Markup R-XP Help

Merge Symbols

2026-05-19T16:23:34+01:00

Combine two or more confirmed symbols that should really be one. Markup R-XP suggests likely candidates - all you do is pick the master that the others fold into and tap Merge.

What this step is for

Symbol detection sometimes splits one printed mark into two or three slightly different versions - one for the cells where the print is bold, one for cells where it is faded, one for cells with a stray pixel. Each version ends up as its own entry in the confirmed-symbols list, which means you would otherwise have to assign the same thread colour to two or three separate symbols.

Merge Symbols is where you fix that. The step looks for likely duplicates, suggests them as groups, and lets you combine them with a single tap. You can also browse the entire confirmed list and pick your own combinations to merge.

This step is optional - you only land here if you tap the Merge chip on the confirmed-symbols panel back on Set Symbols, or if the wizard guides you here when it sees suggested duplicates.

The screen at a glance

Figure 1. The Merge Symbols screen. (1) The Suggestions tab is selected by default. (2) Switch to Browse All to pick combinations yourself. (3) Each suggested group is a row containing the symbols that look similar. (4) The Merge action button on each group commits the merge. (5) Back returns to Set Symbols. (6) Next moves on to Set Colors.

The Suggestions tab

The Suggestions tab lists groups of symbols that the app thinks should probably be merged. Each row shows the symbols in the group side by side, with a star on the one currently chosen as master.

Figure 2. One suggested group. (1) The master symbol is starred - the others will adopt its name, colour and icon when merged. (2) The duplicate symbol(s) that will fold into the master. (3) Merge commits the merge now. (4) Edit moves the group to the tray so you can adjust it before merging. (5) Ignore dismisses the suggestion without merging.

Merge

The fastest action. Folds the duplicates into the master immediately. The group disappears from the suggestions list and the merged symbol appears in the confirmed list for everywhere else in the project.

Edit

Moves the group's symbols to the tray on the Browse All tab so you can rearrange them - add more symbols, remove some, change the master - before committing.

Ignore

Dismisses the suggestion. The symbols stay separate and the group is removed from the suggestions list. Useful when the app has suggested a merge for symbols that look similar but are genuinely different.

The Browse All tab

The Browse All tab shows the entire confirmed-symbols list and lets you pick your own combinations. Tap any symbol to drop it into the tray at the top of the panel; tap a symbol in the tray to remove it.

Figure 3. The Browse All tray. (1) The tray displays every symbol you have selected. (2) Tap one in the tray to mark it as the master. (3) Cancel empties the tray without merging. (4) Merge tray commits the merge.

Switch to the Browse All tab.
Tap the symbols you want to merge. They appear in the tray.
Tap one in the tray to make it the master. A star marks it.
Tap Merge tray. The duplicates fold into the master and the tray empties.

Choosing the master symbol

The master is the symbol the others adopt when merged. Its name, its colour, its thread number and its icon all win - the duplicates lose theirs and pick up the master's.

Markup R-XP picks a sensible default master for every suggested group (usually the one with the most cells assigned), but you can change it by tapping a different symbol in the group.

Tip. If two symbols in a suggested group both have colour information, pick the one whose colour is correct as the master. The duplicate's colour will be lost when it merges.

Strictness and Relax

The Suggestions tab has a strictness control - Strict, Balanced, or Loose - that decides how aggressively the app suggests duplicates. Strict only flags very obvious duplicates; Loose surfaces anything remotely similar.

Figure 4. The strictness control. (1) Strict - only the closest duplicates. (2) Balanced - the default. (3) Loose - includes lower-confidence pairings for you to review.

When you have worked through every suggestion at one strictness level, a Relax button appears that steps to the next level - Strict relaxes to Balanced, Balanced relaxes to Loose. Tap it to see new suggestions you might have missed. When you reach the end of Loose, Relax instead switches you to the Browse All tab.

Moving on

When you are happy that no more merges are needed, tap Next in the bottom-right to continue to Set Colors. The confirmed-symbols list now reflects every merge you made.

If you want to return to Set Symbols to fine-tune individual symbols first, tap Back in the bottom-left.

Note. Each merge is committed immediately - there is no global save on this step. To undo a merge you would need to delete the combined symbol and rebuild the originals, so look carefully before tapping Merge on a group.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about merging symbols.

Q: The Suggestions tab is empty. Does that mean my symbols are all unique?

Answer: Probably - or at least very few are obvious duplicates.

Tap Relax to widen the suggestions, or switch to Browse All if you suspect duplicates that the app did not flag.

Q: I merged two symbols by mistake. Can I undo?

Answer: Not directly.

You will need to go back to Set Symbols, delete the combined symbol, and rebuild the two originals by tapping representative cells. Merges are permanent within the project.

Q: Why are the same symbols showing up in suggestions even after I ignored them?

Answer: The Ignore dismissal applies to one visit only.

Re-entering the step recomputes the suggestions list, and previously-ignored groups can return if they still look like duplicates. To make them go away permanently, give the duplicates clearly different colours or names so the app sees them as distinct.

Q: What is the difference between Merge here and just deleting one of the duplicates?

Answer: Merge preserves the cell assignments; delete loses them.

Merge reassigns every cell from the duplicate to the master so no cells become unassigned. Delete just removes the symbol and leaves its cells unassigned, which you would then have to re-add via the Set Symbols step.

Q: Can I merge three or more symbols at once?

Answer: Yes - either accept a suggested group that contains three, or use the Browse All tray to put any number in.

All non-master symbols in the group fold into the master in a single merge action.

What's next?

When your confirmed-symbols list contains only genuine, distinct symbols, the next step is Set Colors.

Set Colors is where every symbol gets matched to a thread number and a display colour, ready for stitching. If the project already has a key page, much of this is done automatically.

Final Review

2026-05-19T16:24:05+01:00

Preview your finished chart in full colour, save a cover image for your project list, jump back to fix any last-minute issues, and tap Finish to leave the setup wizard and start stitching.

What this step is for

Final Review is the last step in the setup wizard. By now Markup R-XP has done all of the heavy lifting - pages, grids, overlap, symbols, colours - and it can show you what your finished chart will look like as a continuous colour image.

Use this step to do three things: check the result looks right end-to-end, jump back and fix anything that does not, and save a cover image so the project looks nice in your project list. When you are happy, tap Finish and the wizard closes, leaving you on the main marker view ready to start counting stitches.

The screen at a glance

Figure 1. The Final Review screen. (1) The chart is shown in colour-preview mode by default - a clean uniform-grid rendering of every cell. (2) The confirmed-symbols panel on the right lists every symbol and its colour. (3) A floating chip on the left edge holds the view toggles (preview on/off, picture view, fit-to-view, etc.). (4) Back returns to Set Colors. (5) Finish closes the wizard and opens the marker view.

The preview toggle

The preview toggle on the chip switches between two views of the chart.

Figure 2. Preview toggle. (1) Preview on - every cell is filled with the colour of its assigned symbol, so the chart reads as the finished embroidery. (2) Preview off - the underlying chart with grid lines and symbol marks visible, the same view you have been using through the rest of the wizard.

Preview on (the default)

Renders the chart as a colour image of the finished piece. Cells without a fully-assigned symbol stay blank, which makes any holes in your colour setup obvious.

Preview off

Shows the raw chart with the detected symbols overlaid on top - useful for spot-checking a particular area against the underlying PDF.

