Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Charting Software Part III: KnitPro 2.0

Yeah, I know. I promised a review of PC Stitch in the last post. I don't like PC Stitch much, for reasons I will explain when I do review it. I actually have part of the review finished. I wandered off in the middle, realizing that not a single person has begged me for a review of PC Stitch, so it's not like I am going to cause massive disappointment by delaying the inevitable.

So, In this episode, I shall take a look at KnitPro 2. It's just cool--a cute, free application whose sole purpose is to chart an image for knitting. Here's a screenshot of the web page. Instead of staring at this blurry image, click on the link and look at the Real Thing instead.



The application is simple enough for just about anyone. If you can find a file on your machine (or can ask someone else to find it), you will have a knittable chart in about two seconds.


KnitPro gives you a choice of square, 7:5 (landscape), and 5:7 (portrait) grids. Cross-stitchers would use the square grid; knitters should choose one of the two latter proportions, depending on whether your image is wider than long, or vice versa. You have three size choices too.




So, just upload your image, make your selections regarding size and grid ratio, and smile as KnitPro presents you with a nicely gridded image—all ready to go.

Here’s the original image…

And here’s the gridded result. The colors look weird because the picture was compressed for uploading. The real output is faithful to the original colors.

The image, by the way, should have a resolution less than, say, 150 dpi. I tried uploading a 300-dpi image, and KnitPro gave me an error. I downsampled the image to 150 dpi and everything went smoothly.

Next up is, um, PC Stitch. Unless you guys want me to look at something else first. Please.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

knit pro is interesting but i would love to hear more about using excel for lace.

fleegle said...

Well, someone just sent me a magnificent application for charting in Excel. I am reviewing it as I write this, so stay tuned!

Lacefreak said...

Dear fleegle,

Wish I knit color or did that kind of needle-work. It's a nice little application. I've heard alot about Excel and charing for lace but I don't know how hard that would be to do. I could go out and get Excel if it was really worth it but not if my poor brain will explode. I know Zero about how to use Exel. I might be better off with one of the other "easier" software programs.

Anonymous said...

Have you considered submitting your software reviews for publication? Knitty.com? Interweave Knits?

e said...

Maybe this should be obvious - but, once i have my image on the computer, how do I get it printed on a canvas for needlepoint?