For 2D designs, the needs are fairly simple, usually starting with a scan of the finished item. Affinity Photo layers allow for many variations in one document.Īffinity Photo long ago replaced Photoshop for all the work on photos.

Finally there are a few other designs, some flat some 3D, that fall outside these main product lines, including a keepsake pyramid and a floppy frog. “BrightSea Village” is a series of 3D designs which comprise the many buildings, and a few vehicles, of a fictional seaside village. “Minute Matters” was the original line which comprises mostly miniature carpets intended for use in twelfth scale doll houses. A colour photo in multiple different forms for different usesīefore I continue, I need to differentiate our product lines.A new key, with additional stitching information.Did I mention I’d prefer a Mac-native tool? To get this into PDF format for easy printing, we use a freeware product called CutePDF which acts as a Windows printer driver but creates a PDF. Eas圜ross prints the pattern with a key, but the key is rudimentary to say the least, so we only use the pattern in the final product. I start with the outputs from Eas圜ross and the finished product itself. Once she has created and stitched a design, usually over a period of many weeks, I will see a clear sleeve of papers, including the pattern, left out somewhere I will see it, which tells me it’s time to do what I do. As much as I’d prefer she have native software, I do agree with her assessment.

Before any keen cross stitchers write in and tell me about Mac-native software, she’s tried it all, and none of it measures up for her.

What follows is a description of how I use Serif’s Affinity suite of products to go from the raw materials to the product we deliver.Įlli uses a Windows application called Eas圜ross (now discontinued), which runs in a VirtualBox VM. In a nutshell, my wife Elli designs her own cross stitch patterns and then sells them. Allison asked why I did this and when I explained, she put me on the hook for this contribution. I recently mentioned in the NosillaCast Slack that I use TextExpander to expand DMC embroidery cotton numbers to the official colour names. Hello NosillaCastaways, it’s Allister Jenks here from New Zealand once again.

Serif affinity suite