets as the editor's export. You only need the editor if you want to make changes by hand. The PDF step also gets ready sooner than before.
• Back to Size & colors. From the editor, the Size & colors chip or File > Back to Size & Colors… takes you back to the converter. If you've made changes by hand, you choose which pattern to keep.
• On phones too. Phones get the same three steps, with Back and Continue at the bottom and every setting in one sheet.

A FLOW score that tells you what to do

• Fixes that say what they're worth. The editor's Check tab and the converter show the same FLOW view: confetti, color blocks, palette and threads to manage, weakest first. Point at a fix and the score shows what it would become If applied, before you press anything. FLOW score
• Merge look-alikes in one go. Merge look-alikes and Remove barely used colors each show exactly which colors change. Tap a color to leave it out, or open Color by color to decide one pair at a time.
• Undo right there. Every fix can be undone from the view itself, and it tells you what the fix did to your score.

Palette and colors

• One list of color actions. Right-click a color (or open it on a phone) for the same actions everywhere: Edit color, Change symbol, Duplicate, Select all stitches, Replace, Erase stitches, Remove.
• Highlight on chart. Show one color or a few on their own, and every other color fades back. A chip at the top names them, with Show all to go back.
• Highlight current color. Turn it on in the palette and the chart keeps the color you're working with in front, and the rest fades back. Pick another color and the highlight follows. Select a few colors and it shows them together, handy before a merge. Show all on the chip turns it off.
• Keyboard friendly. Arrow keys move through the palette, thread lists and the color grid, and ⌘F (Ctrl+F on Windows) jumps to the search in thread pickers, the font list and your pattern library. Keyboard shortcuts
• Palettes tab. Search your palettes by name or thread, and select several to delete at once.

PDF export

Same power, with a much cleaner panel, and the right setting is easier to find.

• One list, no modes. The export panel is a single list for everyone, with no Quick and Advanced to switch between. Setup at the top holds paper, chart style and how the chart is split, and each page of your PDF opens onto its own settings. PDF export
• Presets. Save a look and reuse it. A preset keeps its cover text and number format too, so a preset for buyers abroad can print 1.234,56 while your editor keeps its own. Export presets
• Extra thread. The thread key has its own Extra thread card: add a margin to buy, and a note under the heading that says how much.
• Formatting in every field. A Formatting link next to text fields lists placeholders like the pattern's name or stitch count, and links you write print as links you can click.
• Pattern Keeper file is now a box you tick, not a mode. On a phone, each page's settings open in a sheet of their own, closed with Done.

Read your PDF patterns

• Import a chart PDF (early access). Bought a pattern as a PDF? Home > Create > PDF pattern reads it into an editable pattern you can track stitch by stitch. We check the reading against the stitch counts printed in the key, so you know which colors to look at. It works with charts drawn with symbols, not scans. PDF import
• A new Create panel. Everything you can start from now lives in one place: a photo, a blank grid, a sample, a PDF, or a file from MacStitch, WinStitch, PCStitch, Pattern Maker and more. Getting started

Also new

• Rulers in centimeters or inches. In Grid and Ruler Settings, Measure in can show real lengths for your fabric instead of stitch counts. It follows the units in Settings.
• Unitas Ljubica threads. All 303 shades of the Croatian floss are in the thread library, with a color chart of their own.
• Coats Puppets colors fixed. The Puppets Mouliné swatches were well off the real thread, so we resampled the whole range from scans of the physical thread card. Patterns that use Puppets threads show colors that match what you'll stitch.
• More thread brands fixed. Valdani now uses the maker's own shade names and colors, and has 326 shades. Anchor, Luca-S, PNK Kirov, Weeks Dye Works, Classic Colorworks and Crescent Colours colors now come from photos of the real thread, and Anchor's darker shades are no longer shown too dark. Weeks Dye Works has its 14 newest colors, ThreadworX 73 more, Rainbow Gallery 136 newer Splendor, Neon Rays and Fyre Werks shades, and Caron 117 Soie Cristale solids. Mill Hill beads use the maker's names and colors and now list 523 beads. The Gentle Art wool is now its real Simply Wool range, with colors from photos of each skein. Madeira Rayon uses the maker's own shade names and colors, and has all 387 current shades. DMC Satin and DMC Light Effects colors now come from DMC's own photos of each thread. Gamma, Madeira floss, ThreadworX, Rainbow Gallery and Caron colors now come from photos of each thread, and Madeira's darker shades are no longer shown too dark. Kreinik lists only its metallics, and Diamond Drills USA lists each drill once.
• A rebuilt backstitch generator. It traces whole outlines instead of short dashes, keeps the longest and clearest lines first, and stays out of busy textures. Find it on the Pattern step under Backstitch, or in the editor under Pattern > Generate Backstitch from Image…. The Lines slider shows how many lines, stitches and how much time you're adding, and Trace from can follow your photo or the chart's own colors. Contrast boost now starts at half strength, so washed-out photos still get outlines. Backstitch
• Progress stays honest. Progress mode no longer rounds up to 100% while a stitch is left. It stops at 99% until the last one is done.
• View, Grid and Progress moved to the top right of the editor, next to Help.
• Keyboard shortcuts that do what they say. ⌘/ (Ctrl+/) opens the shortcut list in the browser too, M picks the Motifs tool, Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes on Windows, ⌘F no longer fills a selection, and ⌘S no longer shrinks the brush. The shortcut list now shows only the keys that work where you are. Keyboard shortcuts
• PCStitch 11 files. .pat files from PCStitch 11 open with all their stitches, including charts that aren't square, and palettes from PCStitch 8 and later keep their exact colors, beads included.

Happy stitching!

• The three steps of the converter now look like one panel. Photo, Pattern and PDF share the same headings, the same cards and the same spacing, so moving from one step to the next no longer feels like changing apps. Every PDF setting is where it was, on the front page and behind each page's row.
• PDF settings are easier to read. Group names are plain headings above their settings instead of small capitals on a tinted strip, labels and notes are larger, and the line explaining a choice sits right under it.
• Settings, Check and Backstitch are one switch at the top of the Pattern step, the same control you pick your paper size with.
• A Back button on every settings view. Size, Canvas & threads, Color style, Fine-tune and Palette open under a bar with a labelled Back; Done is still at the foot.
• Your photo scrolls with the settings. The photo card at the top of the Pattern step is part of the list now, so it no longer takes room while you work further down, and it stays out of the way inside a settings view.
• Help starts from where you are. In the converter, the Help menu opens with the Handbook guide for the step in front of you: turning an image into a pattern on Photo and Pattern, the PDF settings on PDF.
• Back sits beside the main button. On smaller screens Back used to shrink to an icon over a tiny label next to a large Get PDF; the two are the same height and shape now.