Note. Preview only turns on automatically when your project has at least one fully-assigned symbol. On a brand new project it stays off until you finish enough of Set Colors for there to be something to show.

The picture-view toggle

If you selected picture pages earlier in the wizard, the chip has a button that swaps the canvas between your chart and the finished-design photo. Tap to flip between the two and compare them visually.

Figure 3. Picture view. (1) The chip's picture toggle is now active. (2) The canvas shows the picture page (the photograph or illustration of the completed design) instead of the chart preview.

If you did not select any picture pages this button is hidden, and you can still add some by jumping back to Select Picture Pages via the chip on the panel.

Fixing last-minute issues

Most checks on this screen are visual - does the preview look right, do the colours match the picture page, are there any cells that look out of place. If you spot something to fix, you have several quick paths back into the relevant wizard step.

Tap a symbol in the panel. The wizard jumps back to Set Colors with that symbol pre-selected so you can correct its colour or thread.
Tap the picture-edit chip on the panel header. Jumps to Select Picture Pages with a return ticket; finish your edit and you land back here.
Use the wizard Back button at the bottom. Walks one step back to Set Colors, then Set Symbols, and so on.

Tip. Jumping back from Final Review remembers what you were looking at. When you return after editing, the chart re-opens on the same area so you can immediately verify the fix.

Saving a cover image

The chip has a Take Cover Snapshot command that grabs the current preview and saves it as the project's cover image. The cover image is what appears in the project list and dashboards.

Figure 6. Cover-image snapshot. (1) The Take Cover Snapshot button captures the current preview. (2) The image is letterboxed onto an A4 thumbnail and stored on the project, so it appears in the project list right away.

Make sure the preview shows the whole chart. The snapshot always scales to fit before capturing, so any zoom or pan does not matter.
Tap Take Cover Snapshot. A busy indicator appears briefly while the image is rendered and saved.
A confirmation toast appears. Your cover is updated.

Heads up. Taking a snapshot overwrites the previous cover image. If you want different covers for different stages of work, you would need to back them up outside the app.

Finishing the wizard

When you are happy with the result, tap Finish in the bottom-right corner.

Markup R-XP commits the project, closes the wizard, and opens the main marker view. From there you can pan around the chart, mark cells as you stitch, switch between chart, key and picture views, and track your daily progress.

Note. The wizard is not one-way - you can return at any time from the marker view's menu to re-run any setup step. Your existing colour and symbol work is preserved where possible.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about Final Review.

Q: The preview is blank for half the chart. What is wrong?

Answer: Those cells are not fully assigned to a colour-bearing symbol.

Turn the preview off to see what is in those cells - usually a symbol that needs its colour set, or cells that were never assigned. Tap the unassigned symbols in the panel to jump back to Set Colors and finish them.

Q: The picture-view button is not shown. How do I add a picture page?

Answer: Tap the picture-edit chip on the panel header.

That takes you to Select Picture Pages with a return ticket. Pick a page and tap Done, and you land back here with the picture view enabled.

Q: Can I keep editing after I tap Finish?

Answer: Yes - the wizard is reachable from the marker view menu at any time.

Finish is the way out of the setup flow, not a one-way commit. Your project's setup can be revisited and refined whenever you want.

Q: The cover snapshot looks weird - white margins, off-centre. Why?

Answer: The snapshot was taken while the chart was zoomed in or partially off-screen.

Tap fit-to-view on the chip first to make sure the whole chart is on screen, then re-take the snapshot. The crop logic only sees what is currently visible.

Q: What happens to my project if I close the app halfway through Final Review without tapping Finish?

Answer: Everything is saved.

The wizard saves your work after every step, so closing the app does not lose anything. When you reopen the project you will land back on Final Review (or wherever you left off) ready to continue.

What's next?

Tap Finish and you leave the setup wizard behind. The main marker view opens with your finished chart ready to stitch.

From there you can mark stitches as you complete them, flip between the chart, the key and the picture, and track your daily progress. Welcome to Markup R-XP - happy stitching.

Set Symbol Colours

2026-05-20T12:12:19+01:00

Match every confirmed symbol to its thread colour, using the key pages from your PDF. Tap a symbol to highlight where it appears on the key, then assign the matching colour and thread number with a single popup.

What this step is for

The previous steps got every cell on every chart page assigned to a confirmed symbol. Set Colors is where those symbols stop being abstract marks and become actual stitchable threads - DMC 310 black, Anchor 403, and so on.

The key pages you chose at the start of the wizard are displayed in the main canvas. Tap any confirmed symbol on the right and the app finds its match on the key, highlights it and pans the key to centre it. Open the colour popup and pick the thread, brand and display colour, and the symbol is fully set.

Markup R-XP will have a good go at assigning colours automatically the first time you arrive here - the auto-search picks up any text near the symbol on the key and seeds the thread number. Your job is to check those guesses, fill in the symbols that did not auto-match, and tweak anything that came out wrong.

The screen at a glance

Figure 1. The Set Colors screen. (1) The key pages from your PDF are displayed in the canvas. (2) The confirmed-symbols panel on the right lists every symbol that needs a colour assignment. (3) A floating chip carries the view-mode and refresh helpers. (4) The Refresh key-scale and Fit-to-view buttons. (5) Back returns to Set Symbols. (6) Next moves on to the Complete step.

Assigning a colour to a symbol

The workflow for each symbol is the same: pick it, find it on the key, give it its details.

Tap a symbol in the confirmed-symbols panel. The app searches the key pages for the same icon, draws a highlight around its match, and pans the key view to centre the match.
Read the thread number printed next to the highlighted icon. That is the number the publisher has assigned to that symbol.
Tap the symbol's colour swatch or the Edit button to open the colour popup. The popup is described below.
Type the thread number and pick the colour, then tap OK. The symbol updates in the panel and the canvas refreshes to show its new colour.

Figure 2. Tapping a symbol. (1) The selected symbol in the panel. (2) Its match is highlighted on the key. (3) The key view auto-centres on the match so you do not need to pan.

Tip. You can turn off auto-centre via the chip if the constant view-jumping bothers you. The highlight still appears - you just have to pan to find it yourself.

The colour popup is the same one used on the Set Symbols Existing detail panel - any change here is reflected there and everywhere else the symbol appears.

Figure 3. The colour popup. (1) Icon preview at the top. (2) Tap the colour swatch to open a colour picker. (3) Pick the thread brand (DMC, Anchor, etc.). (4) Enter the thread number. (5) Confirm with OK or back out with Cancel.

Most of the time, only the thread brand and number need entering - the display colour is then looked up from the chosen brand's colour list. If you want a custom colour (e.g. a fabric-conditioner pink), tap the swatch and pick freely.

Quick mode for bulk entry

The Quick toggle near the top of the panel switches to a faster entry mode. Instead of opening the full popup for every symbol, the dock strip at the bottom of the canvas lets you type just the thread number and skip to the next symbol with a single tap.

Figure 6. Quick mode. (1) The Quick toggle is on. (2) The dock shows the symbol you are entering for. (3) Enter commits the value and advances to the next symbol. (4) Skip moves on without saving. (5) Edit details escapes to the full popup if you need more than just a thread number. (6) Close exits Quick mode.

Toggle Quick on. The dock appears and the first unfinished symbol is shown.
Type the thread number on the dock keyboard.
Tap Enter to save and advance. The next unfinished symbol pops up.
Tap Skip if you do not know one yet. Skipped symbols stay in the list and can be revisited later.
Toggle Quick off when you are done.

