Interface Overview
When you open a pattern in StitchALot Studio, the window is divided into several areas. Here is a tour of each one.
The Top Bar
The top bar runs across the top of the window. From left to right it contains:
- Home — Returns to the Home screen (shown while a pattern is open)
- File, Tools, Preferences, and Help — The app's menus. On the Mac these live in the system menu bar at the top of the screen instead (see macOS)
- File name — The open design's name, an asterisk (*) when there are unsaved changes, and the canvas size in stitches (for example, "Rose Pillow * - 198 x 180")
- Buy Canvas — Order a printed canvas of your design from stitchalot.com. A small badge shows how many designs are in your order. See Ordering a Printed Canvas
- Stitch Tracker — Enter or exit Stitch Tracker mode for tracking your stitching progress
- Create New Pattern — Starts a new design from anywhere in the app
On Windows, the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons are at the right end of the top bar.
During the free trial, a banner above the top bar shows how many days remain.
The Menus
| Menu | What's in it |
|---|---|
| File | Home, New Pattern, New Folder, Open, Open Recent, Save, Save As, Import, Export, Exit |
| Tools | Stitch Tracker, Upload Image, Color Matching, Symbol Assignment, Canvas Layout, Add Shape…, Font |
| Preferences | Opens the Settings window (see Preferences and Settings) |
| Help | Show Tutorial, Online Manual, Report a Problem, License…, Update Check, About |
Update Check isn't shown on iPad and Android, which update through the App Store and Google Play.
The app's version number is shown in Help > About. See Getting Help for the other Help items.
The Left Toolbar
The left toolbar is a vertical strip of tool buttons. From top to bottom:
- View: Preview Canvas, Pan, Fit to Window, Move, Center
- Drawing tools: Pencil, Eraser, Fill, Color Swap, Eyedropper, Text, Shapes
- Line and shape tools: Line, Point Line, Backstitch, Rectangle, Circle, and the Stitch Type selector
- History and zoom: Undo, Redo, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Toggle Grid
- Selection: Select, Copy, Cut, Paste, and the selection actions (Duplicate, Delete, Move to New Layer, Duplicate to New Layer, Flip, Rotate, Center, and Crop to Selection)
Most tools have a single-key shortcut (for example, P for Pencil and E for Eraser). Hover over a button to see its name and shortcut. See Keyboard Shortcuts for the full list.
Clicking the tool that is already active switches back to the Pan tool.
You can hide tools you rarely use and turn the text labels under each icon on or off. See Toolbar Visibility and Show Toolbar Labels in Preferences and Settings. When the window is short, the buttons flow into extra columns.
Click Collapse Toolbar to give more room to the canvas, and Expand Toolbar to bring it back. The toolbar is hidden in Stitch Tracker mode, which has its own toolbar.
The Central Canvas
The canvas is the main area where your design lives. This is where you draw, edit, and view your pattern.
- Rulers run along the top, left, and right edges, showing grid squares, inches, or centimeters depending on your settings
- Grid lines show each stitch cell, with a heavier line every 5 stitches to make counting easy. Toggle them with the Grid button or the G key
- Center marker — A small green bullseye on the center stitch of the canvas, useful for positioning (can be turned off in Settings)
See Navigating the Canvas for zooming and panning.
The Right Sidebar
The right sidebar holds three panels:
Layers Panel
The Layers panel shows the layers in your design, with the top layer listed first, plus any tracing images. Layers are off by default; turn them on with the Layers switch in the panel header. See Understanding Layers.
Thread Library
Browse thread brands (DMC, Anchor, Kreinik) and add colors to your palette. See Thread Libraries.
Palette
The Palette panel shows every color in your design as a grid of swatches. Click a color to draw with it. Below the grid you'll see the selected color's thread details and an estimate of how much thread it needs. The Palettes menu lets you save and reuse sets of colors. See The Color Palette.
The sidebar can be collapsed to give more room to the canvas. In Stitch Tracker mode, it is replaced by the progress panel.
The Status Bar
The status bar along the bottom of the window shows:
- Left side: the current tool, a zoom control (− / percentage / +), the active layer, and the stitch count
- Right side: the canvas size and mesh count (for example, "198 x 180 (18 count)"), the number of layers, and the number of colors