• PCStitch 11 (.pat) files: Charts that aren't square now import with all their stitches. Before, only the colors came through and the canvas was empty.
• ZIP bundle contents: When you take Preview image out of your bundle, the ZIP now leaves it out too. It used to be added every time.

Happy stitching!

• No more Quick and Advanced. The export panel is one list for everyone. Setup at the top holds the three choices that shape every page — paper, chart style, and how the chart is split — each with a line saying what your choice means. In the PDF lists the pages in print order, and every page opens onto its own settings. The two seller tools, the Preset menu and the search, sit in the strip above.
• Pattern Keeper is a box, not a mode. Tick Pattern Keeper file under What you’ll download for a chart-and-key PDF the Pattern Keeper app can import, in place of the print PDF. While it's ticked the rest of the panel fades rather than disappearing, so you can see your settings are kept for when you untick it.
• One bar over each page's settings. A page's screen opens under a single bar: the way back, the page's name, and the pages it takes up. A page that can be left out starts with its own switch. The chart pages no longer carry a switch that couldn't be switched.
• Every setting on one line shape. Every choice sits under its label, full width, so the label column never moves from row to row. A page that's off now says what it is — "Where each chart page sits" — instead of "Not in the PDF".
• Symbol size moved next to the grid. It sits on the Chart pages screen, under Symbols, since it draws inside the chart's own cells. Margins, units, type, page numbers and the watermark are behind the Every page row at the end of Setup.
• Number format is the PDF's own, like its units. Under Every page → Paper & measurements, Number format starts on Match editor and can be set to 1,234.56 or 1.234,56 for this PDF; a preset carries it, so a preset for buyers abroad can write commas while your editor keeps points. The editor's own number format moved to Settings, next to the units.
• A real Back button, and Escape steps back. A page's settings open under a bar with a labelled Back button, big enough to tap. Escape closes the search if it's open, then goes back to the list, and only then closes the export screen.
• The panel moves as you drill in and out. A page's settings slide in from the right and the list slides back from the left, the search slides in from its button, and the rest of the panel fades when Pattern Keeper takes over. Reduced motion keeps the fades and drops the travel.
• Placeholders and links in every heading. A Formatting link beside each one-line field — the running header, the license line, the section map's heading, subtitle and caption, the instructions and thread key headings, the chart page heading, the thread note and the cover print warning — opens the list of {{placeholders}} and puts one in where the cursor is, and a [link](https://…) prints as a link you can click. The cover title, the watermark and the calibration bar's caption take the placeholders alone.
• Fields in the page's order. On the Instructions page the heading comes first and the text under it, as the page prints; on the Thread key and Chart pages the heading's card comes before the rows and the grid.
• “Page label”, not “Heading”, on the chart pages. The bottom-left line under the minimap is called what it is, and the card says where the title at the top left comes from: the running header, under Every page.
• Your fabric in the fabric list. The Finished size on other fabrics list shows the fabric your pattern is stitched on among the rows, marked Your fabric and placed where the page prints it, instead of a sentence saying it's always included.

• Keep your exact colors: Pixel art imports now ask what the colors should become. Choose Exact colors to keep every shade exactly as drawn, or Threads (Drills for diamond painting) to match each one to its own closest thread. Your choice is remembered for next time.
• Close shades stay separate: Similar colors, like several grays, no longer merge on import. The Colors to keep slider now goes all the way up to the original count, so you decide what to combine.
• AI and compressed pixel art: Pixel art saved as JPEG or WebP, or made with an AI image tool (uneven, blurry pixels included), is now recognized and rebuilt at its true size with clean colors. Upscaled pixel art also comes in at the right size more often. A 10× image no longer turns into a pattern five times too big.

Happy stitching!

Bought a chart as a PDF? Import it and it becomes an editable pattern you can track stitch by stitch in Progress mode. We check the reading against the stitch counts printed in the key, so you know which colors to compare before you start. It works with charts drawn with symbols, not scans. It's free during early access and needs a free account. Find it in the launcher under "Import a PDF pattern", in File > Import PDF Pattern, or in Progress mode.

Happy stitching!

• PCStitch (.pat) imports: Colors no longer come in as black or shifted to the wrong thread, and imported patterns are named after the file instead of "PCStitch Pattern".
• Discontinued DMC threads: DMC 3880–3895 are now recognized. Discontinued threads get a warning badge in the palette, and Edit Color and the Check tab offer a one-click switch to DMC's suggested replacement.
• Smaller fixes: Switch Thread Brand keeps your existing DMC codes instead of swapping them for near matches, and codes like DMC 9 and Ecru now match correctly.

Happy stitching!

• Change a color inside a selection: select an area, then use Change color or right-click a color and choose Replace in selection. Pick "Selection" and only the stitches inside it change; the rest of the pattern keeps its thread. Preview as many threads as you like before you click Apply — only the final change goes into your undo history, as one step. You'll also find Change Color in Selection… in the Select menu and when you right-click a selection.
• Select whole rows and columns: click a number on the ruler to take that row or column, or drag along the ruler for a run of them; right-click for fill, clear, insert and delete. Drag a selected row or column and drop it somewhere else and everything in between slides over to make room. Dragging is steadier, too — a column holds to horizontal instead of slipping a stitch off-axis, and stops at the edge of the chart; hold Shift to lock any selection to one direction. If you'd rather type the numbers, Select rows… and Select columns… are in the Select menu.
• Colors on the instructions page: it counted threads you'd added to your palette but never stitched, so it could disagree with the thread key. It now counts the same threads the key lists.

Happy stitching!

• Count in fives. Your chart can now highlight every fifth grid line, sitting between the light single-stitch lines and the heavy block lines — the way most printed charts do it, so counting across a row is quicker. Turn it on with Highlight every 5th line in Export → Pattern Pages.
• Number as finely as you like. The row and column numbers used to appear every ten and every five, and that was that. Number every now lets you choose Auto, 1, 2, 5 or 10. Numbering every stitch makes small charts much easier to follow; the numbers shrink to fit the cells, so on a very large chart they can get small.
• Leave out the pages you don't want. You could already drop the instructions page. Now the cover page and the thread key can go too, so you can send just the chart. Look for Include cover page in Export → Cover Page, and Include thread key pages in Export → Thread Key.
• Numbers that sit on their lines. If you number your chart from the center rather than the corner, the numbers could end up one stitch away from the grid line they belonged to. They now line up exactly.
• Export the realistic preview as an image. The fabric-and-thread preview you see in the editor can now be downloaded as a PNG, not just the chart styles. Pick Realistic in the Export PNG window — handy for listing photos and for showing people what a design will look like stitched.
• Pasting works on iPad again. Text fields would not offer Paste on a long press, and a double tap would not select a word, which between them left no way at all to paste into a field. Both gestures are back.