Refreshing the key view

The key-scale button (refresh icon) on the panel header rescans the key pages and resets the zoom. Use it after you have zoomed in on a particular area and want to see the whole key again, or if the key view feels stale after several centring actions.

Editing the key pages mid-flow

If the key on screen is wrong (you chose the wrong page back at the start, or you missed a page that holds part of the key), each symbol row has a small key-icon button that takes you back to the Select Key Pages step with a return ticket - finish the edit and tap Done, and you land back here.

Tip. You can also reach Set Key Pages by going Back through the wizard, but the key-icon shortcut on each symbol is the fastest path when you spot the issue mid-flow.

Moving on

When every confirmed symbol has a thread number and a colour, tap Next in the bottom-right to move on to the Final Review.

You can move on with some symbols still unassigned - Markup R-XP will warn you about each one on the Complete step. Some users prefer to leave colour-assignment as they meet new symbols later in the project rather than upfront.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about Set Colors.

Q: Why is the key view jumping around when I tap symbols?

Answer: Auto-centre is on by default.

Each tap centres the key view on the match so you do not have to hunt for it. Turn auto-centre off via the chip if you would rather pan manually.

Q: A symbol I tap is not highlighted on the key. What is happening?

Answer: The app could not find a confident match for it on the key pages.

The most common reason is that the key page on screen is the wrong one. Use the key-icon button on the symbol row to jump to Select Key Pages and confirm or add the right page.

Q: I do not know the thread brand my pattern uses.

Answer: Pick whatever brand is most common on your pattern's key.

If the key just lists numbers with no brand prefix, DMC is the most common default for cross-stitch patterns. You can change brand later if a thread number does not match what you expect.

Q: Quick mode skipped a symbol on its own. Why?

Answer: The app may have auto-assigned that symbol from text it found near the highlight.

Auto-assigned symbols are skipped because they already have a thread number. Toggle Quick mode off, scan the list to confirm the auto choices, and re-enable Quick to continue.

Q: I changed the colour but the chart in the previous step still shows the old colour.

Answer: It will refresh as soon as you return to that step.

Symbol colours flow throughout the project. Going back will show the up-to-date colours; you do not need to do anything special.

What's next?

When every symbol has a thread colour, the final step in the setup wizard is Final Review.

That step previews the finished chart in full colour, lets you save a cover image for your project list, and finishes the wizard so you can start marking stitches.

Symbol Search

2026-05-19T16:27:59+01:00

The controls at the top of the symbol detail panel decide which cells across the chart get classified as a given symbol. Get them right and the matches are almost perfect on the first pass.

Why search settings matter

The search controls live at the top of both the Adding panel and the Existing detail panel. They are the same controls in both places, doing the same job: deciding which cells on the chart are considered a match for the symbol you are working with.

A strict search misses cells that should match; a loose search drags in cells that should not. Spending a minute tuning these controls per symbol usually saves much longer fixing wrong matches one at a time.

The search controls

Figure 1. The search controls. (1) The Icon and Colour chips pick which trait is matched on first. (2) The primary threshold slider controls how strict that first match is. (3) The refine toggle turns on a second pass. (4) The secondary slider controls the strictness of the refine pass.

Icon-first versus Colour-first

The two chips at the top of the controls switch between matching primarily on the shape of the printed mark (Icon) or primarily on its colour (Colour).

Figure 2. The same symbol matched two different ways. (1) Icon-first returns cells whose mark shape is similar regardless of colour. (2) Colour-first returns cells whose colour is similar regardless of mark shape.

Icon-first (default for black-and-white charts)

Matches cells whose printed mark looks the same as your seed cell. Use this on monochrome charts, where shape is the only distinguishing trait, and on coloured charts when you have several symbols of the same colour but different shapes.

Colour-first (for coloured charts)

Matches cells whose colour is the same as your seed cell. Useful on coloured charts where the symbol design can vary slightly cell to cell, but the colour is consistent. Markup R-XP auto-suggests this mode when it detects the chart is in colour.

Tip. Switching between Icon and Colour reruns the search automatically, so you can flip back and forth to see which gives the cleaner result.

The primary threshold slider

The slider directly below the chips controls how strict the first-pass match is. Drag it left for stricter, right for looser.

Figure 3. The threshold's effect. (1) A low (strict) value returns only the closest matches. (2) The default mid value catches most. (3) A high (loose) value includes anything that even slightly resembles your seed.

Start in the middle. The default is usually a good guess.
If you see false positives (matches that are clearly not the symbol), drag the slider left. The match grid shrinks as wrong cells fall out.
If you see misses (the symbol is on the chart but not in the grid), drag the slider right. The match grid grows as more cells qualify.
Stop when the grid contains only the cells you wanted.

The refine search

For symbols that look similar to others on the chart, a single threshold cannot always tell them apart. The refine toggle adds a second pass that filters the first-pass matches further, using the trait that was not the primary one. So if you picked Icon-first as the main search, the refine pass adds a colour filter; if you picked Colour-first, refine adds a shape filter.

Figure 4. The refine pass. (1) Refine toggled on. (2) The secondary slider appears below the toggle. (3) The match grid tightens - cells that passed the primary but fail the refine pass drop out.

Toggle refine on. The secondary slider appears.
Drag the secondary slider until the match grid contains exactly the cells you want. Same rules as the primary slider - left for stricter, right for looser.
Toggle refine off again if it does not help. Some symbols are clean enough that the primary pass alone is best.

Apply to all pages

The Apply to all pages toggle at the bottom of the detail panel decides whether the search runs across every chart page or only the current one.

Figure 5. Apply to all pages. (1) When on, the search runs across every chart page. (2) When off, the search is limited to the page on screen.

On (default)

The match grid includes cells from every chart page. This is what you want for symbols that recur across the chart.

Off

The match grid is limited to the page you are currently viewing. Useful for symbols that only appear in one place, or when you want to spot-check the search settings on a single page before committing across the whole chart.

A typical refining workflow

The fastest way to clean up a stubborn symbol is usually:

Glance at the match grid. If it looks roughly right, do nothing.
If you see false positives, drag the primary slider left. Watch the grid shrink.
If false positives remain after the slider hits the bottom, try the other search type (Icon if you were on Colour, or vice-versa).
If false positives still remain, toggle refine on and tune the secondary slider.
For the final stragglers, tap individual wrong cells in the grid to remove them.
Tap the rescan button (Rescan all pages on Existing mode, or just Save on Adding mode) to make the changes stick everywhere.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about search and filter.

Q: The slider does not seem to do anything. Why?

Answer: Markup R-XP debounces the search so it does not rerun on every pixel of drag.

Move the slider and pause for a moment - the new match grid should appear within a second.

Q: When should I use Colour-first?

Answer: On coloured charts where similar shapes appear in different colours.

On a colourless or two-tone chart, Colour-first has almost nothing to work with. Stick with Icon-first there.

Q: The refine pass made the matches worse. What went wrong?

Answer: The secondary slider is in the wrong place.

Drag the secondary slider to its widest setting and see if the matches return. Then narrow until you see the improvement you wanted. If refine still does not help, toggle it off - some symbols are easier without it.

Q: Does changing the search settings on one symbol affect any others?

Answer: No - each symbol has its own search settings.

You can have one symbol on Icon-first low threshold and another on Colour-first with refine on. The choices stick to the symbol until you change them.

