4 ms·

I've used this a lot in the past for my embroidery projects, it's come so far from it's early days (and it was pretty good when it first came out). It's an incr

by atrus 5y ago

I've used this a lot in the past for my embroidery projects, it's come so far from it's early days (and it was pretty good when it first came out). It's an incredible bit of software. As a side note, it's amazing how versatile Inkscape is. I literally use the program to: design cookie cutters for printing, make embroidery designs, create laser cut patterns, and CNC Router cutouts. Just an incredible program.

pfranz 5y ago
So how ready is Ink/Stitch for an average consumer? My mom is recently retired and embroiders occasionally. I don't think she does anything more custom than a monogram. It was only a few years ago I pulled off old designs from floppy disks. I think her current equipment accepts USB but she leans on the cloud to get designs onto the machine. She's not geeky with computers, but is competent enough to use an iPad and used MS Office sweet when she was working. Does it sound like this is something worth introducing her to?
- atrus 5y ago
  If she's not doing anything more complicated than monograms, I'd honestly stick with using the downloaded/custom designs. As it sounds like she's just using those she'd have to learn two things. The first being inkscape, which like any graphics program is a decent challenge to learn. Then on top of that, she'd have to learn the embroidery specifics which is another challenge. Digitizing is just a whole level above using premade designs. It's more a replacement for Hatch/Embrilliance than for brother.com's library of designs.
nkozyra 5y ago
It is phenomenal in features and flexibility, but it's not a stable application at all. I'd sacrifice some of the million things it can do if it wouldn't crash after closing a project on macos.
- ungamedplayer 5y ago
  I think they target Linux as the primary OS, MacOS is second class citizen, perhaps for the best.
  - MrJohz 5y ago
    I have pretty much the same problems on Linux, so I don't think it's an OS issue. Inkscape is one of those tools that I use often, and am very grateful for, but I usually find the actual experience of using it very painful. Regular crashes being one of the big pain points at the moment.
    - soperj 5y ago
      What distro? I use Fedora, and I use it all the time and have never had it crash.
      - MrJohz 5y ago
        Both Ubuntu and Pop. In fairness, I think I've got it installed on Pop via Flatpak, which is sometimes part of the problem, but that's not the case on Ubuntu.
blable2 5y ago
Thank you for introducing me to this. I've been looking for this very function.
midnightclubbed 5y ago
Is there a recommended way of using Inkscape to make it more user friendly? I hear so much love for Inkscape but every time I've tried to use it for laser cutting or 2d design I give up and go back to Illustrator. I feel like I'm battling Inkscape to do even the most basic things. I'm a very casual/occasional user (of either program). I'm happy using Gimp and Blender over Photoshop and Maya/Max for my home use cases but Inkscape is defeating me.
- soperj 5y ago
  Honestly, I feel like it must be complete familiarity with Illustrator. I feel the same way about using Illustrator since I learned inkscape first.
- detritus 5y ago
  Have you checked out Affinity Designer? I'm a near 20+ year user of Illustrator and I find Inkscape 'a bit' of a mess, but Affinity's offering, whilst paid for (but cheap), is much more honed. I can't wait 'til I can transition over to it 100% and unshackle myself from Adobe (just not quite there yet, sadly).
  - stevenkkim 5y ago
    +1 for Affinity Designer. I actually prefer it to Illustrator because it can do both vector and raster (they call it Designer and Pixel Personas). At $55 one-time price it's very reasonable.
    - wlesieutre 5y ago
      It's a bit like Macromedia Fireworks in that respect, if anybody else remembers that one
    - mkr-hn 5y ago
      From what I understand, they had experienced Illustrator users in mind when designing the interface. Same with Photoshop and Affinity Photo. It seems to have paid off.

by atrus 5y ago

pfranz 5y ago

So how ready is Ink/Stitch for an average consumer? My mom is recently retired and embroiders occasionally. I don't think she does anything more custom than a monogram. It was only a few years ago I pulled off old designs from floppy disks. I think her current equipment accepts USB but she leans on the cloud to get designs onto the machine. She's not geeky with computers, but is competent enough to use an iPad and used MS Office sweet when she was working. Does it sound like this is something worth introducing her to?

atrus 5y ago
If she's not doing anything more complicated than monograms, I'd honestly stick with using the downloaded/custom designs. As it sounds like she's just using those she'd have to learn two things. The first being inkscape, which like any graphics program is a decent challenge to learn. Then on top of that, she'd have to learn the embroidery specifics which is another challenge. Digitizing is just a whole level above using premade designs. It's more a replacement for Hatch/Embrilliance than for brother.com's library of designs.

nkozyra 5y ago

It is phenomenal in features and flexibility, but it's not a stable application at all. I'd sacrifice some of the million things it can do if it wouldn't crash after closing a project on macos.

ungamedplayer 5y ago
I think they target Linux as the primary OS, MacOS is second class citizen, perhaps for the best.
- MrJohz 5y ago
  I have pretty much the same problems on Linux, so I don't think it's an OS issue. Inkscape is one of those tools that I use often, and am very grateful for, but I usually find the actual experience of using it very painful. Regular crashes being one of the big pain points at the moment.
  - soperj 5y ago
    What distro? I use Fedora, and I use it all the time and have never had it crash.
    - MrJohz 5y ago
      Both Ubuntu and Pop. In fairness, I think I've got it installed on Pop via Flatpak, which is sometimes part of the problem, but that's not the case on Ubuntu.

blable2 5y ago

Thank you for introducing me to this. I've been looking for this very function.

midnightclubbed 5y ago

Is there a recommended way of using Inkscape to make it more user friendly? I hear so much love for Inkscape but every time I've tried to use it for laser cutting or 2d design I give up and go back to Illustrator. I feel like I'm battling Inkscape to do even the most basic things. I'm a very casual/occasional user (of either program). I'm happy using Gimp and Blender over Photoshop and Maya/Max for my home use cases but Inkscape is defeating me.

soperj 5y ago
Honestly, I feel like it must be complete familiarity with Illustrator. I feel the same way about using Illustrator since I learned inkscape first.
detritus 5y ago
Have you checked out Affinity Designer? I'm a near 20+ year user of Illustrator and I find Inkscape 'a bit' of a mess, but Affinity's offering, whilst paid for (but cheap), is much more honed. I can't wait 'til I can transition over to it 100% and unshackle myself from Adobe (just not quite there yet, sadly).
- stevenkkim 5y ago
  +1 for Affinity Designer. I actually prefer it to Illustrator because it can do both vector and raster (they call it Designer and Pixel Personas). At $55 one-time price it's very reasonable.
  - wlesieutre 5y ago
    It's a bit like Macromedia Fireworks in that respect, if anybody else remembers that one
  - mkr-hn 5y ago
    From what I understand, they had experienced Illustrator users in mind when designing the interface. Same with Photoshop and Affinity Photo. It seems to have paid off.