Cross Stitch Pattern Maker

How to make it

1. Add a pictureChoose a file, drag it onto the page or paste it. A clear photo with one main subject and good light gives the cleanest chart.
2. Set size and colorsPick a width in stitches or a finished size on 11, 14, 16, 18 or 28 count, then choose how many DMC colors to allow, from 2 to 60.
3. Tidy, then printFix stray stitches, check the confetti share, then download the PDF (color pages, then black-and-white ones, or either alone) plus a PNG or .stitch backup.

What happens to your photo, step by step

The picture is shrunk to your stitch grid while keeping its proportions, so a portrait photo stays a portrait. Each cell then gets the nearest DMC floss from a set of 454 classic shades (the newer DMC colors numbered 01 to 35 are not in it yet), chosen with a color-difference formula that tracks how people actually see color rather than raw screen numbers.

Plain averaging has a known weakness: small details vanish. A red ladybug on a green leaf covers only a handful of cells, so an average-based reducer folds it into the leaf. Our converter looks for compact areas with strong contrast against their surroundings and keeps their color pinned, which means a blue ball stays blue, eyes keep their catchlight and a dark outline stays dark instead of turning muddy. Pinning needs spare colors, so at very low limits it steps back: with only 3 colors no small area is pinned, and the main shades of the picture come first.

All of this runs inside your browser. There is no upload step, no queue and no server copy of your family photos. After the first visit, the maker keeps working offline.

Picking a size: stitches, fabric count and finished inches

A chart is measured in stitches; the finished piece is measured in inches. Fabric count connects them: 14-count aida holds 14 stitches per inch, so a design 140 stitches wide finishes at 10 inches. You can set either side and the other updates.

Detail grows with stitch count. A pet portrait reads well at about 100 to 150 stitches across; faces of people usually need 150 or more to look like someone in particular. A bookmark motif can be 25 stitches wide. The maker goes up to 400 stitches on the long side and keeps the proportions of your photo, so a request beyond that is scaled down as a whole rather than squashed. Bigger is not always better, because every extra stitch is time: at a relaxed pace of a few dozen stitches an hour, a 150 by 150 full-coverage piece is a long project.

Remember to add a margin for framing or a hoop. Three inches on each side is a comfortable default; the fabric size calculator shows the cut size for any count.

How many colors, and why confetti matters

More colors make smoother shading, but they also create confetti: single stitches of a color with no neighbor of the same shade. Each one means parking or ending a thread for one cross, and a chart full of them is slow and fiddly to stitch.

As a rough guide, a simple graphic or cartoon-style drawing needs 6 to 15 colors; a pet or landscape looks good with 20 to 35; a detailed portrait usually needs 30 to 40 or more. Start lower than you think, look at the preview, and add colors only where a gradient breaks into stripes.

The cleanup setting merges isolated stitches into a neighboring color when the two shades are close enough that nobody would notice. Results show the share of confetti left, so you can compare settings by a number instead of by squinting. Dithering, which scatters two colors to fake a third, is available but switched off by default, because it creates exactly the speckle most stitchers want to avoid. If you would rather plan every stitch yourself, start with our guide to making a cross stitch pattern.

Inside the free PDF

The download is the complete pattern, with nothing held back for a paid tier and no logo stamped across the chart. A cover page shows a preview and a map of how the chart is split across pages, on US Letter or A4.

Chart pages carry a symbol in every cell, a bold line every 10 stitches and two shaded rows and columns repeated from the neighboring page, so you never lose your place at a page edge. By default the file holds the color chart first and then the same chart in black-and-white symbols, which prints clearly on any home printer; the PDF options also let you keep only the color pages or only the black-and-white ones. Symbols are real text characters, which apps that read PDF charts rely on.

The key lists each symbol with its DMC number, color name, stitch count and an estimate of skeins. Any backstitch you add gets its own key section.

Editing, tracking and keeping your work

Conversion is a starting point. On the same canvas you can draw with a pencil, fill an area, replace one color everywhere, pick a color with the eyedropper, add backstitch lines and move a selection. Replacing two nearly identical browns with one is often the single best edit you can make.

Stitch tracker mode lets you tap stitches as you finish them and shows progress per color. Patterns are saved under My patterns in this browser, and a .stitch backup file moves them to another computer. The same chart can be opened as a bead, C2C or diamond painting pattern when you want to try another craft. Prefer to draw from scratch? Use the cross stitch pattern designer.

Photos that convert well

Crop tight around the subject before you start; empty background costs stitches and colors. Even daylight beats flash, which flattens faces and adds glare. High contrast between subject and background helps, and a flat, plain background can be removed so you only stitch the subject.

Expect on-screen colors to be approximate. Monitors differ, and floss looks different under a lamp than in the skein. Before buying thread for a big piece, compare the key against a physical DMC color card, or browse the DMC color chart to choose swaps you like.