Sfumato Stitch Controls and Windows

Sfumato Stitch Controls and Windows

Controls Window

Main Settings

Main Settings affect the way of calculation of design. If Better Calculation is checked, Sfumato pays more attention to reduction of stitches crossing forbidden areas marked by Background Colors (which are Lime and Fuchsia by default). Usually, you do not need to use this option on simple designs like portraits. Use it on more complex designs with many different forbidden (background) areas and designs with complex shapes. Even if you do not use this option, Sfumato eliminates stitches going through background areas by snapping them to edges of design. However, this may cause that edges are stitched several times on some places.

If No Short Stitches is checked, Sfumato prolongs shortest stitches to make them somewhat longer. This may slightly distort crisp edges on object like letters.
If Less Stitches is checked, Sfumato reduces stitch count of design by alignment and elimination of some short stitches. This may slightly distort gradation of color on dense areas of design.

Fabric Color

Fabric color is color of garment on which design will be embroidered. This color affects the brigthness of threads and density of stitches. For example red parts can be of lighter density or they can be even left out when sewn on red fabric. Also, you would select brighter thread when sewing portrait on black fabric than when sewing the same portrait on white fabric. When you select new color of fabric, Sfumato will automatically adjust some parameters in More Controls window. You can futher edit them manualy if needed. If you want to pick fabric color from image, click right mouse button on fabric color label to access pop-up menu.

Below pictures show how is the density of stitches dependent on fabric darkness. Sfumato recognizes 5 degrees of fabric darkness: very light, light, medium, dark and very dark.

On a very light color fabric (left picture) both Dark and Light Shades are darker than fabric, Lightest Thread Color is not used.
On a light color fabric (right picture) both Shades are darker than fabric too, but there is also Lightest Thread Color (white) that is brighter than fabric.

On a medium dark fabric (left picture), Dark Shade is darker than fabric and Light Shade is brighter than fabric, Darkest Thread Color (black) is darker than fabric. There is a blank area between Dark and Light Shades defined by Blank Interval Width control. This blank area forms another shade between Dark and Light Shade.
On a dark fabric (right picture), both Dark and Light Shades are brighter than fabric but Darkest Thread Color (black) is darker than fabric.

On a very dark fabric, Darkest Thread Color is not used.

As shown on above pictures, the dark areas are stitched in case of very light fabric.On a very dark fabric, the bright areas are stitched. On a light, dark and medium dark fabric, both bright and dark areas are stitched.

Hoop

Current version of Sfumato supports following hoops:

Babylock, Bernina, Brother, Viking 4x4 inches (10x10 cm)
Maximum Hoop 15.75x15.75 inches (40x40 cm)
Viking Plus multiposition hoop 4x6.7 inches (10x17 cm)

When using multiposition hoop, numbers like 1/3 1/3 1 mean how design will be divided into particular hoop positions. Depending on design, you may want to divide it into two or three parts and on the right places. All you need to do is to select proper hoop and place it on required place on design. Sfumato will divide design automatically during calculation of stitches.

To move hoop in Preview window, drag mouse with right button pressed. When you release the button, hoop will move to new place. Coordinates above Hoop combo box will help you with precise placement of hoop.

If your machine uses other size of hoop than supported by Sfumato, just use Maximum hoop and select proper hoop later in Embird Editor when saving design to disc. The main meaning of hoop in Sfumato is to show the program where it should divide design in case of multiposition hoop.

Please note: only those stitches, which are inside of hoop, will be in final design. Stitches outside of hoop will be discarded during calculation of design.

Auto Button

If you click the Auto button in Controls window, program will set the thread colors and number of colors automatically. It will also display the Preview of design. This is the quickest way of design creation.

However, results may be not optimal. You can use Auto button as a first step in creation of each design (if design is to be sewn on white or very light fabric) and then adjust parameters in More Controls window manually for optimal result.

Set Default Button

If you click the Set Default button in Controls window, program will set all controls to default values.

Colors of Areas Without Stitches

All areas of image, which are filled with these colors, are forbidden for laying of stitches, which means that Sfumato will avoid to place stitches there. Thus, you can eliminate the background from the image. You may want to create thin running-stitch Outline on edges of remaining areas. Therefore, there are two types of background (forbidden areas) available: background with and without outline. Background with outline is by default of green color (Lime). Background without outline is by default of magenta color (Fuchsia).