The same Stitchmate you already know, now as a proper desktop app for Windows and Mac.

It works 100% offline — no internet, no waiting, no tab to lose. Your patterns are saved straight to your own computer, and they sync to your Stitchmate account only if you choose to turn that on.

Download it here and stitch anywhere. Happy stitching!

Draw with a pen and how hard you press changes how wide the brush paints.

• Pressure-sensitive brush. A light touch lays a thin line; leaning in widens it, up to whatever Brush size is set to. It works with any stylus your browser reports pressure for — Apple Pencil on an iPad, the S Pen on an Android tablet, a graphics tablet plugged into a laptop. It switches itself on the first time you use a pen, and the info bar tells you it has.
• You set the range, not us. Open Size in the brush options bar and the panel grows a Pressure section: Lightest touch is the thin end, and Response (Soft / Even / Firm) sets how hard you have to press to reach the full size. Hands and hardware differ, so if pressure feels wrong, Response is usually the thing to change. The tile in the toolbar reads the range — Size 2–8 — so you can see it without opening anything.
• Easy to turn off. Switch Pressure off and Size goes back to being one plain slider. Faster still, right-click (or Cmd/Ctrl-click) the Size tile to toggle it without opening the panel; it remembers your range for when you switch back. If you never pick up a pen, nothing about the brush changes — a mouse or trackpad always paints the full size.
• Finger pans, pen draws. A tablet setting that has quietly existed for a while and had no way to switch it on. Now in Settings → Stylus: one finger moves the chart around instead of drawing on it, so the stylus is the only thing that paints.

Full details in the Brush handbook page.

• A line to keep your place. Follow Mode has a new Line tool (L), like the magnetic ruler on a paper chart. Tap a row to lay the line across it, and tap again to turn it. Press Enter to mark the stretch under it done and move the line to the next one. Hold V to peek at the finished design. A new Worked view shows finished stitches in full color and fades the rest.
• The Check tab fixes what it finds. Every suggestion has a button that fixes it: merge two near-identical colors, drop a color used for only a few stitches, or clean up confetti. Apply all takes you through them one at a time.
• Your library on a phone. The home screen now works on a phone, with its tabs along the bottom. You can also download patterns as .stitchmate files: one at a time, or a selection as a ZIP.
• Many other quality-of-life improvements based on your feedback. Reduce Colors now actually removes the colors it merges. Motifs move with the pattern when you crop or resize. Every pass can export a pattern of any size. You can import TIFF images. Patterns open faster, and text is easier to read in dark mode.

Backstitch got a big rework, and symmetry came along with it.

• Backstitch shapes. 24 ready-made outlines (circles, hearts, stars, leaves, moons and more) under Shapes on the backstitch bar. Drag one out to any size and rotate it; curves stay smooth however big you go. They're in the motif library too.
• Easier outlining. Backstitch now draws a connected line by default: click to add points, then Finish or Cancel. While you draw, a small label shows how long the current segment is, and holding Shift snaps it to 45°.
• Adjust before you place. Shapes, lines and gradients now wait in a frame after you drag them out. Move, resize or rotate the frame, then press Enter to place it or Esc to cancel.
• Symmetry you can see and move. Symmetry has its own panel, the mirror lines show on the chart, and you can drag the center anywhere. It works for backstitch too: outline half a border and the other half appears.

Happy stitching!

A big editor update: reusable motifs, counting from the middle, and layers that carry everything on them.

• Motifs. Save any part of a chart as a motif and place it again wherever you like: on this pattern, on your next one, as many times as you want. Drag it into position, scale, rotate, flip or warp it, and flatten it into stitches when it sits right; its backstitches come along. A built-in library of animals, food, seasonal pieces and symbols gets you started, and your own motifs live on the home screen under Motifs, where you can rename them, tag them and sort them into folders. Open one there to edit it and save it back. In the editor: the Motif tool in the left toolbar, or select some stitches and choose Save as motif.
• Count from the center. Hover a stitch and the bottom bar tells you how far it is from the center lines ("3 left of center · 2 above center"). A selection's label shows how many cells sit on each side of the center, so "am I even?" is a glance. And rulers can now number from the center, 0 on the center lines and growing outward: View settings > Rulers, or App Settings > Ruler Numbers. The same option is in the PDF and SVG export, so the printed chart counts the way you stitch.
• Layers carry their lines. Backstitches, French knots, beads, text and motifs now belong to the layer they were made on: hide the layer and they hide, delete it and they go, duplicate or flatten it and they come along. Right-click one for Move to layer. French knots and beads got a right-click menu of their own.
• Move a selection, lines and all. Move mode drags the stitches; the outline's backstitches and embellishments travel with them when you want them to (the toggles are in the selection menu). Paste lands ready to move, the selection box and handles show at every zoom, and rotating shows the angle, with Shift snapping to 45°.
• Reference image. A Lock button keeps the overlay from moving under a stray drag, and crafts with backstitch get an "Above backstitches" layer order.
• Faster on big charts. Selecting, moving and transforming on a 2000×2000 chart no longer stalls between frames.

Happy stitching!

A round of polish for working on a smaller screen.

• Tablet and phone layout. Menus, panels and the drawing surface got a tidy-up so the editor feels at home on a tablet or a phone, not like a shrunken desktop. We tested it on a Samsung Galaxy Tab with the S Pen and on an iPad with the Apple Pencil, and it stays smooth on both.
• Text in PNG and SVG exports. Text you added to a pattern used to come out as an empty patch in PNG and SVG charts. It now shows up exactly as it does in the editor.

Vector charts, plus a big pass over the editor on touch devices.

• Export your chart as an SVG. A proper vector chart that stays sharp at any size and prints at true measurements — one square lands on a real size on paper. Choose full color or black and white, and add a color key alongside the chart. Top-left menu > Export > SVG. It's also one of the files you can tick into your download bundle, so it goes out with the rest of your listing in a single ZIP. A Seller feature — every tier can open it and preview the chart before deciding.
• A roomier editor on phones and tablets. The touch layout got a rework, with a lot more room for the pattern itself. Tested on iPhone and on iPad with Apple Pencil; Android tablet testing is coming shortly.
• PDF export works on iPhone and iPad again. The PDF preview failed to load on iOS Safari — nothing rendered at all. Fixed, along with a separate crash on older iPads when importing a photo.

