Photo Guidelines for Custom Graphghan Orders
When submitting your images for a custom order please be sure you have read all of these guidelines first.
Acceptable images for graphghans to be made from:
Graphghan patterns can be made from a large variety of images including (but not limited to) clip art, simple and complex illustrations, kids drawings, & photographs.
When submitting an image for a graphghan pattern to be made from please keep in mind that images should be as large and clear as possible.
Photos should be well lite, and not blurry or pixaly. Low quality images produce low quality patterns, we reserve the right to refuse to make any pattern from an image that does not follow these guidelines, and we HIGHLY recommend that if you are unsure, email us your photo/image first so that we can best advice you on if the image will work and what stitches/colors/ yarn brand is best advised for it.
Due to the size of each square with C2C patterns, photographs are not able to be used for C2C or Mini C2C patterns. Simple illustrations with basic colors work best for these. Additionally Drawings/graphs/illustrations may be ordered as a SC graphghan, but because we refuse to offer less then our best quality results, photographs must be ordered as a "PHOTOGHAN" which is produced as a SC or TSS pattern only. Photoghans require more work be put into them for optimum results.
Image size matters!
Unless specified when order is placed images will by default be placed straight up and down on the pattern. What this means for you is if the image you send is wider then it is tall and you order it on a twin sized blanket (for example) there is going to be ALLOT of blank space left above your image. This space can be left blank or filled in with words.
What you should know when ordering a custom graphghan:
Not all images work well for all types of graphghans. Smaller simple pictures (like cartoon characters) work great for C2C, while more detailed images typically do not. The reason for this is the lowest number of pixels the image can be broken down to and the image still be recognizable. Size also makes a difference; the larger the size for the finished piece, the more detail it will be able to incorporate from the image.
The image below was used to make 2 graphs, both of them a 60" x 60" Throw Blanket Size. As you can see from the image the detail in the C2C is not nearly as crisp, the image is distorted and the result are not acceptable to our standards, where as the SC/TSS image is crisp, clean lines, and well detailed.
The image below was used to to make 3 C2C graphs in different sizes. As you can see the difference is very noticeable with much better detail, and a crisper image the larger we go.
We highly suggest sending us the photo you would like to use via email before placing your order so that we can best advice you on if the photo will work right for a photoghan.
Photoghan Color/Effect Options
Photoghans have multiple color options and effects to choose from:
Original photo colors - this option will pull the yarn colors that closest match to the original image colors. Every ones skin contains shades of blues, green, purples etc. When a photo is pulled into a graph it pulls the colors closest to the original shades. For this reason not all photos are recommended to be used in original colors. Some photos will pull more shades of greens, blues, purples etc then they will shades we would consider to be normal skin tones.
Black and White (Greyscale) - this option works well with high quality images that original colors might be pulling to many undesired colors into skin tones.
3 Tone Color Effects- Your photos is broken down into the simplest vector shapes and colorized with the color of your choice to create a simple, yet detailed result using only 3 colors. This option is best for those who want to make a photoghan, but are not comfortable with large amounts of color changes.
Cartoon / Caricature Effect - A simple line drawn version of your photo drawn up by one of our experienced graphic artists will create an adorable effect similar to a coloring book style. You can even opt to change some of the colors from your original image to suite your personal wants or needs.
Ghost Effect - This beautiful effect desaturates your image and applies a combination of blues, greys and sometimes browns to your image.