Current Mood : slightly head-achy
Current Image Notes : Hi, Shinobu ! What's up ?
This weekend, it was all planned that I'd research and possibly download a digitizer. A utility designed to edit current designs for machine embroidery, or create original ones. The journey to finding one - and we had some cash put aside for it - was long and twisted.
The industry leader seems to be Embird, since even I'd heard of it years before ‘Brody' made the scene. Yup, that's his name. It just fits. Anyway. I started there first. And got a good start on a nice headache. I have trouble reading between lines, especially when the one above says, ‘Look at all the cool things you can do', but the line below reads ‘this is what this program actually does - next to nothing, but you need it (at $150.) to run the others ($90., $150., $145., $20., and $15. for each set of proprietary lettering) and even the trial is completely integrated. So you won't be able to tell what you are using until you haven't paid for it, and notice the loss.
I know that doesn't make a lot of sense. So let me rework it. Embird Basic, if you really read what the ad copy actually says, is a stripped PaintShopPro, or Windows Paint. It imports .jpg images, organizes them, converts design formats, displays design images (huh ? Don't I already have a way to see the images - called PSP and a monitor ?), lists thread charts (available free in any thread store), copies to new folders (um, doesn't Windows do that ?), and reads/writes data on memory cards, again, something PSP and Paint do. Most of these functions come with your computer, or in the case of the file converter, are widely available as free utilities. Our PaintShopPro 5.1 does all of that, and Beloved Hubby had that before we got married - back in 1997 ! None of this, except maybe for the thread and conversion utilities, have one darn thing to do specifically with machine embroidery. But it's $144., and if you want the parts that do the actual work, you still gotta buy Basic.
The additional Studio, with Digitizing Tools ($150.) and Sfumato Stitch ($90.) are where you get into digitizing. The site says you don't need both, but skirts around what each actually does. But, by now, you're kind of getting used to that. It appears Sfumato helps digitize photos for stitching, and Digitizing Tools uses vector graphics to trace and draw images. It also helps create stitches and allows freehand drawing. But, if you'd like to add words to your creations, you'll need Font Engine ($145.) which works with Windows True Type fonts (hooray) or Embird's own fonts, available at $15. each. Seems the fancy editing - curving, rotating, shading, grading - only works with those. Oh, and if you'd like to catalog your designs, that's another $20. for Iconizer, and if you'd like to incorporate cross-stitch, that's an additional $75. for Embird Cross Stitch.
So, for the whole thing and three fonts, expect to shell $669. Or you can go a bit cheaper and drop cross stitch for just under $600. The cheapest we could get out of it would be $459., nearly what we paid for the sewing machine ! And, as mentioned, even the trial is fully integrated, so you can't just try this part and that. Nope. Ya get the whole suite.
What's worse is, this is nearly the cheapest product on the market. Others start at $3000. and scale up from there. Two Beloved and I reviewed were evidently so expensive, you have to call them for quotes, just to find out how much they are.
It was then that he found Sophie Sew, a free work-in-progress digitizer. It didn't bother to mess with Paint functions you already own, and since it's a labor of love, it's free to use and help develop. It's missing some functions, like word files, but they're scheduled for addition, so here's hoping. He worked the tutorials while I had a bit of a lie-down. He then installed it on both our systems, and it seems to be working fine. If I just knew what to do with it.
So hopefully, I'll be able to work those soon, and start making a few simple designs of my own. I have lots of ideas, but nearly zero drawing skills, so here's hoping Sophie can help us out !
Sorry about all this ME stuff. I know it's got little to do with dolls. But you know me, I always come back to my loves !