Plus a handful of smaller fixes from real-device testing.

PDF export got a tidy-up and two things sellers have been asking for.

• A cleaner export panel. The settings are regrouped so the things you touch every time sit at the top, and the fiddly knobs are tucked away until you want them. Same options, a lot less scrolling.
• Your own cover and back pages. Upload a PDF and it becomes the front cover, the back page, or both — your branding, your care notes, your shop links, printed as part of the pattern. Export settings > Your own pages. A Seller feature: every tier can build and preview it, and the download comes unstamped on the Seller plan.
• Download everything as one ZIP. Choose which files go in — the PDF, a preview image, a black-and-white chart, a Pattern Keeper file, and more — name them the way you want, and get a single archive ready to list. Export settings > Download bundle.

Plus a few bug fixes along the way. Happy stitching!

Marking off your outlines in progress mode just got a lot nicer.

• Drag along a line to mark it. No more tapping segment by segment — sweep along an outline and everything you cross is marked. Dragging with the unmark tool (or the right mouse button) clears the same way.
• The color list follows your outlines. With the target set to Backstitch, the panel lists your outline colors with their own counts and mark-all actions, and picking one highlights what's left of it on the chart.
• "Only the chosen color" now covers backstitch too. With a color picked, a drag along a mixed outline marks only that color's lines — and undo now works for backstitch marks, just like stitches.

Happy stitching!

The biggest release of the year: a way to track what you've stitched, a proper home for your colors, outlines generated for you, and two new crafts.

• Track your progress as you stitch. Open a pattern in progress mode and mark off what's done — the chart remembers, so you always know where you were. Park a thread you'll come back to, flag a mistake to frog, and highlight the block you're working. Your library shows how far along every project is, and the progress syncs across your devices.
• Backstitch, generated for you. Outlines traced from your photo and added as real, editable backstitch — the detail that makes a face read as a face. From image import, or the backstitch tool in the editor. It's algorithmic, never AI. It's best viewed as a good starting point and inspiration: expect to spend a bit of time cleaning up stray backstitches or add some by hand.
• A real editor for your palettes and your stash. Build a palette from any brand's catalogue, drop in a photo to pull its colors out, remap the whole thing to another brand, and see it as cloth rather than a list of chips — which colors carry the piece, what sits against what, where the gaps are. Your stash lives beside it: mark what you own, edit it a brand at a time, and convert photos using only the threads in your box. Signed in, both follow you between devices.
• Fuse beads and C2C crochet. Two more crafts in the same editor. Perler-style bead charts on a pegboard rather than cloth, with bead palettes from five brands. And corner-to-corner graphghans: the diagonal chart, a row panel that keeps your place while you work, written row-by-row instructions in the PDF and as a text file, and yarn worked out by the yard. Like every craft here they speak their own language, down to the materials and the export.
• A map of the pattern in your PDF. One page near the front shows the whole design small, with the page grid drawn over it and every section labelled — so "which page is the cat's face on?" is answered before you start hunting. Export settings > Section Map.
• Print at true size. Needlepoint, diamond painting and fuse beads charts print 1:1 with the finished piece, with a calibration bar on every page. Export settings > Tile Size > Actual size.
• A steadier canvas. Lock scrolling from the zoom pill so a stray trackpad swipe can't shift your work mid-stitch, plus a long list of fixes across the editor, the library and PDF export.

Happy stitching!

The home screen now leads with your work instead of a welcome mat, plus two export fixes that came in from sellers.

• Your patterns, front and center. The big "Make a new pattern" box no longer takes the top of the screen once you have work to come back to — your library does. Unfinished conversions sit in their own column beside it and stay put as you scroll, and you can still drop an image anywhere on the page to start a pattern.
• Find any pattern fast. Filter your library by name, and sort by last modified, date created, name, color count or size. Three layout modes now sit behind one control, with a roomier grid as the default so thumbnails are actually big enough to recognize — and every tile shows its size and color count without hovering.
• Line breaks in cover text. Typing Enter in the cover fields printed as one long line, and a blank line between two paragraphs disappeared entirely. Your line breaks now come through exactly as typed, and the Author field has room for two lines so your name can sit above your shop link. Thank you to the seller who reported this.
• Chart alignment is yours to pick. Chart tiles anchor to the top left of the page by default, but you can switch back to centered under Export settings > Pattern Pages > Chart alignment — handy if you trim or mount your pages.

Happy stitching!

• Stitchmate is now a multi-craft editor. Cross stitch, needlepoint, and diamond painting are all first-class: pick the craft when you create a pattern, and every surface follows — the tools, the rendering, the materials, and the vocabulary. Tent stitches on mesh canvas, drills on adhesive canvas, crosses on Aida.
• Convert patterns between crafts in one step. File → Convert Craft (or the Pattern Information dialog) turns a cross stitch chart into needlepoint or diamond painting and back. Anything the target craft can't hold is listed before you confirm, and a single Ctrl+Z restores everything.
• Each craft speaks its own language. The editor, legends, and PDFs say plies and mesh for needlepoint, drills and packs for diamond painting — down to craft-specific stitching instructions written for how each craft is actually worked.
• Craft-true materials. Wool brands (including all 430 Appleton shades) for needlepoint, drill color systems (DMC codes plus Diamond Dotz, Artdot, and Diamond Drills USA) for diamond painting, and 50+ floss brands for cross stitch.

A round of polish across the editor and PDF export.

• One menu instead of two. The editor's ☰ button duplicated the menu bar along the top, so it's retired on desktop. Everything lives in the menu bar now — including Back Home under File, feedback links under Help, and a proper Help > About.
• Backstitches stay put. After reopening a saved pattern, editing a newly drawn backstitch, knot or bead could move an older one instead — and undo sometimes removed the wrong line. Fixed. Thank you to the stitchers who wrote in about this one.
• Running page headers. Exported PDFs can show the pattern name and page number on every page, and titles, footers and margins now line up with the chart content properly. Chart tiles anchor to the top left of the page, and lists on instruction pages get room to breathe.
• Cleaner undo history. Picking the fabric colour you already had no longer adds a do-nothing step to undo.

Happy stitching!