Q: Why is the chart sometimes slow to update after a slider change?

Answer: Rescanning every page can take a moment on large charts.

The activity indicator at the top of the chart shows when a scan is in progress. Tap it to cancel if you change your mind mid-search.

What's next?

Once your search settings give you a clean match grid for the symbol you are working on, save (in Adding) or tap Rescan all pages (in Existing) to push the change out.

For the broader workflow, return to the overview. For the bigger-hammer cleanup tools, see Build & erase.

Edit Existing Symbols

2026-05-19T16:27:45+01:00

Tap any confirmed symbol in the symbols panel to inspect its matches across the chart, refine the search, change its icon, edit its colour and thread number, or delete it.

What this part of the step is for

Once a symbol is in the confirmed list, you usually want to do one of three things: check it found the right cells, give it a colour and thread number so it appears properly in the marker view, or get rid of it because it was matched by mistake.

All of those happen inside the existing-symbol detail panel, which opens whenever you tap an entry in the confirmed-symbols panel. The chart on the left highlights every cell that the selected symbol matches, so you can see at a glance whether the detection looks right.

Entering Existing mode

Find the symbol you want in the confirmed-symbols panel. Scroll if needed - the panel can be expanded to Full mode for an easier view on a long list.
Tap the symbol's row. The detail panel opens on the right (or along the bottom in portrait) and the matching cells light up on the chart.

You can also reach Existing mode by tapping any cell on the chart that is already assigned to a known symbol - the app jumps straight to that symbol's detail panel.

The existing-symbol detail panel

Figure 1. Existing mode. (1) The selected symbol is highlighted in the confirmed-symbols list. (2) The detail panel header shows the symbol's icon, colour swatch and name. (3) The cells grid below shows every cell across the chart that matches this symbol. (4) The action row at the bottom holds the edit, rescan, change-icon and delete commands.

Inspecting matched cells

The grid of cells in the middle of the detail panel is the most important place to look. Every entry shows one cell on the chart that has been classified as this symbol.

Scan the grid for anything that does not look right. All cells should show the same printed symbol.
Tap a cell in the grid to focus the chart on that cell. The chart pans and zooms to show the cell highlighted in place.
Tap a cell again to remove it from the symbol's matches. Wrong matches drop out of the grid and the chart cell returns to unassigned.

If the match grid contains too many false positives, see the threshold and search options described in Filter, search and refine - the same controls work in Existing mode for tightening or loosening the match.

Editing colour, thread and name

The Edit button on the action row opens the symbol-colour popup, where you can set the symbol's display colour, thread brand (DMC, Anchor, etc.), thread number and human-readable name.

Figure 4. The symbol-colour popup. (1) The current icon. (2) A name field. (3) The colour swatch - tap to open a colour picker. (4) The thread brand. (5) The thread number. (6) Confirm or cancel.

This is the same popup used by the dedicated Set Colors step, so anything you change here is reflected there and vice-versa.

Tip. You can also tap the colour swatch directly in the detail panel header to open the colour part of the popup without going through the full edit form.

Changing the icon

If the symbol was detected from a cell that turned out to be slightly off (faded print, a smudge) you can teach Markup R-XP to use a different cell as the canonical icon.

Tap Change Icon on the action row. A prompt appears telling you to tap a cell on the chart.
Tap the cell whose print best represents the symbol. The detail panel header updates to show the new icon.
The match grid updates too. Markup R-XP re-searches the chart based on the new icon.
Tap Confirm to keep the change, or Cancel to back out.

Figure 3. Change-icon mode. (1) The instruction strip tells you what to do next. (2) The target cell will become the new icon.

Refreshing and rescanning

Two buttons on the action row let you re-run the search for this symbol without changing anything else.

Refresh snapshot

Re-reads the current symbol's icon from the chart and updates the preview. Useful after you change the underlying chart (rare during this step) or just want to make sure the preview is current.

Rescan all pages

Re-applies this symbol's current search settings to every chart page, clearing stale matches and adding new ones. Use after editing the threshold slider or toggling Icon-first / Colour-first - it propagates your changes everywhere.

Note. The rescan only affects the symbol that is currently selected. If you want to rerun detection for every symbol on the chart, use the Scan pages button on the tool chip instead.

Deleting a symbol

The Delete button on the action row removes the symbol from the confirmed list and unassigns every cell that was matched to it.

Figure 5. The delete confirmation. (1) The dialog explains what is about to happen. (2) Tap Delete to confirm or Cancel to back out.

Heads up. Deleting a symbol cannot be undone with the wizard's undo / redo. The cells return to the unassigned pool and you would need to add the symbol again from scratch if you change your mind.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about editing existing symbols.

Q: I selected a symbol but the chart did not highlight any cells.

Answer: The current page filter may be hiding them.

Check the “current page only” toggle on the confirmed-symbols panel. If it is on, matches from other pages are not highlighted on the chart. Turn it off to see all cells across all pages.

Q: How do I close the detail panel and go back to Browsing?

Answer: Tap the close button (X) on the detail panel header, or tap the same symbol in the list a second time.

Both actions clear the selection and the panel collapses, returning you to Browsing mode.

Q: I edited the colour but the chart still shows the old colour. Why?

Answer: Tap somewhere away from the symbol to refresh the chart overlay.

The chart redraws on focus changes - tapping another symbol or closing the detail panel forces it to apply the new colour everywhere.

Q: Can I rename a symbol without changing anything else?

Answer: Yes - tap Edit, change just the name field, leave the colour and thread fields alone, and tap OK.

Only the field you change is saved.

Q: Two symbols look identical. Should I delete one?

Answer: Use the dedicated Merge Symbols step instead.

Merging combines two symbols into one and reassigns the cells, which is safer than deleting and re-detecting. You can reach Merge from the panel header (Merge button) or by tapping Next on this step when you have more than one symbol.

What's next?

When every confirmed symbol has the right matches, the right icon, and a thread / colour assigned (you can also do colours later on the dedicated Set Colors step), head back to the overview to move on.

If you have two or more symbols that should really be one, take a detour through Merge Symbols first.

Initialise Symbols & Erase Mode

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Two power-user tools sit on the Set Symbols tool chip: Build rebuilds the symbols from scratch using either PDF data or an image scan, and Erase mode wipes out unwanted detections with a block brush.

The Build popup

Tap the wrench icon (Build) on the tool chip to open the symbol-setup popup. This is the wizard's way of saying “start the symbol detection over with different parameters”.

Figure 1. The Symbol Setup popup. (1) The PDF data option reads the symbol information directly from text encoded in the PDF. (2) The Image scan option treats every chart page as a picture and clusters similar marks. (3) The contrast slider tunes the image scan's sensitivity. (4) The Coloured chart toggle tells the scan that symbol colour is meaningful. (5) Run kicks off the rebuild; Cancel leaves the existing symbols untouched.

Heads up. Running Build replaces the entire confirmed-symbols list. Any colour and naming work you have done on existing symbols will be lost, so prefer the lighter Scan pages button when possible.

PDF data: when the symbols are text

Some cross-stitch PDFs encode every symbol as actual text inside the PDF, rather than just printing it as part of the image. When this option is available, it is by far the most accurate way to identify symbols - the app gets the exact symbol used in every cell directly from the publisher.

The PDF data option is only enabled when Markup R-XP detects readable symbol text in your file. If your PDF was made from scanned pages, this option will be greyed out and you will need to use Image scan instead.

