Cross stitch pattern maker

Turn a photo into a counted chart with real DMC floss numbers, a symbol key and skein amounts. Nothing to install, no account, and your picture never leaves this device.

or drop an image here · stays on your device

Makes a flat, simple picture that charts cleanly. Your text is sent to an image model; the chart is still made on your device.

Your chart appears here.

Pick a photo with one clear subject and good light. Faces and pets work best cropped close.

Getting a good chart from a photo

A photo converter can only work with what the picture gives it. A few minutes choosing and cropping the photo does more for the finished piece than any setting.

  • Crop tight. Every stitch spent on background is a stitch not spent on the face. Crop to the subject before you upload.
  • Pick strong light and contrast. Flat, grey photos turn into muddy charts. A subject lit from the side keeps its shape.
  • Start at 80 stitches and 16 colours, then push width up until eyes and edges read clearly, and push colours up only while the preview keeps improving.
  • Leave dithering off for portraits of pets and people. It smooths gradients but scatters single stitches, which are slow to work. Turn it on for skies and landscapes.
  • Leave plain backgrounds unstitched and let the fabric show. It halves stitching time on many pet portraits.

Or start from nothing

Prefer to design a motif yourself? The grid editor is a blank chart with the whole DMC range, fill, undo and printing. Want words on your piece? The letters generator spells out any text in a stitched alphabet.

Before you buy supplies, the fabric and floss calculator tells you how big to cut the cloth and how many skeins of each colour to get, and the DMC colour chart finds the nearest floss to any colour.

New to all of it? How to cross stitch walks through your first stitches, and the Aida cloth guide explains what “14-count” means.

Free patterns to stitch tonight

All free patterns

Questions stitchers ask

Is the cross stitch pattern maker really free?

Yes. Converting photos, editing charts, printing and downloading are free with no account and no watermark. Everything runs in your browser.

Does my photo get uploaded anywhere?

No. The photo is read and converted on your own device. Only the optional “describe a motif” feature sends text (never a photo) to an AI image model.

How many stitches wide should my pattern be?

For a recognisable face or pet, 80–120 stitches wide is a good start; small motifs and logos can be 30–50. On 14-count Aida, 100 stitches is about 7.1 inches (18 cm).

How many colours should I use?

Between 10 and 25 DMC colours suits most photos. More colours add subtle shading but also more thread changes and more “confetti” (single stitches of one colour).

Which DMC colours does it use?

The full six-strand cotton range of about 450 solid colours. Each colour in your photo is matched to the floss with the smallest CIEDE2000 colour difference, the standard formula for how different two colours look to people.

Can ChatGPT make cross stitch patterns?

General chatbots can describe a design but cannot reliably output a countable chart with real floss numbers. Here the chart itself is made by deterministic code (colour clustering and DMC matching), and AI is only used optionally to draw a simple motif picture that the converter then charts.

Can I open my pattern in other cross stitch software?

Yes. “Export .oxs” saves an Open X-Stitch file, the format read by MacStitch, WinStitch, FlossCross and Ursa Software tools. You can also print a PDF via your browser’s print dialog or download a PNG.

Can I change stitches after converting?

Yes. “Edit stitch by stitch” opens the chart in the grid editor, where you can recolour, fill, erase and add stitches, then print it again.