• Diamond painting is now a craft you can pick. Choose it when you create a new pattern, or convert an existing chart from Pattern Information. Cells are drills — one color per cell, no partial stitches.
• Round or square drills. Pick the drill shape when you create the pattern and switch it any time from Pattern Information. The editor canvas renders round drills as real domed circles, and every size estimate uses true drill dimensions (2.5 mm square, 2.8 mm round). Chart pages stay a crisp working grid of squares — easy to count, easy to print.
• Drill colors, not floss. The legend counts drills and packs instead of skeins and strands, and the PDF instructions speak diamond painting: canvas adhesive, pen wax, and checking off symbols as you go.
• Photos convert to diamond painting too. Pick Diamond painting in the import panel and the preview redraws as drills straight away, sized for drill density rather than stitch count.

• Needlepoint is now a craft you can pick. Choose it when you create a new pattern, or convert an existing cross-stitch chart from Pattern Information. Tent stitches render as a single diagonal per cell in the editor, in PDF charts, and in SVG exports.
• Canvas, not fabric. Pick from eight mesh sizes (10 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 24 / 28), and the finished-size readout does the math for you. The chart legend and PDF instructions say "canvas" and "mesh" instead of "fabric" and "count".
• Photos convert to needlepoint too. Pick Needlepoint in the import panel and the preview redraws as tent stitches straight away — what you see while you tune the colors is what you get.
• Cross stitch ↔ needlepoint is non-destructive. The stitch data is the same underneath, so switching back and forth keeps your backstitch, French knots, and beads. Partial stitches that needlepoint can't work convert to tent, in one undoable step.
• A new three-step setup. Creating a pattern now walks you through project type, canvas and size, then colors — with the finished size shown before you commit to it.

A handful of export fixes, most of them from stitchers writing in. Thank you.

• Your fabric colour on the cover. Cover pages and share images were always mounted on white, even when you'd picked a different fabric for the design. They now use your fabric — or choose your own under Export settings > Cover Page > Preview fabric.
• A border around every preview. An uploaded cover image printed without the black border the other preview styles had. They match now, and the new Image Border Options let you change its thickness, padding and colour, round the corners, or crop the preview to a circle.
• Colour names print properly. Names containing "ff", "fi" or "fl" — Coffee Brown, Off White, Dark Fireside — came out mangled on the thread key, and copying them out of the PDF gave nonsense characters. Both fixed.
• Finished size, both ways. With Number format on Auto, inches and centimetres each use their own style: 7.14" and 18,1 cm.

Happy stitching!

If you've imported an .oxs, .pat or .xsd file and thought the colors looked a little off, they were: we were quietly swapping each one for the nearest thread in our library. Your file's colors and your own names for them now come through exactly as you saved them, and the thread key prints those names too. Where your file names a real thread code, we still show it, so your shopping list is unchanged.

A few other fixes in the same area:

• Partial stitches from imported files — quarter and half stitches sometimes drew as full crosses until you touched the palette. They're right from the moment the file opens.
• Replace Color — opens at the closest matching thread to the one you're replacing, centred in the list, instead of at the top of several hundred colors.
• Cover image — the Upload, Replace and Remove buttons only responded near one edge, and Remove didn't actually remove. All three work properly now.
• Cover page preview — the simple style no longer comes out cropped.
• Numbers in your PDF — a new Number format setting under Export settings > Page Settings lets you pick 1,234.56 or 1.234,56 regardless of whether you work in inches or centimetres. Leave it on Auto and nothing changes.

Happy stitching!

If you've tried tracing over a reference photo, you may have noticed it came out squashed. The overlay image was being stretched to fill your whole grid, so unless your photo happened to have exactly the same proportions as your pattern, it arrived distorted — and there was no way to nudge it back. Thank you to the stitcher who wrote in about this.

Your photo now keeps its own shape, and you can put it exactly where you want it. Pick the Overlay tool in the left toolbar, load an image, then:

• Drag it to move, drag a corner to resize. The proportions are held for you, so it can't get squashed again.
• Fit, Fill, and 1px per stitch. Under Position in the tool bar. Fit centers the whole photo in your grid, Fill covers the grid and trims the edges, and 1px per stitch lines one pixel of your photo up with one stitch — handy for pixel art. Fit also puts everything back if you've moved things around.
• Match canvas to image. If your grid is the wrong shape for your photo, this resizes the canvas to suit — 61 × 31 photo, 61 × 31 grid, one click. Your existing stitches aren't stretched, the canvas just changes shape around them.

Where you put the photo is saved with your pattern, so it's still there when you come back to it.

Happy stitching!

A few of you wrote in over the past weeks to say a pattern had gone backwards — hours of stitching charted out, and then one day it opened looking like it did days earlier. Thank you for telling us, and sorry. Losing that is horrible, and it was our fault.

The honest reason it couldn't be undone: we only ever kept one copy of each pattern. Whatever was saved last won, and there was nothing behind it to go back to.

That's changed. Stitchmate now keeps your earlier versions as you work. Open File > Version History on any pattern to see them, and restore one if something has gone wrong. Restoring makes a copy — your current pattern stays exactly where it is, so you can compare the two and keep whichever you want.

Two smaller things came with it:

• No more "which version do you want to keep?" If your computer and our servers ever disagree, we keep the newer one and tell you afterwards. It was never a fair question to ask — you couldn't see either version to choose between them, and now you don't have to.
• Old copies can't overwrite newer ones. If anything ever thinks your work is missing when it isn't, it will leave it alone instead of writing over it.

Happy stitching!

Gradients used to blend exactly two colors — your primary and secondary. Now they'll blend as many as you like. This one started as a suggestion from a StitchMate user.

Select two or more colors in your palette (Cmd/Ctrl+click to add them one at a time, or Shift+click for a whole range) and they become the gradient's stops, in the order you picked them. Drag across your pattern and it blends from the first to the last. Gradient lives in the Fill dropdown in the left toolbar.

It's especially good with a shade family — pick four or five neighboring shades light to dark, drag once, and you get shading you'd otherwise be counting out by hand.

• Adjust where each color sits: click the ramp chip in the toolbar to open the stop editor. Move any middle color earlier or later in the blend, reverse the whole ramp, or reset it to even spacing.
• Straight angles you can see: holding Shift has always snapped the gradient to neat angles, but nothing on screen showed it. The direction arrow snaps now too.
• Modifiers respond straight away: pressing Shift or Alt mid-drag updates the preview immediately instead of waiting for you to move the mouse.

There's a new handbook page for the tool as well, if you'd like the full tour.

Patterns that wouldn't stay saved. A few of you wrote in about work going missing — patterns vanishing from your library, or edits gone after coming back to the app. Thank you for telling us, and sorry it took a while.