Image scan: when only the picture is available

Image scan treats every chart page as a picture and looks for the printed marks visually. It is what runs by default the first time you arrive on the Set Symbols step, and it is the only option when the PDF has no symbol text data.

Select Image scan in the popup. The contrast slider becomes active.
Set the contrast. Higher contrast helps when print is faint; lower contrast helps when there is background noise.
Tap Run. Markup R-XP scans every chart page and rebuilds the confirmed list.

The Coloured chart toggle

The Coloured chart toggle tells the rest of the symbol logic to take colour into account. Turn it on for full-colour charts (where the symbols are printed in their thread colour); leave it off for black-and-white charts (where colour is meaningless).

Turning this on also flips the search panels in Adding and Existing modes into Colour-first matching by default. See Filter, search and refine for what that does.

Scan pages: lighter re-detection

The Scan pages button on the tool chip (magnifier-in-a-page icon) runs the symbol detection again across every chart page without throwing away your existing confirmed list. New matches are added; existing matches are re-validated.

Figure 5. A scan in progress. (1) An activity indicator at the top of the chart shows progress. (2) Tap the indicator to cancel if it is taking too long.

Use this when you have edited a symbol's search settings and want the changes applied everywhere, or after adding a few new symbols when you want the chart to refresh.

Erase mode

The Erase button (texture icon) on the tool chip switches the chart into a different interaction mode where dragging across cells removes their symbol assignment. Useful when the auto-detection mistakenly classified a lot of cells incorrectly and you want to clear them quickly rather than going symbol-by-symbol.

Figure 2. Erase mode active. (1) The Erase button is highlighted on the tool chip. (2) A horizontal brush-size stepper appears. (3) A vertical brush-size stepper appears beside it. (4) A Bulk-erase unassigned button gives you a one-tap purge of every unassigned cell.

Tap Erase on the tool chip. The button stays highlighted and the right-hand symbols panel is hidden to give the chart more room.
Drag across the chart. Cells under the brush lose their symbol assignment.
Tap Erase again to leave the mode. The symbols panel returns and chart taps go back to normal.

Figure 3. The erase brush in action. (1) The brush outline tracks your finger. (2) Cells under the brush are unassigned as you drag.

Resizing the block brush

The block brush is the rectangular cell range that gets erased on each touch. Two steppers on the erase-mode chip control its horizontal and vertical reach independently.

Figure 4. Brush sizes. (1) 1x1 - a single cell at a time. (2) 3x3 - quick cleanup of small areas. (3) 5x5 - clear large patches in one swipe.

Tap the horizontal stepper to grow the brush wider. Each tap adds one cell; tapping past the maximum wraps back to one.
Tap the vertical stepper to grow the brush taller. Same rules.
Your brush size is remembered. Next time you enter erase mode the chip restores the dimensions you used last.

Tip. Use a small brush (1x1 or 2x2) for precise work; switch to a larger brush when you have a big area of misdetections to wipe.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about Build and Erase.

Q: Build or Scan pages - which should I use?

Answer: Use Scan pages first; only Build if Scan does not find what you need.

Scan pages reuses your existing settings and preserves the confirmed list. Build is a full reset - everything is rediscovered from scratch. Build is the right choice when you want to switch between PDF data and image-scan modes, or when you have changed the “coloured chart” setting.

Q: The PDF data option is greyed out in the Build popup.

Answer: Your PDF does not contain readable symbol text.

This is normal for scanned patterns and for some publishers who flatten their PDFs to plain images. Use Image scan instead - the result is usually still very good.

Q: Erase mode looks dangerous. Can I undo?

Answer: Yes - tap the undo button on the wizard chrome to step back any erase strokes.

Each drag is one undo step, so a single Undo brings back the cells you just erased.

Q: What is the Bulk-erase-unassigned button?

Answer: It clears every cell that does not yet have a symbol assigned.

Sometimes the auto detection partially classifies a cell and leaves traces. Bulk-erase wipes those traces from every page in one tap, giving you a clean slate of unassigned cells. Use after a Build or before a fresh Scan pages run.

Q: The Scan pages indicator has been spinning for a long time.

Answer: Large charts can take a minute or two to scan.

Tap the activity indicator to cancel if you need to do something else. Your confirmed symbols are not changed until the scan completes.

What's next?

Once the chart is clean - every cell either assigned to a symbol or genuinely unassigned - return to the Set Symbols overview.

If you have two or more confirmed symbols that should really be one, the next stop is Merge Symbols. Otherwise, head straight to Set Colors.

Adding New Symbol

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Teach Markup R-XP a symbol it did not pick up on its own. You tap a cell that contains the symbol you want to add, refine the matches the app finds, and save the result to your confirmed list.

Why you would add a symbol manually

The automatic symbol detection that runs when you arrive on the Set Symbols step is usually fast and accurate, but it does not always find every symbol. Faint print, unusual shapes, or symbols that appear in only a handful of cells are the most common reasons something is missed.

When that happens, you add the symbol manually. The workflow is straightforward: tap an empty cell on the chart that contains the symbol you want to teach the app, refine what it finds, and save. From then on that symbol is in the confirmed list with everyone else.

Starting the workflow

You start adding a new symbol by tapping any cell on the chart that the app does not yet recognise. As soon as you tap, the right-hand panel switches into the Adding mode and shows the new-symbol detail view.

Pan and zoom on the chart until you can see the cell you want clearly. Adding works one symbol at a time, so pick a cell whose symbol is unambiguous.
Tap that cell. A coloured outline appears around the cell on the chart and the Adding detail panel opens on the right (or along the bottom in portrait).
Look at the matches in the panel. Markup R-XP scans the chart for cells whose mark looks the same and shows them as a grid of thumbnails.

Figure 1. Starting a new symbol. (1) The cell you tapped is highlighted on the chart. (2) The Adding detail panel opens showing the icon you have just selected at the top and the cells it matches below.

The new-symbol detail panel

The Adding panel is laid out in three vertical sections.

Figure 2. The Adding panel. (1) The header carries the icon swatch of the symbol you have just picked. (2) The middle area is the matching-cells grid - every cell across the chart whose mark looks the same as your seed. (3) The bottom strip carries the Apply-to-all-pages toggle, the Auto-save-on-click toggle, and the Save and Cancel buttons.

Refining the matches

The first list of matches is usually a good starting point but rarely perfect. The detail panel gives you several controls for tightening or loosening what the app considers a match. See the dedicated Filter, search and refine article for the full details, but here are the essentials.

Tap any incorrect match in the results grid to remove it. A second tap puts it back.
Drag the threshold slider at the top of the results to widen or narrow the search. Higher values match more loosely, lower values stricter.
Switch between Icon-first and Colour-first matching with the chips at the top. Use Colour-first on coloured charts where the symbol shapes vary but the colours are consistent.
Toggle the refine search on for a second, finer pass. Useful when the chart has two similar symbols that you want to distinguish from each other.

Figure 4. The search controls. (1) Icon and Colour chips pick which trait is matched first. (2) The primary threshold slider controls how strict the match is. (3) The refine toggle adds a second filter pass. (4) The secondary slider controls the refine pass.

Apply to all pages and auto-save

Two toggles at the bottom of the Adding panel change how aggressively the new symbol is committed.

