Free Software I Use To Create My Designs & Patterns -- Part 2

To edit the pages of a pattern I create to add my copyright, titles and other verbiage in the font I like, I need to convert original pdf files printed from my creation software to a graphics format from "pdf". I have used a variety of free programs from pdf995. All are very good, but include ads that pop up and, sometimes when their servers are busy, the ads take forever and slow me down.

Irfanview takes care of this perfectly! It is another free graphics software that has a lot of ability, most of which I have not taken the time to discover. There are lots of articles on the web on how to use this freeware. One day I will take the time to see what else it can do for me. Right now, I use it to save my "pdf" files printed from my pattern creation software as "tif" files to open in my old graphics program, PaintShopPro 5 (I would provide a link but this program was purchased by Corel years ago and is no longer available). I've had this piece of software for years and paid for it. I learned to use it when I was creating my genealogy website to create the backgrounds, buttons, banners and other graphics I used there. If you're like me at all, it is difficult sometimes to take the learning curve time necessary to become expert at something new when that something old is working well .

To convert a "pdf" file to a "tif" file in Irfanview is easy. Select "File", "Save As" and the file type. There are several different settings to select from but if the end goal is to have a individual "tif" file to edit from each page of the "pdf" file, none of them need to be changed. The resulting "tif" file will appear as one file but when opened in your graphics program will become separate graphics for each page that was originally in the "pdf" file.



When I create quilt and quilt block patterns that I have freehand drawn, there are sometimes some wild sewing lines created by the algorhythm of the software I use. Using Irfanview to create "tif" files and then opening them in my graphics file allows me to clean these up and redraw appropriate lines instead, as well as add the aforementioned copyright text and update fonts.


I hope these articles give you some ideas to help you design your own patterns or for other uses in your daily work and play. Remember, my patterns, as well as custom orders, are always available at my Etsy shop, DPeaGreenDesigns.