The cause was your browser running out of room to store your pattern list. Once it was full, saving quietly stopped working while the app carried on saying everything was fine. That was the worst part of it, and it's the part we've fixed hardest: your library has moved to storage with room to spare, so it's no longer something you can run out of, and if a save ever does fail you'll now be told instead of finding out later.

A few things came along with it:

• Missing pattern previews come back on their own. If your library was showing blank cards, they'll fill themselves back in next time you open it. Nothing was lost — the pictures just weren't being found.
• Deleted patterns stay deleted. If you had two tabs open, deleting a pattern in one could bring it back from the other. It won't now.
• A heads-up when the same pattern is open twice. Editing one pattern in two tabs meant whichever tab saved last quietly won. You'll get a warning now, so you can close the other one before it costs you anything.

Happy stitching!

Open a pattern PDF in Illustrator and it used to greet you with a list of missing fonts, then quietly replace your symbols with empty boxes. Export settings > Vector Editing fixes that.

Tick Outline symbols and every symbol becomes an editable shape rather than text, so there's no font to go missing and nothing to substitute. Resize the chart, recolor it, pull it apart — the symbols stay exactly as you drew them. It costs about one percent on file size and prints identically.

For a file with no fonts in it at all, also pick Helvetica (standard) as your PDF font under Page Settings. Between the two, the document opens with no warnings whatsoever, and your titles and thread codes are still real text you can edit. One thing to know: Helvetica covers Latin characters only, so if your pattern has Cyrillic in it, stick with one of the other fonts — we'll warn you in the font picker either way.

If you'd rather keep symbols as text, Download font hands you the symbol font to install. It's built for one pattern specifically, so it won't match another pattern's chart.

Fonts embedded in your PDFs now also carry proper names instead of a different set of random numbers on every export — so if a program does ask about a font, the name it shows you is one you can actually look up.

Separately, Symbol size under Pattern Pages is now a real control. It sets how big symbols are drawn inside each square, from 50% to 120%, so you can leave more of the color showing or make a busy chart easier to read. The thread key keeps its own size, so your legend stays legible whatever you do to the chart.

Happy stitching!

Export settings > Page Settings now lets you pick the document font — six families, three sans and three serif, all covering Cyrillic as well as Latin — plus a text size for the thread key and headings. Noto Sans is the new default: the old built-in font couldn't render Cyrillic at all, so patterns with Russian or Ukrainian text quietly lost it.

Every piece of text the PDF prints is now yours to write: the cover title and its description, the instructions page, the thread key heading, the chart page and backstitch labels, the page numbering, the author and license lines. They take bold, italic, links, and {{tokens}} that fill in each pattern's own details — name, stitch count, colors, fabric, finished size, year. Nothing is fixed to English, so you can localize a whole document, and your wording saves with your export presets so you set it once. Cover text is the exception: it describes the pattern in front of you, so it stays with the pattern rather than following a preset onto the next one.

Also in this release: a batch of PDF export fixes.

You can now work a pattern in up to 6 strands instead of 4 — handy for binca and other low-count fabrics where two strands disappear into the weave. A full DMC skein is six strands, so that's the whole range covered.

Blended colors got the same lift. A blend can now mix up to 6 threads in the needle rather than 4, and you can assign which thread sits on which strand.

• See your threads sooner: in the realistic view, a blend used to show as one averaged color until you zoomed right in. The individual thread colors now come through at ordinary working zoom, so you can see how a blend really reads while you stitch.
• Tidier palette: long blend names like "DMC 3371 + 3031 + 920 + 936 + 519 + 939" no longer spill out of the palette. They're neatly shortened, and hovering shows the full list.
• Strand count in the tooltip: hover any color in the palette to see how many strands it's set to.

If you open a saved pattern that already used 5 or 6 strands, it will now load with the right count — previously those came back as 2.

Happy stitching!

If you track your stitching in Pattern Keeper, your patterns will now open in it.

Tick Export for Pattern Keeper at the top of the export settings, and that's the whole job — no options to work through. You get a two-page PDF: your chart on a single sheet, and the thread key after it. Import it into Pattern Keeper and tick off your stitches as you go.

A couple of things worth knowing. Pattern Keeper doesn't support backstitch or partial stitches, so those are left out of this export — if your pattern has any, we'll tell you exactly how many before you download, and your normal PDF still has everything. And because the whole chart goes on one sheet, a big design makes for a very large page; it's made for the screen rather than the printer, so keep using your normal export for paper.

Happy stitching!

Stitchly patterns now open in Stitchmate. If you design on an iPad in Stitchly, you can bring those patterns over — drop a .stitchly file straight onto the editor, or pick Import pattern > Stitchly (.stitchly). Everything comes across: half, quarter and three-quarter stitches, backstitch, French knots, beads, and your real DMC colors. There's also a Stitchly file opener if you just want to look at a pattern, print it, or send it to PDF without opening the editor — handy when your iPad isn't to hand.

Printable graph paper, at your fabric count. The new graph paper generator makes blank counted grids for charting by hand — pick your count (or a fabric preset, which sorts out the over-2 math for evenweave and linen), choose A4, Letter, Legal, A3 or Tabloid, and download. Every sheet prints a 1-inch and 1-cm ruler along the top so you can check with a real ruler that your printer hasn't quietly shrunk it — the single most common way hand-charting goes wrong. Squares per inch or per 10 cm, center crosshair, hoop guide, and PDF, PNG or SVG.

Backstitch gets its own pages. Your chart now comes through clean, with the backstitch on a second set of pages after it — so you can work the crosses from a grid where nothing covers the symbols, then go back and add the outlines. Only pages that actually have backstitch are included, so a six-page chart usually adds one or two, not six. On by default; there's a switch under Pattern Pages if you'd rather have it all on one chart. Thanks to the stitcher who wrote in asking for this.

Two new options in the thread key (Export settings > Thread Key), both saved with your presets:

• Show color names: your key now lists each color's name beside its code, so you can see "Very Dark Garnet" instead of matching up "DMC 814" in your head. On by default. Names that just repeat the code are left out. With thread usage on as well, the key uses one wider column per page so the names have room.
• Show stitch count per color: adds a column showing how many stitches use each color. Off by default — handy for working out what to tackle first.