Sfumato can recognize background colors only if their RGB values in Controls window are exactly the same as on the image. Outlined backround may be used around objects like head or figure. Backround without outline should be used on areas like bright spot in the eyes (pictures on the left) or on teeth where stitches are undesirable as well as outlines.

Compute Stitches

When you finish all work on image and setting of controls (including selection and placement of hoop), hit this button to start calculation of design. Do not forget to "Save Sfumato Stitch Project" to preserve settings. Calculation of stitches may last several minutes or even hours for very large designs. When calculation is over, chose "Return to Embird Editor" for further work with design. In Embird Editor you can save finished stitch file in desired embroidery format.

In demo version, Sfumato uses stitch count limit for all designs, which means that designs may appear incomplete in Embird Editor. If you want to try to sew complete Sfumato Stitch designs, please use designs provided with Embird Plus. These designs are located in the same folder as Embird (usually EMBIRD32), in the subfolder FILES.

Open Sfumato Stitch Project

Hit this button to open previously created project. Project contains values of all Sfumato Stitch controls and link to image and Color Map (if any). If image was deleted or moved in the meantime, you will have to import image from Painter menu. To preserve links between projects and images, it is highly recommended to save all images and projects into default subfolder PROJECTS. The reason why images are just linked and not stored in the project files is that by leaving images in original .BMP or .JPG form Sfumato allows you to edit them also in other graphics programs.

Save Sfumato Stitch Project

Hit this button to save values of settings, link to image and link to Color Map (if previously saved) into so called "project" file (extension.ss2). To preserve links between projects and images, it is highly recommended to save all images and projects into default subfolder PROJECTS.

More Button

Click More button in Controls window to access window with More Controls.

Color Map

Color Map shows layout of thread colors in design. When creating design, Sfumato uses Color Map to determine color of each stitch. Color Map is automatically generated whenever parameters that affect the Map change. To display color layout in sufficient contrast, Color Map is drawn in fixed untrue colors. Untrue colors also allow program to recognize color areas in Map even if you change Threads Colors. You may want to edit color layout of design more precisely. In such case, set all parameters so that preview of design is as close to desired result as possible and then save Color Map to disc. Open Color Map in Painter and Retouch it. Do not use colors other than fixed untrue colors in Color Map.

When retouch is finished, open the original image in Painter and open edited Color Map in Controls/Color Map window. Lock Color Map check box will be checked automatically. This means that Sfumato will use loaded Color Map and will not generate new Color Map. Some controls in More Controls window, Scales window and Controls window are locked along with Color Map. Hit Preview button to preview design created from edited Color Map.

To see Color Map in real colors, check the Display Map in Threads Colors. However, when you save Map to disc, it will be drawn in untrue colors.

Preview Window

Preview window serves for displaying of how the finished design will look. Drag mouse over design preview with left button pressed to move preview within the window. When you release the button, design will move to new position.

Hoop is draw as red and black rectangle.

More Controls Window

Vertical Fills Check Box

By default, Sfumato fills most dense areas with horizontal fills. You may want to change direction of fills, especially on designs with majority of horizontally oriented objects like mouth, eyes and eyebrows.

Outline

Sfumato provides two types of Blank Background Areas: with (Lime color by default) and without outline (Fuchsia color by default). If you fill required areas of image with any of these colors, Sfumato will try to not place stitches there. You may want to make thin running stitch outline around remaining objects (head for example). Use Blank Background Area with outline in such cases.

However, there are blank areas where you do not want outline (teeth for example). Use Blank Background Area without outline in such cases. To define Outline Color click right button on any Palette Color box in More Controls window and select proper item in pop-up menu.

Some controls in More Controls, Controls and Scale Parameters windows are locked if Color Map is locked. These controls affect the Color Map (the layout of colors) and it is necessarry, therefore, to prevent their change if Map is locked.

If controls are locked, their parent panel is of light blue color and lock icon appears near locked controls.

In Controls window, the Fabric Color is locked if Color Map is locked.

In Scale Parameters window, the Thresholds, Blend Ranges and Blank Interval Width controls are lockable.