Apply to all pages

When on (the default), the matches are looked for across every chart page. When off, the search is limited to the current page. Leave this on for any symbol that appears on more than one page; turn it off when you want to teach the app a symbol that only appears in one place.

Auto-save on click

When on, every cell you tap is added directly to the symbol's match list without you having to confirm. Useful for quick clean-up where you know the matches are good. When off, you tap to preview the match and use Save to commit.

Saving or cancelling

When the match grid looks right - every cell in there is genuinely the symbol you are adding, nothing missing - you commit it.

Figure 5. The two action buttons. (1) Save adds the symbol to the confirmed list and returns to Browsing mode. (2) Cancel discards the in-flight symbol and any cell selections, returning you to Browsing.

Tap Save to commit. The new symbol appears in the confirmed-symbols panel and the chart cells that were highlighted now flip to the saved state.
Tap Cancel if you change your mind. The seed cell is unselected and nothing is added.

Heads up. If you try to leave Set Symbols (back, next, or jump) while an Adding session is open, Markup R-XP drops the in-flight symbol without saving. Always tap Save first if you want it kept.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about adding new symbols.

Q: I tapped a cell that already has a symbol assigned. What happens?

Answer: Markup R-XP enters Existing mode for that symbol instead of Adding mode.

See the edit existing symbols article for the workflow from there. To return and add a brand new symbol, close the Existing detail panel and tap a cell that is currently unassigned.

Q: The match grid is full of cells that are not the symbol I picked. What did I do wrong?

Answer: Try lowering the threshold slider, or switching the search type.

A high threshold matches loosely - everything that even vaguely resembles your seed comes in. Drag the slider down until only the real matches remain. If the chart is in colour, try Colour-first matching.

Q: The match grid is empty even though I can see the same symbol elsewhere on the chart.

Answer: Try raising the threshold or switching to Icon-first matching.

A very low threshold rejects nearly everything. The default sits in the middle - drag it up a touch and the missing matches should appear.

Q: Why do I have to refine each new symbol? The auto scan should know.

Answer: The first auto scan finds the obvious symbols quickly; the manual flow handles the awkward edge cases.

You can rerun the auto scan from the tool chip's Scan pages button if you have changed the underlying detection parameters - see Build & erase.

Q: The cell I want to start from is on a different page. Do I have to scroll there?

Answer: Yes - pan the chart until that page is visible, then tap.

The Adding panel can include matches from any page (when Apply-to-all-pages is on), but the seed cell has to be one you can see and tap.

What's next?

Once your new symbol is saved it joins the confirmed-symbols list and behaves like every other symbol from there on. To inspect or change it later, see View and edit an existing symbol.

When every cell on every page is assigned, head back to the overview for the steps that follow.

Set Symbols Overview

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Set Symbols is where Markup R-XP learns every unique symbol on your chart. This page is your map of the step: what it does, the layout of the screen, the three modes you switch between, and where to go next.

What this step is for

Every cell on a cross-stitch chart is marked with a symbol that maps to a thread colour. Set Symbols is where Markup R-XP works through your chart, pulls out the unique symbols it finds, and lets you confirm, refine, add, edit and delete them until every cell on every page is correctly identified.

Markup R-XP runs an initial automatic pass when you arrive on this step, so most of the obvious symbols are already in the confirmed list. Your job is to fix the rest - add anything the auto-detection missed, tidy up duplicates, and check that the cells assigned to each symbol look right.

You will probably spend more time on this step than any other in the setup. The good news is the work is reusable - everything you confirm here is what powers the rest of the project, from the symbol legend in the marker view to the daily stitch count later on.

The screen at a glance

Figure 1. The Set Symbols screen in landscape. (1) The chart canvas takes the main area - this is where you tap cells to add or look up symbols. (2) The confirmed-symbols panel on the right lists every symbol Markup R-XP knows about. (3) The vertical tool chip on the left edge holds the global controls. (4) Back returns to the previous step. (5) Next moves on to the symbol-colour step.

Figure 2. In portrait, the chips move to a horizontal scrolling strip across the top of the chart. (1) The chip strip holds the same controls, just laid out horizontally.

The three modes: Browsing, Adding, Existing

Set Symbols has three modes that swap the right-hand panel between three views. Knowing which mode you are in is the key to knowing what your taps will do.

Figure 5. The three modes. (1) Browsing - no detail panel; the confirmed-symbols list fills the right column and chart taps are inert. (2) Adding - a new-symbol detail panel is open and chart taps select cells to teach Markup R-XP the new symbol. (3) Existing - an existing-symbol detail panel is open; you can rescan, edit colour, or delete this symbol.

Browsing

The default mode. The confirmed-symbols panel is fully visible on the right. Tap a symbol in the list to enter Existing mode for that symbol; tap an empty cell in the chart to start Adding a new one.

Adding

You are teaching the app a new symbol. The new-symbol detail panel shows a preview of the symbol and a small list of cells you have included in the new symbol's matches. See Add a new symbol for the full workflow.

Existing

You are inspecting or refining a symbol that is already in the confirmed list. The existing-symbol detail panel shows the symbol's icon, its colour, the matching cells across the chart, and tools to rescan, change icon, edit colour, or delete. See View and edit an existing symbol for that walkthrough.

The tool chip

The tool chip is the floating strip on the left edge of the chart (landscape) or at the start of the top chip bar (portrait). It holds the global controls that work in any mode.

Figure 3. The six tool-chip buttons. (1) Build opens the symbol-setup popup for switching between PDF data and image scanning. (2) Erase mode toggles a block-brush for clearing unwanted detections. (3) Scan pages reruns symbol detection across every chart page. (4) Show/hide overlay hides the cell-counter labels on the chart. (5) Chart-view toggle switches between full-page and grid-only view. (6) Fit to view resets pan and zoom.

The Build and Erase buttons each open a major sub-workflow - see Build & erase for both.

The confirmed-symbols panel

The confirmed-symbols panel is the same component used in several other wizard steps. Each row shows one symbol with its detected icon, its assigned colour (if any), and how many cells across the chart match it.

Figure 4. The confirmed-symbols panel. (1) Each row is one symbol. (2) The Hide / Thin / Full mode buttons across the top let you collapse the panel to free up chart space or expand it to fill the whole screen. (3) Delete All and Merge action buttons sit alongside the mode buttons - Merge takes you to the dedicated Merge Symbols step.

Tip. Tap any symbol in the panel to enter Existing mode for that symbol. To return to Browsing without picking any symbol, tap the close button on the detail panel.

Where to go next

This step is large, so the rest of the help is split into focused articles. Pick the one you need:

Add a new symbol - the workflow for teaching Markup R-XP a symbol it did not pick up automatically.
View and edit an existing symbol - inspect, refine, change icon, change colour, or delete a confirmed symbol.
Filter, search and refine matches - the threshold sliders, icon-first vs colour-first matching, refine search, apply-to-all-pages.
Build and erase - the Build popup (PDF data vs image scan) and the block-brush Erase mode.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about Set Symbols.

Q: How does Markup R-XP get a head start on the symbols?

Answer: It runs an automatic scan over your chart pages the first time you arrive on this step.

If your PDF contains text-based symbol data, the app reads that data directly. Otherwise it scans each page's image and clusters similar marks into symbols. Either way you will land here with the confirmed-symbols panel already containing a starting list.

Q: Can I rescan if the first auto pass missed too much?

Answer: Yes - tap the Scan pages button (magnifier-in-a-page icon) on the tool chip.

