In general, SewArt works best when you start with a simple design and go slowly only making small ‘jumps’ in the number of colors during Processing.

If you are in a rush, you can use Color Reduction to blanket reduce to the exact number you want but be warned this program often severally reduces the quality of the design.

In general, you will want to use Image Wizard to reduce down to under 15 colors, and then use Merge Colors to get to your exact design.

Posterize: eliminates subtle color gradients.

Color Reduction: reduces the number of distinct colors.

Allows you the merge similar colors together or despeckle individual color groups (despeckling can help remove some blurriness from your design).

Merge Colors: shows you a breakdown of ALL the colors it sees in the design.

This will help you preserve your design from being too degraded. The best feature of this tool is that it shows a preview before you continue to the next step. This tool can only be used once! It has 4 steps that it guides you through.

Image Wizard: allows you to gradually reduce the number of colors in the image.

There are 4 tools that you can use to reduce the number of colors Image Wizard, Merge Colors, Color Reduction, and Posterize.

I've made a breakout of all the tools available in Sewart and what their uses are (see attached image).

Processing involves reducing the number of colors found in the design.

Once your file opens, you’ll need to process it. In the included image mine is set to (300 ppi)

When exporting your design be sure to set the resolution or quality as high as possible.

If you're like me, and like to be extra safe, scale down from there! If using the PE-400, make sure the design is no larger than 4圆.

If using the PE-770, make sure the canvas is no larger than 5x7.

I have access to two machines a Brother PE-770 and a Brother SE-400. Save yourself the headache, and make sure your design is the right size NOW. For my brother sewing machine, if I try to send a file with an artboard larger than the hoop, the design won't send.

Lastly, while importing your design into Sewart, be sure to check the size.

svg (vector files), however, it often imports them at the wrong canvas size. png as Sewart can only import rasterized image file types.

Additionally, you must save your design as a.

Or if you’re not yet comfortable designing on your own, I highly recommend looking for a simple shape to try out from or including the words ‘simple illustration’ in your online search.

If you’re interested in learning more about points of good design in a patch, please see the patch guide.

I recommend using a design program like Inkscape (free) or Adobe Illustrator (probably free in your local makerspace/library) to create your design.

Although there are some shape and line tools in SewArt, it is highly recommended to NOT actually design here.

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