Darkest and Lightest Color Button

To achieve subtle graduation of brightness, Sfumato divides each color scale into 4 different shades: Darkest Thread Color (usually black), Dark Thread Shade, Light Thread Shade and Lightest Thread Color (usually white). Darkest and Lightest colors are common for all color scales. To change stitch density of Darkest or Lightest Color areas separately from the rest of colors, use Additional Density controls in More Controls window. Click with left mouse button on number to icrease density or with right button to decrease density.

Palette Colors

Sfumato reduces all colors in image into several color scales. To achieve this, user selects required number of Palette Colors, which are devoid of brightness and contain only chromatic components.

From Palette Colors program calculates Dark and Light Thread Shades taking into account also Fabric Color brigthness. Automatical calculation of Shades can be set off in Scales window.

If you want to edit Palette Color, click on Palette Color box in More Controls window. An editing window will apear, with histogram picture on the left side and color palette on the right side. To change active Palette Color, click on histogram or on color palette. As the Palette Colors are free of brightness, palette contains only the chromatic components. By clicking on palette, you choose single Palette Color that represents whole range of image colors that differ in brightness, but which have similar chromatic components. You can select Palette Color from histogram as well. Histogram shows how many times are the particular colors from palette used in image. The brighter is the point on histogram, the more frequently is the corresponding color from palette used in image. You should select just few (usually 1-4) Palette Colors and place them into brigtest spots of histogram. If you select too many colors, sewing of finished design may be difficult .

Lines on Histogram and Palette show how is the whole color range divided by colors reduction.

Scales

Sfumato reduces all colors in image into several Color Scales displayed in More Cotrols window. Separation is done based on Palette Colors selected by user or automatically. Each Color Scales contains Darkest Thread Color (common for all scales), Dark Thread Shade for dark tones, Light Thread Shade for light tones, and Lightest Thread Color (common for all scales). Click on Scale bar to access window for editing of Dark and Light Shades. You can also set on/off automatical generation of Shades in this window.

Dark and Light Thread Shades

Sfumato approximates brightness of photo by lines and curves of thread. Darker tones of photo are approximated by thread of Dark Shade. Lighter tones are approximated by thread of Light Shade. You can see these shades on Scale Bars in More Controls window.

Additional Density Control

Stitch density of design is primarily determined by Density Curve, but you can also increase/decrease stitch density separately for all Dark and Light Shades and also for Darkest and Lightest Thread Colors. To change additional density, click left (increase) or right (decrease) mouse button on particular number.

Threshold Control

Thresholds determine how the color Scale is divided between Darkest Thread Color, Dark Shade, Light Shade and Lightest Thread Color. To change Shades Threshold value, click left (increase) or right (decrease) mouse button on particular Shades Threshold value.
Threshold value may vary between numbers 0 and 255, where 0 represents black tone and 255 white tone. Setting threshold to 160 causes that tone darker than 160 or equal to 160 will be sewn in Dark Shader. Tones lighter than 160 will be sewn in Light Shade.

To adjust thresholds of Darkest or Lightest Thread Colors, click on Darkest or Lightest Threshold value.

Blend Range Control

You can let Dark and Light Thread Shades blend one into other by setting this control to value greater than zero. The blend range is visualised on Scale bar and it is also visible on Color Map as dotted areas.
You can also let Darkest Color blend into Dark Shade and Lightest Color blend into Light Shade by setting Blend Range parameters of Darkest and Lightest Thread Colors. Darkest (usually black) and Lightest (usually white) Thread Colors are common for all color Scales, but their Blend Ranges and Thresholds can be adjusted for each Scale separately.

Blank Interval Width

Blank Interval specifies the range of shades around Fabric Color that will be considered as blank area and will be not covered with stitches. If you use medium dark fabric and Dark Thread Shade is darker than fabric and Light Thread Shade is lighter than fabric, you may want Shades to not touch each other but rather let fabric show between them to form another color area (see below picture).

Blend Interval Width, Threshold and Blend Range controls are locked if Color Map is locked in order to prevent its change.

Density Adjustment Curve

Sfumato computes density of stitches from brightness of image.

With Density Curve you can tell to Sfumato that "middle density areas should be somewhat denser" for example. The course of Density Curve determinates how Input Density information will be transformed to Output Density of design. Input Density stands for density calculated automatically from image and Output Density is final density used in design. Horizontal axis represents the Input Density and vertical axis the Output Density. Bottom left corner represents most density and top right corner represents density equal to zero.

See Advanced Techniques for more detail.