Also fixed:

• Black & white exports are properly black and white. The thread key was printing colored swatches and symbols, and backstitch lines were told apart by color — which on a mono printer means not at all. Backstitch now uses solid, dashed and dotted lines, and the key matches the chart.
• The same color at two strand counts is now two entries. If you backstitch DMC 152 in both 2 and 4 strands, they get their own line styles and their own rows in the key, instead of being merged into one.
• Every chart page tells you where it is. The top-left now reads "Pattern page 4/12 (2B)" instead of repeating the pattern name, and the minimap has column numbers and row letters to match — so a page spread out on the table is easy to place.
• Presets no longer say "(modified)" the moment you load them.
• The preview stays where you left it when you change a setting, instead of jumping back to page 1, and the Custom tile size option opens its sliders as it always should have.

Happy stitching!

Sorry to anyone who hit this one. On Macs, iPhones and iPads, a pattern purchase could go through — payment taken, receipt sent — but the download stayed locked until you closed the checkout window. Not fun when you've just paid.

It's fixed. Your purchase now unlocks on its own within a couple of seconds of payment, no matter which device or browser you're using. If you were ever charged without getting your pattern, it's waiting for you now — and you can always reach us and we'll sort it straight away.

Happy stitching!

Ever signed in on your phone or a second computer and found some of your patterns showing a blank tile instead of the little preview picture? That's fixed. Previews now travel with your patterns to every device you're signed in on.

We also went back and restored the previews for patterns that were already showing blank, so your library should look complete again. Nothing was ever lost — it was only the thumbnail that went missing, never the pattern itself.

Happy stitching!

A couple of fixes that had been quietly biting some of you:

• Purchases made before signing in: if you bought a pattern as a guest and later created an account, the purchase didn't always follow you into it. It does now, and we went back and reconnected the ones that had been left behind. If this was you, your pattern is waiting in your library.
• Light and white backstitches: on some imported patterns, pale backstitch lines (especially white) were showing up black and disappearing against dark fabric. They now render in their true color.

Happy stitching!

Got a pattern saved from a recent version of PCStitch? It'll open now. We added support for the latest PCStitch .PAT format (the newer "B" files), so your chart, colors, and backstitches come through when you import — no more "unsupported file" surprises.

Import it the usual way from the top-left menu > Open, or just drag the file in.

Happy stitching!

Give your photos a whole new look when you turn them into patterns. In the import wizard's Colors step, pick a Color style to recolor your image into a curated palette — Black & White, Sepia, duotones, tritones, soft tracing palettes, and more (23 styles in all).

• Quick strip: tap a popular style to apply it instantly and watch the preview update live.
• Browse all styles: open the full gallery right in the panel (no pop-up covering your pattern) and click through styles to compare.
• Custom palette: build your own from scratch when you want an exact set of colors.

Happy stitching!

Tried to turn a photo straight from your iPhone into a pattern and watched it get stuck on "Preparing your workspace"? Those are HEIC photos — the format Apple devices save by default — and outside Safari they'd quietly refuse to load.

Now they just work. Drop in a HEIC or HEIF photo anywhere you'd normally add an image and we'll convert it for you automatically, on any browser. No more exporting to JPEG first.

Happy stitching!

• Classic Colorworks (cotton): Re-sampled every color directly from the official classiccolorworks.com thread photos. The catalog grew from 80 to 274 colors so every shade in the current cotton range is matched and convertible.
• Classic Colorworks Silk: Brand-new catalog with all 128 silk colors. Available in the Editor, conversion tools, and color charts alongside the cotton range.

• Collections: Group your saved patterns into folders — Christmas, Gifts, WIP, whatever you like. A new pill bar above "Your Patterns" lets you to see patterns in one collection at a time, and "All" shows everything as before.
• Move patterns in one click: Right-click any pattern and pick "Move to…" to drop it into a collection (or pull it back out). Multi-select a bunch of patterns and bulk-move them in one shot.

• Auto mode for petite stitches: Pick the petite (1/4) or petite half (1/4 half) Auto stitch type and let the editor automatically figure out which corner of the square you meant — it picks the corner closest to where you click. No more swapping between four corner variants while you place petite stitches.
• Fixed bugs with multiple petite stitches per square not showing.

• Colorways: Curate multiple "looks" for the same pattern — pair a color mapping with a symbol mapping, give it a name, and switch between them in one click. Great for comparing a DMC Original against an Anchor Alt, or experimenting with a moody alt palette without losing your original. Duplicate, rename, and delete from the new dropdown at the top of the palette panel (also in the Palette menu up top).
• Custom hex colors: Tweak any color in your palette to a custom hex value. Edits stay isolated to the current colorway, so your other variations keep their original colors.
• Save and load palettes: Export your pattern's palette to a file and load it back into any project. Handy for reusing a curated color set across patterns, or sharing with friends.

Happy stitching!

• Bigger pattern size limit: Patterns can now be up to 2000 × 2000 stitches, double the previous 1000 × 1000 cap. Plenty of room for ambitious large-scale projects.
• Adjust colors on a selection: Tweak hue, brightness, and contrast for just the selected area instead of the whole pattern — perfect for fine-tuning specific regions.
• Crop pattern to selection: Make a selection and instantly trim the pattern down to it. Great for extracting a piece of a larger design.
• Smoother resize window: The Resize Pattern dialog got a polish pass to make it easier and more intuitive to use.
• PDF export presets: Pick from ready-made export setups (A4 or US Letter, black & white or full color, 30 or 50 cells per page) from a new dropdown at the top of the export settings panel. Save your own tweaks as custom presets too.
• New tile size controls: The "Tile Size" section in PDF export now lets you choose between cells per page (with 20/30/40/custom options) or a precise physical cell size in mm or inches — whichever is easier to think about. The page overlap math also got fixed so you actually get the number of cells you asked for on each page.
• A3 page size for PDF export: A3 is now available alongside A4 and US Letter in the Page Size picker — great for larger home/office printers and copy shops, and it cuts your page count roughly in half for big patterns.

Happy stitching!

The new overview panel (aka minimap) lives in the bottom-left corner to help you find your way around the pattern – especially useful when working on zoomed-in details. You can toggle it on or off in the top-left menu > view.

Plus, you can now choose to view your pattern palette as a grid instead of a list. This setting lives in the bottom-right cog icon menu.

The text tool just got much more powerful & fun!

Use text effects (outline, shadows, curved multiline text, and more!) plus 20+ new beautiful fonts. You can also bring your own fonts! This feature only works in Chrome & Edge browsers: at the bottom of the font library panel, there's a button to allow access to all fonts installed on your device.

Plus the editor performance is improved across the board and a bug with Firefox auto-downloading PDFs is now fixed.

Happy stitching!

The text tool now creates editable text objects that you can select, move, and change properties of after placing them. Adjust font, size, color, letter spacing, and line spacing at any time.

