You are here: Home > Users > Fun Stuff > EQ Lessons > Previous Lesson List > Tracing Letters in PatchDraw

EQ Lessons: Tracing Letters in PatchDraw

by Barb Vlack and Angie Maidment

So everyone is always asking, "how in the world do you trace letters in EQ?" It's actually very easy and you can build your own alphabet collections very quickly. EQ actually already contains alphabet blocks in the block library of the font Arial Black (this is the font used for this lesson). This lesson will give you a basic understanding of how to trace letters so that you can move on to tracing more decorative fonts.

If you're ready, we are going to learn how to import letters into EQ and trace them so that you can use them for your very own quilt.

Before drawing the letters in EQ we need to get them from Microsoft Word, edit them in Microsoft Paint, and then bring them into EQ5 and start tracing.

Setup

1. In Microsoft Word (or similar word processing program) start a new document and select Arial Black as the font style. Type the desired letter that you would like to trace. For this particular lesson we are going to trace a lowercase "r"
2. Highlight the letter and type in the font size to 200.
3. On the EDIT menu choose Copy or Ctrl+C to copy the selected letter to the clipboard.
4. From the START menu, click on Accesories, and then on Paint, to open MS Paint.
5. In MS Paint, on the EDIT menu choose Paste or Ctrl+V to paste the letter into MS Paint. A window appears that says "The image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap. Would you like the bitmap emlarged?" Click yes and continue.
6. Click on the Fill coloring tool and click on a color other than black or gray on the color palette bar and click on the letter to change the color of the letter.
7. On the FILE menu choose Save. The letter can be saved as a 24-bit bitmap in the folder of your choice. If you plan on tracing many letters in EQ5 perhaps you would like to make a folder titled "AlphabetBitmaps" and save all your bitmaps in there. Just remember where you saved it!

Setup In EQ5

8. In EQ5 open a new project and name it whatever you would like, perhaps "Letters."
9. On the WORKTABLE menu, click on Work on Block.
10. On the BLOCK menu, click on New Block, and then on PatchDraw.
11. On the BLOCK menu, click on Import for Tracing. Find the bitmap that you saved from MS Paint in Step 7 above and click Open.
12. The letter "r" should then appear on the worktable. Center the letter on the drawing board.
13. Click on the Patchdraw tab at the bottom of the screen and you are ready to begin tracing.

Drawing Necessities

The trick to drawing in PatchDraw is drawing closed patches. The letter "O" is a closed patch (you start in one place and end up back in the same spot to close it), the letter "C" is not. What am I saying? Don't use the Arc tool. I always use the shape tools, that way there's no guessing game as to whether or not you've connected your arcs to form a closed patch. The shape tools are already closed and all you have to do is edit them.

When someone paints a portrait, I am sure they don't start out drawing the eyelashes and the twinkle in the eyes. They would probably start out drawing an outline of the head. So, let's do the same. Let's start with the big stuff and then worry about details.

Tour of the Shape Tools:

Simple Shape Tool	Polygon Tool	Simple Oval Tool

How to use the Shape Tools:

• Position your cursor over the tool you want to use
• Click its small black triangle in the top-left corner of the button
• On the flyout menu of choices, click on the shape you want to use.
• The flyout menu will disappear and the selected shape will now be the "featured shape" on that button.
• Later, if you click on the button, but don't click on the black triangle to change the shap with the flyout menu, you'll be drawing with the featured shape again.

The Edit buttons you'll be using frequently:

Add Click on a line or an arc with the Bezier Edit tool, and click the Add button. Your selected line or arc will be split in half, because you just added a new node. toCurve Click on a line with the Bezier Edit tool, and click the toCurve button. Your line is now an arc and will have "handles" on it, with which you can shape the arc.

You access the Edit dialog box by doing one of the following:

1. Click on the small black square in the bottom left corner of the Bezier Edit tool.
2. Click the Bezier Edit tool (anywhere), then right-click on your node or arc, and choose Edit.

Not all of the buttons will be enabled (lit up). Which buttons are usable depends on what you clicked on. Here's what the buttons do:

Click on a Node

Click on a Line/Arc

Delete - removes the node Break - separates two lines/arcs at that node Join - when two "loose" nodes are multiple selected (by using the SHIFT key), they will be joined together GREAT for fixing open patches Corner - makes the handles independent Smooth - makes the handles 180 degrees from one another Cusp - lines the handles on top of one another Symm(etrical) - makes the handles the same length and 180 degrees apart from one another

Add - adds a node toLine - changes the selected arc into a line toCurve - changes the selected line into an arc

OK, so now you know what the Shape Tools are like and what all those Edit buttons are for, let's do some letters!

Tracing in EQ

14. While on the Patchdraw tab, position the point of your cursor over the black triangle of the polygon tool and click. An extended menu will appear. Click on the Octagon shape, the shape with 8 sides.
15. Position the point of your cursor on the upper left corner of the "r" and click and drag the octagon larger than the letter. Release.
16. Carefully position the point of the point of your cursor on the black square of the Bezier Edit tool and click to enable the tool and get the pop-out menu.

17. Click on one node at a time of the octagon and position it in this way, going clockwise:
    1. First node is at the upper left corner of the "r"
    2. Second node is at the upper right of the upright of the "r"
    3. Third node is at the left end of the curved arm of the "r"
    4. Fourth node is at the right end of the curved arm
    5. Fifth node is at the point below the right end of the curved arm
    6. Sixth node is set where the curve of the "r" seems to straighten
    7. Seventh node is at the bottom right corner of the upright
    8. Eighth node is at the bottom left corner of the upright
18. There are two straight lines in this tracing now that need to be converted to curves. Click on one of these lines and then click on "to Curve" on the menu. Repeat for the other line.
19. Click on the Zoom In tool on the left tool bar and drag a marquee box around the area of the curve of the letter. It will be easier to see and manipulate the handles on the curved line. When a curved line is selected for editing, you will see handles extending from each end of the line. The box at the end of the dotted handle line is what you click on and drag to shape your curve.
20. Shaping a curve is done in two steps. Click on the handle of one side and position half of the curve and then click on the handle of the other side and complete the shaping. With a little patience you will see how easy this is. You do not need to add another node in the center of this curve.
21. As long as you're zoomed in on the letter, move around the letter and check the positioning of the other nodes. Straighten the lines if necessary. To get back to the full page view, click on the Fit to Window tool on the left tool bar.
22. When you are satisfied with the tracing of your letter you can delete the letter that you imported for tracing. Click the Bitmap tab on Block Worktable and select the bitmap. Right click and select delete. Click Yes to delete the image.
23. If you would like you can resize your letter on the PatchDraw tab. Before you resize though, delete the outer box by selecting it and pressing delete on the keyboard. To resize, select the letter "r" on the BLOCK menu and select Resize. Type in the same numbers in both the horizontal and vertical values in the resizing box.
24. On the Color tab you can fill the letter "r" with fabrics or a plain color, whichever you prefer. Save the block to your Sketchbook and save it for your next quilt layout.

To get more practice on other letters, try out these lessons:

Tracing letters with a lot of curves, such as the letter "S"

Tracing letters with more than 8 lines, such as the letter "W"

Tracing a letter with an interior opening, such as the letter "A"

Tracing a letter with an interior opening, such as the letter "O"

Have fun and happy quilting!