Which chart PDFs work, and what to do when one doesn’t

Which file to pick from your download

Many designers include several PDFs. Look for names like “Pattern Keeper”, “PK”, “for apps”, “tablet” or “symbols only”. The large-print or “printable” version often works too. The cover page and the colour photo don’t.

A quick test

Open the PDF in your browser or a PDF reader and zoom right in on the chart. If the symbols stay crisp at any zoom, it’s a real chart. If they go blurry or blocky, it’s a picture. You can also try selecting a symbol as if it were text: in many real charts it highlights like a letter.

What Flossmark reads

• Symbols as text in any font, including the special symbol fonts charting programs embed
• Symbols drawn as shapes, or as small pictures repeated in each square
• Colour blocks with no symbols, including spreadsheet exports
• Charts over many pages, joined by the row and column numbers, including pages that repeat two rows, numbers counting from the right, and a whole-chart overview before the detail pages
• The key, wherever it is: a table, a list beside the chart, several columns, or a row under each page

When an import fails

Flossmark tells you what went wrong. The usual reasons:

• “This chart is a picture”: pick another PDF from the download, or ask the designer for their chart-app version. Most will happily send one.
• “Password-protected”: open it in a PDF reader, save a copy without the password, and import the copy.
• “No stitch grid found”: the file may be the instructions or the cover. Check you picked the chart.

If a real chart doesn’t import, please send the anonymous report from the error screen. It includes only the name of the program that made the PDF and its page count, and it tells us which program to look at next. You’re also welcome to email admin@onibaku.co.uk.

Notes from the import

After importing, Flossmark may list notes at the top of the chart, for example when the PDF states a size different from what it read, or when a symbol isn’t in the key. Check those against your printed chart. The thread list shows every symbol it found with its count, so a stray one is easy to spot.

For designers

We’ve tested PDFs from PCStitch, KG-Chart, Stitch Fiddle, FlossCross, Spriter and spreadsheet exports so far. Charts from other programs that save real symbols should work too. Email us if you’d like a free unlock to test your patterns, and we’ll fix anything that doesn’t import.