Stitchmate can now open many more of your .PAT PCStitch patterns.

You can now download realistic mock images from the Editor – your pattern stitched & framed or in a hoop. Where to find: Top-left menu > Export > Mockup image. Users with Pro passes get watermark-free mock exports.

Added support for SVG chart exports. Stitches, backstitches, grid, symbols and legend are all on separate SVG layers to enable professional workflows.

• Triangle and diamond shapes: The Shape tool now includes triangle and diamond shapes alongside rectangles and ellipses. Draw them filled or as outlines.
• Copy and paste between browser tabs: Copy a selection in one pattern and paste it into a different pattern in another browser tab. Any new colors are automatically added to the destination palette.

• 6 new color chart pages: Browsable color charts added for Classic Colorworks, CXC, Gentle Art, J&P Coats, Kreinik, Presencia, Sullivans, and Weeks Dye Works — with search, filtering, and detail views.
• Thread usage calculator: A new free tool estimates how many skeins you need based on pattern size, stitch count, fabric type, and strand count. Supports DMC and other popular brands.

A new free tool extracts the dominant colors from any photo and matches them to real thread colors. Upload an image, get a curated palette of DMC (or other brand) threads, and jump straight into the editor with those colors.

• French knots: Add French knots to your patterns, fully supported in the editor, PDF export, and file imports. The realistic renderer shows them with proper 3D lighting.
• 50+ thread brands: The thread library expanded from 7 to over 50 brands covering 7,000+ colors — hand-dyed, silks, metallics, and more are now available for color matching and palette building.
• Thread color database fixes: Corrected colors for 7 brands (channel swap bug), added missing DMC and Anchor entries, cleaned up duplicates, and normalized Madeira codes.

PDF export now offers a "No Symbols" pattern style that shows colored blocks without symbol overlays, producing cleaner charts for color-printed patterns.

• Realistic rendering is now the default: New patterns open in the realistic view with textured thread, natural shadows, and highlights. Thumbnails use this mode too.
• Free tier expanded to 10 patterns: Free accounts can now save up to 10 patterns, up from 5.

You can now open patterns saved in Pattern Maker (.xsd) format. Full stitches, partial stitches, backstitches, blended colors, and thread palettes are all imported.

Patterns now support blended colors made from 2–4 thread colors stitched together. The realistic view shows each strand in its own color with natural twisting. Create blends from your palette via right-click, and blend info carries through to PDF export.

When importing a photo, the wizard now shows realistic mockup previews of your pattern in embroidery hoops and frames. Switch between styles to see how your finished piece will look before committing.

You can now show center lines on your pattern grid, making it easier to find the middle of your design and count stitches from the center outward — just like working from a printed chart.

• Audio feedback: The editor now plays subtle sound effects for tool switches, brush strokes, and keyboard shortcuts. Adjustable volume, or turn it off in Settings.
• Free example patterns: A collection of free example patterns you can open, edit, and use as starting points for your own designs.
• Handbook: New in-app help pages with detailed guides for each tool, including keyboard shortcuts and tips.

PDF export now opens in a modal overlay instead of switching to a separate mode, so you stay in context with your pattern. On mobile there's now a full-width Download button at the bottom of the screen.

You can now share your cross-stitch patterns with a link. The share modal generates a preview image and lets you post directly to Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, and more. Anyone with the link can view your pattern.

You can now add personal notes to any color in your palette (e.g., "use 2 strands" or "substitute with X"). These comments appear in the PDF export legend.

The editor on phones received a major overhaul: redesigned bottom sheets for colors, tools, and settings; faster animations; better pinch-to-zoom and panning; proper iPhone safe area support; and fixes for iOS Safari scrolling and gesture issues.

You can now copy, cut, and paste backstitch lines using standard keyboard shortcuts (Cmd/Ctrl+C, X, V), making it much faster to duplicate or move backstitch work.

A new preprocessing step lets you crop, rotate, and flip your image right after selecting it, before any conversion happens. No need to edit your image in another app first.

When importing an image, you can now choose "Pixel Art" mode for pixel art images. This maps each pixel directly to a stitch with exact colors preserved. The app auto-detects pixel art (including upscaled images) and recommends the right mode automatically.

New online tools let you convert thread codes between DMC, Anchor, Sullivans, and Madeira brands, with match quality indicators. Browsable color chart pages were added for Anchor (444 colors), Cosmo (501 colors), Sullivans (454 colors), and Madeira (366 colors).

You can now switch between light, dark, and auto (system) themes directly from the app menu.

• FLOW Score: A new quality score rates your pattern's stitchability based on fragmentation, color locality, palette efficiency, and workability. A floating indicator shows your score at a glance, and an issues panel highlights areas to improve.
• Confetti Cleanup: Finds and removes isolated single stitches that are hard to stitch, with a preview before applying.
• Merge Colors: Combine similar thread colors to simplify your palette, also with a preview.

• User accounts and cloud storage: Create an account using email or Google sign-in. Your patterns are automatically saved to the cloud so you can access them from any device. Existing patterns saved locally are migrated when you sign up.
• PDF export overhaul: Exported PDFs now include a thread lengths summary, stitching instructions, overlap shading between chart tiles, and PatternKeeper compatibility. Backstitch lines render with 10 distinct stroke styles. The legend shows skeins needed, and you can upload a custom cover image.

The Fill tool now supports dithering, which blends two colors in a checkerboard pattern for smoother transitions.

A new Hand tool (shortcut: H) lets you pan the canvas by clicking and dragging. A new View Settings panel gives you quick access to grid settings, fabric color, stitch display mode, and visibility toggles.

A new DMC Color Chart page lets you browse all 489 DMC thread colors in grid or list view, search by code or name, sort by hue, track your inventory, and pick colors to start a new pattern.

The Brush tool now supports a pixel-perfect drawing mode that automatically removes jagged corners from your strokes, producing cleaner diagonal lines and curves. Works with all symmetry modes.

• Confetti reduction: A new spatial coherence step reduces isolated single stitches of random colors scattered across the pattern, making converted photos cleaner and easier to stitch.
• Smart palette optimization: Image import now automatically analyzes your photo, recommends optimal settings, and improves how image colors are matched to real thread colors for more accurate results.

When converting a photo to a cross-stitch pattern, you can now apply ordered dithering to blend colors with dot patterns for smoother gradients. New cleanup presets (None, Light, Medium, Strong) let you quickly choose how aggressively to smooth the converted pattern. Advanced users can still fine-tune individual parameters.