Import Dialog: Pattern Settings and ROI

These settings control how your final pattern looks and how easy it is to stitch.

Maximum colours (colour reduction)

• Lower value: simpler and faster to stitch.
• Higher value: more detail and smoother shading.

Good starting range for photos: 30 to 50.

Dithering

Dithering creates tiny colour patterns to smooth transitions.

• On: smoother gradients, but more texture/noise.
• Off: cleaner blocks, often easier stitching.

If unsure, generate once with dithering and once without, then compare.

Quantisation (palette selection)

This chooses how the app builds the reduced colour set.

• Keep default first.
• Change only when you compare multiple results.

Colour matching

This decides which thread colour each image colour maps to.

• If colours look unnatural, test another matching method.
• CIEDE2000 is usually a safe general option.

Stitch dimensions and aspect ratio

• Larger stitch size keeps more detail but increases stitch count.
• Keep aspect ratio locked to avoid stretching faces/objects.

Fabric settings (cross-stitch)

• Fabric count affects final physical size.
• Strands affect coverage and thread usage.

ROI (focus areas)

Use ROI when certain areas are important (faces, text, main subject).

• Mark important areas before processing.
• This helps preserve detail where it matters most.