Turn a picture into line art (Redwork)

Use Line art & Redwork when you want a photo or drawing sewn as a light, single-thread outline drawing, such as redwork on a tea towel or a quilt block. You get one running-stitch object, routed so the machine stops as few times as possible, at the size you choose. New in v1.3.0, it is one of the three advanced auto-digitize methods, so the drawing costs credits; sizing and routing it afterwards is free.

Redwork is the name embroiderers know the technique by: outline work in a single thread, historically red. The output stitches in any color you like, so the card carries both names.

Example: a dog portrait on a 120 mm tea towel

1. Choose the photo and click Digitize for 100 credits.
2. In the review, set Width (mm) to 120.
3. Keep Double run and Trim, and pick a red from Thread color.
4. If thread stops reads high, raise Close gaps up to a little and turn on Visualize connected components to see what is still separate.
5. Click Add to design.

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 Line art & Redwork.

Two steps, and only the first one costs

1. Choose a picture

Drop a PNG, JPEG, or WebP on the dropzone, or click to pick one. The button says the price: Digitize for 100 credits. There is no description field.

Line art cannot report progress, so you get a working indicator rather than a percentage. See While it runs.

2. Digitization parameters

Once the drawing is back, everything left is a physical decision: how big, which stitch, where to stop. This step runs on your own computer, free, as many times as you like.

Going back does not charge you again

Back from the review keeps the route, and the button on step one becomes Continue. Looking at the picture again is never a way to pay twice.

Why the size matters here

The review's thresholds are measured in millimetres: what counts as a speck worth dropping, which gaps are close enough to close, and so how often the machine has to stop. The same drawing at 80 mm and at 200 mm gives different routes with different stop counts, so changing the size re-routes rather than just scaling what you already have.

The review opens at a width that fits the drawing inside your document's hoop, with a margin, so the stop count you are shown is one for a design you can actually sew.

• Width (mm) and Height (mm), with an aspect lock between them. Locked, one follows the other at the drawing's own shape. Unlocked, the drawing is stretched, and routed at the stretched size.
• Fit to hoop sizes it back to the current hoop.

The controls

Explanations sit behind a (?) tip beside each control.

Stitch parameters

• Stitch type
  • Double run (the default): classic Redwork. Every line is stitched twice, so each piece ends where it began. Constant width.
  • Single run: one pass where the drawing allows, going back over a line only where it has to. Faster, but the width can differ in places.
• At thread stops
  • Trim (the default): the thread is cut at every stop.
  • Jump: the thread is carried across uncut, for you to clip by hand later.
• Drop pieces under (mm) (default 3): a separate piece of the drawing shorter than this in total is left out. Raise it to shed specks, lower it to keep small details.
• Close gaps up to (mm) (default 2.5): separate pieces this close together are joined, so the machine sews from one to the next without stopping. Every gap closed is one thread stop fewer. Raising the distance only ever adds joins; the ones you already have stay. For example, if eyelashes sit about 3 mm from the eye outline, raising this to 3 joins them to it.

What you can see

• Visualize thread stops (on by default): a dashed travel line, with a mark where the thread leaves and a ring where it lands again.
• Visualize connected components: each connected piece in its own color, so you can see what will sew as one continuous run.

Thread color: a swatch that picks from your design's palette. The object is placed in that thread.

The two figures

The review leads with thread stops and mm stitched. Thread stops is the number to watch: it is how many times the machine halts to cut and restart, and it is the best single predictor of how tedious a design is to sew. A photograph can come back as well over a hundred separate strokes; the routing is what brings that down to something worth stitching.

The preview

Three views sit beside the controls:

• Vector: the routed paths, before the needle. Paths fade in stitching order and the moves between them are dashed, so the dashes are the stops the number counts.
• Stitch and Realistic: the same views the rest of the app uses. This is not a drawing of the route, it is the real stitch path over the real outlines, so a double run's shared holes are shown as the machine will sew them.

Realistic needs WebGPU. See Realistic mode unavailable.

Add to design

Add to design places the routed drawing as one object, running stitch, in the thread the swatch showed, with the trim-or-jump choice already on it.

Sizing it afterwards does not re-route it

What lands on the canvas is plain lines, with the route fixed. Resizing it on the canvas scales the stitches instead of routing again for the new size.

To route the same drawing at a different size, open it again from Previous digitizations, which skips the picture step and goes straight to the review. Nothing is charged again.

The object comes in with its Bean passes and Passes repeat controls off. A double run already contains both passes, and stacking a repeat on top would sew every line four or six times. See Stitch parameters.

Exporting

Exporting a design containing a digitized line drawing does not need Pro: the credits were the payment. See Plans and what they include.

If the result looks wrong

• Too many thread stops: raise Close gaps up to, and raise Drop pieces under to shed specks. Turn on Visualize connected components to see what is still separate.
• Details you wanted have gone: lower Drop pieces under, or make the design bigger, since that threshold is physical.
• Nothing is left to stitch: the message says so. The size is too small for the settings you chose; make it larger or keep smaller pieces.
• The lines read fuzzy rather than bold: check you have not stacked a repeat on the object. A double run needs none.
• Satin and tatami do nothing on it: the outlines are open, and both of those fills need a closed region. Line art stays a running stitch.