How to make a cross stitch pattern from a photo or text
Start with a picture that has one clear subject and good light. Faces, pets and flowers work well when the subject fills most of the frame; busy holiday snaps with lots of small details turn into a blur of single stitches. If the subject is small, the background is busy or the picture is dark, use the photo to cross stitch page: it adds cropping (including a circle for round hoops), a one-click background remover and brightness, contrast and saturation sliders before the chart is made.
- Choose a photo or switch to Text and type a name. Nothing is uploaded: the picture is read by your own browser.
- Set the width. Type the number of stitches across, or switch the unit to inches or centimeters and the tool works out the stitches for your fabric. The height follows the shape of your picture.
- Pick the number of colors. The tool groups similar shades and matches each group to the nearest stranded cotton color, measured in a color space that follows how people see differences rather than raw screen values.
- Check the preview. Switch between color, symbol and both views, zoom in, and hover over any square to see its column, row and floss number. Tick "Compare with original" to see both side by side.
- Download. The PDF has a cover page with the finished size and a page map, chart pages with a bold line every ten squares, and a thread list with the number of stitches and skeins for every color.
Make a cross stitch pattern from text or a name
Switch to the Text tab to chart a name, a date or a short message. The letters are drawn square by square for stitching, so every letter has crisp edges and the same height. Add a border to frame a birth sampler or a bookmark, pick a thread color, and the tool centers each line for you. Shorter lines are centered on the longest one; if a line cannot be centered exactly, the extra square goes on the right, so the same word always lands on the same squares.
Each letter in the Classic font is seven stitches tall, about half an inch on 14-count Aida. "ANNA" with the border is 29 by 13 stitches; "OLIVIA" is 37 by 13. Use the Bold font when you stitch on a darker fabric or from across the room. For more fonts, letter and line spacing and an exact center mark, use the cross stitch font generator.
Choosing fabric count and pattern size
Fabric count is the number of squares per inch. The same chart gets smaller as the count goes up: a design 112 stitches wide is 10.2 inches on 11-count, 8 inches on 14-count and 6.2 inches on 18-count. Evenweave and linen are usually stitched over two threads, so 28-count evenweave gives the same size as 14-count Aida.
More stitches means more detail but also more time. As a guide, a portrait needs at least 100 stitches across to look like the person, a pet 80 to 120, and a simple icon 30 to 60. If you already have a frame or hoop, pick it under "Generate for hoop size" and the tool sizes the design to fit inside it with a one-inch margin. The cross stitch size calculator works out finished size and fabric for any chart, and the hoop size calculator shows which hoop or ornament a design needs.
How many colors should a cross stitch pattern have?
Fewer colors make a pattern faster and cheaper to stitch; more colors give smoother skin tones and skies. Most finished photo patterns use 15 to 30 colors. Cartoons, logos and text look best with 2 to 10 colors because each area is one flat shade.
Too many colors in a small chart create "confetti": lone stitches of a color surrounded by other colors, each needing its own start and finish. Confetti cleanup replaces lone stitches with the most common color around them. After each change, the results show how many isolated stitches and colors there were before and after cleanup, so you can decide how far to go. Dithering does the opposite: it scatters stitches to suggest in-between shades, which looks smoother from a distance but adds confetti.
Planning the threads? The legend lists every color with its stitch count and skeins to buy. Copy the list into the floss calculator to change strands or waste, and use the time calculator to see how long the piece will take at your pace.
Large-print and high-contrast charts
Small symbols on a busy chart are hard work for tired eyes. Choose "Large print" before downloading and each square becomes 9 mm wide, with bold symbols that are drawn over a pale version of the thread color so you can read a square by color or by shape. Row and column numbers repeat on every page, arrows on all four sides mark the center, and a red ring marks the middle square where most stitchers start.
The symbol set was designed for this site to be easy to tell apart: filled and outlined shapes, letters and arrows are spread out so neighboring colors never get look-alike symbols. Use the Vision menu to preview the chart as it looks with the common types of color blindness and check that the colors you depend on stay distinct.
A cross stitch generator with no sign-up
There is no account, no email and no watermark. The page loads once and then runs on your device, so it also works on a slow connection or offline after loading. Your settings are remembered on this device only, and "Clear saved settings" removes them in one click. If you want ruled paper to design by hand instead, print free cross stitch graph paper at true scale for any fabric count.
Example results
Pet portrait
Photo 3000 × 4000 px, 100 stitches wide on 14-count Aida, 24 colors, light cleanup: 100 × 133 stitches, 7.1 × 9.5 in finished, 13,300 stitches over 9 chart pages in standard print.
Baby name
"OLIVIA" in Classic with a border on 14-count: 37 × 13 stitches, 2.6 × 0.9 in, two colors, one skein each.
Sunset sample
The built-in Sunset at 60 stitches, 12 colors: 60 × 60 stitches, 4.3 in square on 14-count, two chart pages in standard print or 16 in large print.