For the more powerful Build option (which lets you choose between PDF data and image scanning, plus toggle “Is this a coloured chart?”) see Build & erase.

Q: The right-hand panel is taking up too much room. Can I make it smaller?

Answer: Yes - tap the Thin or Hide button at the top of the panel.

Thin shows a narrow strip of swatches; Hide collapses the panel completely. A small “Symbols” button appears on the chart so you can bring the panel back when you need it.

Q: I cannot tap cells on the chart. Why?

Answer: You are in Browsing mode and no symbol is selected.

Tap a symbol in the panel to enter Existing mode, or tap an empty cell to start Adding a new symbol. Chart taps are only meaningful when one of those two modes is active.

Q: I have made a mess. Can I start over?

Answer: Yes - tap Delete All in the panel header, then Scan pages on the tool chip.

That clears every confirmed symbol and re-runs the automatic detection from scratch. Any colour or naming work you have done will be lost too, so use this sparingly.

What's next?

When every cell on every chart page is assigned to a symbol, tap Next in the bottom-right corner to move on to Merge Symbols (if you have similar-looking symbols you want to combine) or straight to Set Colors.

If you need to undo this step's work later, you can return at any time from the wizard navigation or from inside the marker view.

Set Chart Overlap

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Tell Markup R-XP how many cells of overlap appear between adjacent chart pages. Once the overlap is set, the pages tile together cleanly into one continuous chart with no duplicated rows or columns at the joins.

What this step is for

Most multi-page cross-stitch charts reprint the last few rows or columns of one page at the start of the next, so you can easily see where one tile joins the next while you are stitching. Those duplicated cells make a printed chart easier to read, but Markup R-XP needs to know about them so it does not count the same cells twice when stitching the pages back together.

This step is where you tell the app how many cells overlap, and on which edges. Once it is set, the tiled chart on screen flows together seamlessly - no doubled-up rows or columns at the joins between pages.

For most patterns the overlap is the same number on every shared edge, so the two preset modes (Top-Left and Bottom-Right) are usually all you need. Custom mode is there for the unusual patterns that overlap a different amount on different sides.

This step does not appear on single-page projects - if your chart fits on one page there are no overlapping edges to consider.

The screen at a glance

Figure 1. The Set Overlap screen. (1) The tiled chart with the current overlap applied. (2) The overlap-type chip on the left edge picks how the overlap is shared between pages. (3) Below it, view toggles for grid, chart view and zoom-to-fit. (4) The overlap-amount chip on the right edge sets the size. (5) The Back button returns to the chart overview. (6) The Next button moves on to symbol setup.

Overlap types

The top three icons on the left chip pick how the overlap is shared between neighbouring pages. The currently active icon has a pale blue highlight.

Figure 2. The three overlap types. (1) Top-Left removes overlap from the top and left edges of each page. (2) Bottom-Right removes it from the bottom and right edges. (3) Custom lets you set a different overlap on each side independently.

Top-Left

The overlap lives on the top and left edges of each page. Use this when your printed pattern shows the overlap rows on the top of every page after the first, and on the left of every page after the first column.

Bottom-Right

The overlap lives on the bottom and right edges of each page. Use this when the duplication appears at the bottom and right of each page.

Custom

Lets you control each side separately. A small row of side buttons (Top, Bottom, Left, Right) appears above the chart so you can select an edge, then set its overlap value with the right-hand chip.

Tip. Try Top-Left first. If the pages do not tile cleanly, try Bottom-Right. Only reach for Custom if your pattern uses different overlaps on different sides - rare, but it happens.

Setting the overlap amount

The right-hand chip is the overlap-amount stepper. The big number in the middle shows how many cells of overlap are currently applied.

Figure 6. The overlap-amount stepper. (1) The up arrow decreases the overlap by one cell. (2) The current overlap, in cells. (3) The down arrow increases the overlap.

Tap the down arrow once. The overlap grows by one cell and the pages slide together by that amount.
Watch the joins between pages. Duplicate rows or columns disappear as the value climbs to the right number.
Stop when the joins look clean. The cells on the left page should flow straight into the cells on the right page with no doubled-up cells either side.
If you overshoot, tap the up arrow to decrease. The value is clamped between zero and the maximum allowed.

Figure 3. The visible difference. (1) Overlap of zero - duplicate cells appear along the join. (2) Overlap set correctly - the pages flow seamlessly, no duplication.

Custom mode: a different value per side

Tap the Custom icon (the empty square) on the left chip and a row of four side buttons appears above the chart: Top, Bottom, Left, Right.

Figure 4. Custom mode. (1) The currently selected side is highlighted with the primary button colour. (2) A label above the buttons shows which page edge is being adjusted. (3) The other sides remain in the inactive style, ready to be tapped.

Tap the side you want to adjust. It highlights as the active side.
Use the overlap-amount chip on the right to set its value. Only the selected side changes.
Tap another side and set its value too. Walk through any sides that need different amounts.

Grid, chart view and fit-to-view

Below the divider on the left chip are three view helpers that do not change the overlap, but make it easier to judge.

Grid show / hide

Toggles the drawn grid overlay on and off so you can see the underlying chart without the rxp grid getting in the way. A toast confirms each change: “Grid lines shown” or “Grid lines hidden”.

Chart view

Switches between full-page view (the whole PDF page is visible) and grid-only view (each page is cropped to just its detected grid). Grid-only is usually clearer for judging overlap because the page margins do not get in the way.

Fit to view

Resets pan and zoom so the entire chart is visible on screen.

Moving to the next step

When the chart tiles together cleanly with no duplicate rows or columns, tap Next in the bottom-right corner. Markup R-XP saves the overlap settings and takes you to the symbols setup.

If you need to go back and check the corners on any page, tap Back to return to the chart overview.

Note. Switching overlap types or sides while you experiment is safe - changes are previewed live and only committed when you tap Next. You can flip between Top-Left, Bottom-Right and Custom as often as you like.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about setting overlap.

Q: How do I know how many cells the overlap should be?

Answer: Look along the join between two adjacent pages in the chart preview.

If the same rows or columns of symbols appear on both sides of a join, that is the number of cells you need to overlap. Step the value up until the doubled content disappears.

Q: The chart looks right but the join between two specific pages still looks doubled. What now?

Answer: Switch to Custom mode and bump only that side's overlap.

Most patterns use one consistent overlap value, but if a publisher used different amounts on different sides, Custom is the only way to deal with it.

Q: I do not see any duplicated cells at the joins even at overlap = 0. Is that normal?

Answer: Yes - some patterns have no overlap at all. Leave the value at zero.

If the pages already tile cleanly with no duplication, there is nothing to fix.

Q: Why does the screen title change to “Set Overlap: Top-Left”?

Answer: The title reminds you which mode is active.

It updates when you switch overlap types so you can tell at a glance whether you are in Top-Left, Bottom-Right or Custom mode without looking at the chip.

Q: Where is this step? I went straight from the chart overview to symbol setup.

Answer: Your chart is a single page, so there is no overlap to set.

This step is only shown when the chart spans more than one PDF page.

What's next?

After overlapping is done, the next step is to set up the symbols on your chart.

Markup R-XP works through every chart page and pulls out the unique symbols printed in each cell so they can be matched to the colours from your key. See Set Symbols (overview) for an introduction to that step.

Straighten Chart

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Nudge individual grid intersections so the drawn grid sits perfectly on top of the printed grid, even on a chart that was printed or scanned slightly off-square. Optional but handy on awkward pages.

