Stitchboard Admin message #1
Helpful hint #1 to creating really great patterns: transparent backgrounds
June 13, 2011 at 9:03:08 PM
 
Thank you all for the great and helpful feedback we've been hearing!  In the next few messages I'll address a few of the issues we've been hearing about.  (And though we love hearing from you personally, we ask that you please ask any questions here in the support forum, because if you have questions, so do other people!  There are no dumb questions!)

Problem: Transparent backgrounds: great for graphics programs, but need to be changed before inputting into the Free Pattern Wizard
The Free Pattern Wizard doesn't understand a transparent background and will turn it black.  The problem is that there is really no easy way for the software to determine what is the best color to turn the background, so it has to arbitrarily choose a color, and that color is black.  Which is great if you've got colors like blue, white, purple, green and pink, but as soon as you have, say, as little as a black outline on a piece of artwork, unfortunately, you're going to notice an issue.
Solution: If you don't want to lose the black outer parts of your image, use a paint program and flood fill the background area with a contrasting color.

Here are a few images that illustrate the issue:

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