Cross-Stitch Chart Generator

What this generator does

Charts a picture as stitches on a grid, with a reduced palette, a symbol key, stitch counts per colour and the design and fabric size for the count you stitch on. The grid copy drawing and colour-by-number sheets make pictures for colouring in; this one takes your picture and makes a chart to stitch from, at a size measured in stitches.

How to use this tool

1. Choose a built-in motif, or choose A picture on this device and pick a picture.
2. For a picture, set how many stitches across; the height follows its shape.
3. Set the most colours, and whether they come from the picture or from the generic list of named colours.
4. Choose the fabric and the spare fabric you want on each side, then press Make the chart.
5. Read the size and the check under the result, then print the key and chart pages or download the chart as SVG.

Understanding the controls

Chart from

A built-in motif — a heart, a fir tree, a house, a flower, each drawn square by square for this page — or a picture from your device. Motifs can be charted at one, two or three stitches per square.

Stitches across

From 10 to 200, for a picture. The height is set by the picture’s shape and is capped at 200 too, in which case the width shrinks to keep the shape. More stitches show more detail and take longer to stitch.

Most colours

From 2 to 24. The chart uses at most this many and sometimes fewer, because a colour no stitch ends up in is left out of the key. Fewer colours are cheaper and quicker; photographs usually need 12 or more to look like themselves.

Colours from

The picture itself finds the few colours that best stand for the picture. The generic list uses only the 40 plain colours on this page, named by colour (Rose, Navy, Sand …), which makes the key easier to match to threads but the picture less exact.

Fabric

Aida at 11, 14, 16 or 18 stitches to the inch, or 28- or 32-count evenweave or linen worked over two threads, which gives 14 or 16 stitches to the inch. The design size is the stitch count divided by that number.

Spare fabric on each side

Added to all four sides of the design to give the fabric to cut, for a hoop and for framing. It changes nothing on the chart.

Tidy single stray stitches

A stitch none of whose eight neighbours shares its colour is changed to its neighbours’ most common colour. Photographs produce many of these and they are slow to stitch; the motifs are drawn on purpose, so this starts switched off for them. The number changed is shown.

Chart style and square size

Symbols only prints black symbols on white squares, which is the version to use on a black-and-white printer. Colour squares print each square in its colour with the symbol on top. Bigger squares are easier to read and need more pages.

Worked examples

Built-in heart, as drawn, on 14-count Aida

13 × 11 stitches, 3 colours. The design is 2.4 × 2.0 cm (0.9 × 0.8 in); with 5 cm spare each side, cut 12.4 × 12.0 cm of fabric.

Built-in heart at three times the size, on 11-count Aida

39 × 33 stitches. 39 ÷ 11 = 3.5 in, so the design is 9.0 × 7.6 cm.

A photograph, 80 stitches across, 12 colours from the picture

A 4:3 photograph gives 80 × 60 stitches over one key page and two chart pages at 3 mm a square on A4. On 16-count Aida the design is 12.7 × 9.5 cm.

Common use cases

• Turning a child’s drawing or a pet photo into a small sampler
• A first project from a simple motif on 11- or 14-count Aida
• Working out how big a design will be on a different fabric count before buying fabric
• A black-and-white symbol chart that can be photocopied and marked off as you stitch

How this generator works

The picture is divided into as many rectangles as there are stitches, and each stitch takes the average colour of its rectangle, counting partly covered pixels in proportion and averaging in linear light rather than on the screen values, which is how mixed colours look from a distance. A rectangle that is mostly transparent is left unstitched. The colours are then reduced: from the picture, by grouping similar colours in a perceptual colour space, starting from the most common colour and adding the colour least like those already chosen until there are enough, then refining the groups; from the generic list, by taking the nearest named colour for each stitch and, if too many are used, folding the least used into its nearest remaining neighbour. The optional tidy pass works from the chart before it, so one change cannot trigger another. Colours are listed by stitch count and given symbols in that order. A separate check then reads the finished chart: every square unstitched or a colour in the key, each colour’s count recounted from the squares, no colour or symbol repeated, no more colours than asked for, and generic colours really from the generic list.

Randomness and fairness

Nothing is random. The same picture with the same settings gives the same chart; ties between equally common colours are broken by colour value, so even those do not depend on chance.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Assumptions this tool makes

• One full cross stitch per square. Half stitches, quarter stitches and backstitch outlines are not charted.
• The fabric count is exact. Real fabric varies a little, and a design stitched over a slightly different count comes out slightly larger or smaller.

Limitations and good to know

• The colours are not any thread maker’s colours and no thread numbers are given. The generic list is this site’s own set of 40 plain colours; matching them to real threads is up to you.
• No thread or skein quantities are estimated, because they depend on the fabric, the number of strands and how each person stitches. The key gives stitch counts.
• A picture larger than 2000 pixels a side is first drawn smaller by the browser, and different browsers can decode the same picture very slightly differently, so a chart from a picture is guaranteed to repeat only in the same browser. The downloaded JSON keeps the chart itself.
• Up to 200 × 200 stitches and 24 colours. Symbols are 24 letters and digits chosen so no two are easily confused.
• The four built-in motifs are simple shapes drawn for this page, not a library of designs.

Common mistakes

Using a 28-count evenweave size as if it were 28 stitches to the inch

Evenweave and linen are usually stitched over two threads, so 28-count gives 14 stitches to the inch. Choose the over-two option.

Charting a busy photograph at a small size

Forty stitches across cannot hold a face in a crowd. Crop the picture to the subject first, or use more stitches.

Practical tips

• Start stitching from the centre: the arrows on the chart edges mark the centre row and column.
• Mark off each block of ten on a photocopy of the symbols-only chart as you finish it.
• Hold a thread against the colour square in the key in daylight before buying; screens and printers show colours differently.

Privacy and your data

A picture you choose is decoded in this page by your browser and kept only while the page is open: it is not uploaded, not saved, not put in the page address and not part of any download, which hold only the finished chart. The site’s counters record only that a chart was made or failed and how many colours it had.

Frequently asked questions

How big will my cross stitch be?

Divide the stitches by the fabric’s stitches to the inch: 140 stitches on 14-count Aida is 10 inches, 25.4 cm. For evenweave or linen worked over two, halve the count first. The page does this for the fabric you choose and adds the spare fabric to cut.

Can I use DMC or other thread numbers?

Not here. Thread makers’ colour ranges are theirs, and this page does not reproduce them. The key gives each colour as a sample, a colour value and a plain name, so you can match it to threads yourself.

Why does my chart have fewer colours than I asked for?

Because the number is a maximum. A simple picture may need fewer, and a colour that no stitch ends up in after tidying is left out of the key.

Is my photo uploaded?

No. It is read by your browser in this page and stays there. The site’s counters learn only that a chart was made and how many colours it has.