What this step is for

The earlier steps gave Markup R-XP the four corners and the cell count, which is enough on cleanly printed charts. But scanned charts and some older PDFs can have grids that are slightly skewed or wavy. The straight-line grid Markup R-XP draws does not quite sit on the printed lines, especially toward the middle of the page.

This step lets you fix that by hand. The wizard scatters small handles across the grid - one at every fifth or every tenth intersection - and you drag any that are out of position onto their printed counterparts. When you tap Apply, Markup R-XP stretches the rest of the grid to follow.

Most pages do not need this step. If your earlier corners and cell count look spot on already, tap Save & Exit and skip straight back to the Review Grids screen.

The screen at a glance

Figure 1. The Straighten Chart screen. (1) Intersection dots are drawn at every fifth or tenth intersection of the detected grid. (2) Undo and redo buttons sit top-left. (3) The offset chip on the left edge controls heavy-grid alignment. (4) The grid-count toggle switches between x5 and x10 spacing. (5) Apply stretches the grid through your nudged dots. (6) Save & Exit commits the page and returns to the chart overview. (7) Back returns to Confirm Size.

Nudging the intersections

The drawn grid is locked in place until you tap Apply. Until then you can drag any intersection dot onto where its printed counterpart sits.

Pinch to zoom into an area that looks misaligned. A dot drifting off its printed corner stands out clearly when you zoom in.
Touch and hold a dot. The magnifier appears above your finger so you can see exactly where you are placing it.
Drag the dot onto the printed intersection beneath it. Release when the crosshair is on the corner of the printed cells.
Repeat anywhere else the grid is off. Skip dots that are already in the right place - you only need to fix the ones that drifted.
Tap Apply when you are done. The whole grid recalculates to pass through every dot you nudged.

Figure 2. Dragging an intersection. (1) The dot being moved. (2) The magnifier shows the area under your finger so you can land the dot precisely. (3) The printed grid intersection underneath - your target.

Tip. You do not need to move every dot. Pick a handful in the worst areas, apply, then see how the rest of the grid responds. Often two or three well-placed nudges fix the whole page.

Aligning the heavy grid: X and Y offsets

Many cross-stitch charts print heavier lines every five or ten cells to make counting easier. The offset chip on the left edge lets you slide the heavy-line pattern across the grid so it lines up with the printed heavy lines.

Figure 3. The offset chip. (1) The X-offset arrow shifts the heavy vertical lines one step to the right with each tap. (2) The current X value, shown directly below. (3) The Y-offset arrow shifts the heavy horizontal lines one step down. (4) The current Y value.

Tap the X arrow. The heavy vertical lines move one cell to the right. Keep tapping until the heavy vertical lines on screen sit on top of the heavy vertical lines in the print.
Tap the Y arrow. Same for the heavy horizontal lines.
The values wrap. When the offset reaches the spacing, it resets to zero - you only ever need to tap each arrow a few times.

Switching between x5 and x10 spacing

The button labelled x5 or x10 in the bottom row toggles between two intersection-dot densities.

x10 (default) - dots appear at every tenth intersection. The grid is sparser and easier to read.
x5 - dots appear at every fifth intersection. More dots for finer control on a difficult page.

Tap the button to switch. It shows the spacing you will switch to next, not the spacing you are currently on. Use x5 if the page is heavily skewed and you need to land more anchor points; stay on x10 for everyday cleanup.

Undo and redo

The two icons in the top-left corner step back and forward through your changes.

Figure 4. The undo and redo controls. (1) Undo reverses the most recent change - either a nudged dot or an Apply pass. (2) Redo brings it back if you undid by accident.

Undo will not take you back past the snapshot the wizard captured when you arrived on this step, so you cannot accidentally lose the corner-setting work from earlier.

Apply versus Save and Exit

There are two key buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Apply

Recalculates the grid so that every line passes through the dots you have nudged. The page redraws and you can keep going - tap any newly-misaligned dots and apply again, or move on.

Save and Exit

Commits the current grid to the project and takes you back to the Review Grids screen. Any pending dot moves you have not yet applied are saved as part of the commit, so you do not need to remember to tap Apply first.

Heads up. If the row count or column count is zero (which should never happen if you came in via Confirm Size) the wizard will refuse to save with the toast “Unable to commit changes with 0 counts”. Tap Back and set proper counts.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about straightening.

Q: My chart looks straight. Do I have to do anything here?

Answer: No - just tap Save & Exit.

This step is optional. It is only useful when the printed grid is genuinely off-square. A perfectly clean chart needs no nudging at all.

Q: I nudged a dot and the rest of the grid did not move. Is something broken?

Answer: No - the grid only redraws when you tap Apply.

This lets you queue up many small nudges and see the combined effect in one pass, rather than the grid jumping after every drag.

Q: I dragged a dot too far. Can I get it back?

Answer: Tap Undo in the top-left to roll back the most recent nudge.

You can undo each dot move and each Apply individually, all the way back to the snapshot taken when you arrived on this step.

Q: Why are some dots a different colour or shape?

Answer: The corner dots are drawn differently to mark the page corners.

You set those on the Set Corners step. They stay anchored to the corners you chose so the straightening only adjusts the interior of the grid.

Q: The offsets keep resetting to zero. Is the chip broken?

Answer: No - the offset wraps around once it reaches the heavy-line spacing.

If the heavy-grid spacing is 10 cells, the offset values run 0, 1, 2, ... 9 and then back to 0. Tap the arrow once or twice more and you will see the wrap.

What's next?

Whichever button you tap to leave - Save & Exit, or Apply followed by Save & Exit - you return to Review Grids with this page's grid now finalised.

If every page now has a clean grid you can tap Next there to move on to Set Overlap (or straight to Set Symbols for single-page charts).

Markup R-XP Help

Merge Symbols

On this page

What this step is for

The screen at a glance

The Suggestions tab

Merge

Edit

Ignore

The Browse All tab

Choosing the master symbol

Strictness and Relax

Moving on

Tips and common questions

What's next?

Final Review

On this page

What this step is for

The screen at a glance

The preview toggle

Preview on (the default)

Preview off

The picture-view toggle

Fixing last-minute issues

Saving a cover image

Finishing the wizard

Tips and common questions

What's next?

Set Symbol Colours

On this page

What this step is for

The screen at a glance

Assigning a colour to a symbol

The colour popup

Quick mode for bulk entry

Refreshing the key view

Editing the key pages mid-flow

Moving on

Tips and common questions

What's next?

Symbol Search

On this page

Why search settings matter

The search controls

Icon-first versus Colour-first

Icon-first (default for black-and-white charts)

Colour-first (for coloured charts)

The primary threshold slider

The refine search

Apply to all pages

On (default)

Off

A typical refining workflow

Tips and common questions

What's next?

Edit Existing Symbols

On this page

What this part of the step is for

Entering Existing mode

The existing-symbol detail panel

Inspecting matched cells

Editing colour, thread and name

Changing the icon

Refreshing and rescanning

Refresh snapshot

Rescan all pages

Deleting a symbol

Tips and common questions

What's next?

Initialise Symbols & Erase Mode

On this page

The Build popup

PDF data: when the symbols are text

Image scan: when only the picture is available

The Coloured chart toggle

Scan pages: lighter re-detection

Erase mode

Resizing the block brush

Tips and common questions

What's next?