Tracing Images

Sometimes you don’t want the computer to convert an image — you want to chart it yourself, the way pattern designers have always worked, just without the graph paper and the squinting. The tracing tool puts any image behind your grid as a semi-transparent guide.

Using it

Select Tracing in the tool rail (or Pattern menu, then Tracing Image) and upload a picture: a pencil sketch, a photo, a piece of clip art, your kid’s drawing. It appears behind the grid, and an opacity slider controls how strongly it shows through.

Then draw normally. The reference shines through the empty cells, and your stitches cover it as you work. Lower the opacity as the pattern fills in.

When tracing beats importing

You want control over every stitch. Automatic conversion makes one decision per pixel; you might want to simplify a shape, exaggerate a curve, or drop the background entirely.

The source is line art. Sketches, logos, and lettering often convert awkwardly but trace beautifully — you follow the lines with the draw tool and make the judgment calls a converter can’t.

You are designing, not copying. Many designers rough out a composition on paper, photograph it, and use tracing to digitize the layout — then design the colors and details directly in the editor.

A good combination

Trace the outline first, then fill areas with the paint bucket, and finish with backstitch along the lines you traced. The reference image is your guide for all three passes, and it disappears when you are done — leaving only the chart.