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Turn a photo into flat color shapes

Use Vector stylization when a photo has too many shades and gradients to sew as it stands, and you want it to look like a screen print or an embroidered patch: a few flat areas of color, each sewn as a fill. It redraws the photo as flat areas of color, then hands that picture to Auto-Trace to become fills. New in v1.3.0, it is one of the three advanced auto-digitize methods, so it costs credits.

Photostitch is the other answer to the same problem, and a different one: it keeps the tones and renders them as stipple density, where this flattens them into regions.

Example: a shop-front photo as a four-color patch
  1. Choose the photo and pick Bold outlines.
  2. Under Colors, pick Choose the palette and add four threads, black among them (or use Add black when the panel asks).
  3. Click Digitize for 100 credits.
  4. Auto-Trace opens locked to your four threads. Set the width to 80 mm, check the stitch types under the preview, and click Import.

Open it​

Click Advanced auto-digitize in the tool rail's Automation group (or File → Import → Advanced auto-digitize…, or right-click the canvas), then pick Vector stylization.

Two steps, then Auto-Trace​

1. Choose a picture​

Drop a PNG, JPEG, or WebP on the dropzone, or click to pick one. There is no description field.

2. Style and colors​

Style has two options, and each card shows the same picture redrawn that way so you can see the difference rather than read it:

  • Flat shapes: solid color areas with no outlines. Small details merge into the areas around them.
  • Bold outlines: a few flat colors with thick black outlines, like an embroidered patch.

Colors has two answers:

  • Keep the picture's colors (the default): the redraw picks its own colors and keeps the picture's character. Auto-Trace then chooses the threads afterwards, with its own color settings.
  • Choose the palette: you pin the threads, between 2 and 12 of them, and the redraw uses exactly those. Auto-Trace then locks its color count to them, so the thread count you chose is the thread count you get.

The limit is twelve, lower than for pixel art, because each color here is a spool on the machine and a thread change in the sewing order. The palette control is the same one Pixel art uses, with its three sources.

Bold outlines want a dark thread

Bold outlines draws its outlines and its dark areas in black. If you pin a palette with nothing dark enough in it, the outlines take the nearest dark thread instead, which is rarely what the picture wanted. The panel says so and offers an Add black button. It is a warning, not a wall.

The button says the price: Digitize for 100 credits. Vector stylization cannot report progress, so you get a working indicator rather than a percentage.

3. Trace it​

On success Boldbobbin opens Auto-Trace on its trace step, with the redrawn picture already loaded. The trace settings work exactly as they do when you open Auto-Trace yourself.

Two things differ from Auto-Trace opened by hand: there is no "choose another image" (you made this one) and no background-removal step (the redraw already has a transparent background).

If you pinned a palette, Auto-Trace opens locked to exactly those threads, and says so: "Locked to the 4 threads this picture was made with." If you kept the picture's colors, Auto-Trace is free to pick as usual.

From there it is the normal route: tune the trace, set the size (which re-traces at that size), check the stitch types, and import. Automatic stitch type is on, so each region gets running, satin, or tatami by its shape and the sewing order is planned. See Trace settings and What the import makes.

Back from the trace step returns you to the Advanced chooser when the panel made the picture, or to the library when a row opened it. Nothing is lost either way: the result stays in Previous digitizations, free to reopen.

Why the background is transparent​

The redrawn picture has no background, by design. In embroidery the background is fabric, and fabric is never stitched. Leaving it transparent means a white shape inside the design stays part of the design instead of being mistaken for background.

Exporting​

Exporting a design made this way does not need Pro: the credits were the payment. This holds even though Auto-Trace did the tracing, because what you are exporting is a paid result rather than Auto-Trace output you made for free. See Plans and what they include.

If the result looks wrong​

  • A color you needed is missing: the redraw can only use the threads you pinned. Add it on the From the picture tab (clicking the picture picks up a color the proposal missed) and digitize again, or switch to Keep the picture's colors.
  • The outlines came out the wrong color: Bold outlines needs something near black in the palette. Use Add black.
  • Too much detail survived, or too little: that is the trace step's job, not the redraw's. Adjust Detail and Remove speckles in Auto-Trace, which re-traces instantly and costs nothing.
  • It should have kept its tones: you wanted Photostitch, which runs on your own computer and costs no credits.