Photo counted cross stitch
Your photo,
counted in DMC floss.
Drop in a picture and watch it become a real chart — symbols, ten-count gridlines, a floss list and the skein counts to go with it. Then change any stitch you like and erase the background. The preview is free and instant; pay only for the printable PDF.
- Nothing is uploaded. Your photo is read and charted inside this browser tab.
- 456 real DMC shades. Matched perceptually, so skin and sky come out right.
- Print and tape. Chart pages overlap by two stitches so nothing is lost at the seam.
- Yours to change. Repaint any stitch, erase the background, and spend your colours on the subject.
Your pattern
All 456 DMC shades
- Finished size
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- Stitches
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- DMC colours
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- Skeins
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- Fabric to buy
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Floss list
Or start from a ready-made one
Charts we drew, most of them free to open, edit and print with no account and no email. They open in the same studio, so everything below applies to them too.
Browse the premade patterns Toadstool · Snowflake · Rainbow · Alphabet sampler · Strawberry · Black cat
The chart is a starting point
An engine picks the shades; you decide what the piece is actually going to be. All of this happens in the free preview, before you pay anything.
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Change any stitch
Paint one square or drag a line across a hundred. Fill a whole patch at once, or lift a colour off the chart to carry on with. Pick from the shades already in your pattern, or search all 456 on the DMC card for one the photo never contained. Every step undoes.
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Take the background out
One button erases everything that reaches the edge of the chart in a colour the edge already uses — a whole gradient sky included — and leaves the subject standing. Erased squares become bare fabric: they drop off the floss list, out of the skein count, and print as empty squares.
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Spend the colours where they show
Background you have erased stops competing for shades. Recolour the subject and the whole budget goes on the face, instead of eleven of your thirty shades describing the sofa behind it. On a portrait this is usually the difference between a likeness and a blur.
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Calm the noisy parts
Foliage, gravel and knitwear chart as confetti — technically accurate, miserable to stitch. Smooth overrules the stitches that disagree with everything around them, trading a little detail for blocks you can actually work.
What lands in your downloads folder
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Cover sheet
A colour picture of the finished piece, the exact stitch count, finished size in inches and centimetres, and how much fabric to cut.
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Floss list
Every DMC number with its symbol, a printed swatch, the stitch count for that shade, and how many skeins to buy. Take it to the shop.
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Colour chart
Full-colour squares with the symbol printed on top, heavy lines every ten stitches, and stitch numbers down all four edges.
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Black & white chart
The same chart in symbols only, for stitching under a lamp or marking off rows with a pencil. Both versions are in the one file.
One pattern
$12
Paid once. No account, no subscription, no watermark on the PDF.
- Unlimited fiddling with the settings before you pay
- Hand-edit stitches and erase the background in the free preview
- Colour and black & white charts in the same file
- Floss list with skein counts and a 20% safety margin
- Print at home on Letter or A4
Questions
Where does my photo go?
Nowhere. The whole thing runs as JavaScript inside this tab — the picture is read from your own disk, charted, and drawn back to the screen. There is no upload step and no copy on any server.
What exactly am I buying?
One PDF for the pattern you have on screen. It contains the cover sheet, the DMC floss list with skein counts, the full-colour chart, the black and white chart, and the stitching notes. The PDF has no watermark.
Can I change the colours it picked?
Any of them, one square at a time or a whole patch at once. Paint, fill, or lift a shade off the chart and carry on with it, choosing from the colours already in your pattern or from all 456 on the DMC card. Everything undoes, and none of it costs anything — you are editing the free preview.
Can I get rid of the background?
Yes. Remove background erases everything that reaches the edge of the chart in a colour the edge already uses, which takes a whole gradient sky and leaves the subject alone. A wand and a plain eraser handle whatever it misses. Erased squares become bare fabric: no floss, no skeins, empty squares on the printed chart. Then Recolour the subject re-picks your shades using only what is left, so none of them are spent on a background you removed.
Do my edits survive paying?
Yes — they travel with you to Stripe and back, so the PDF you download is the chart you edited. They are not saved anywhere else, though: reloading the page or closing the tab starts you fresh, so finish your editing in one sitting.
Can I change the settings after I pay?
Yes. Your unlock stays active in this browser, so you can nudge the colour count or the size and download the PDF again for the same photo without paying twice.
Can I sell the finished piece?
The stitched piece is yours. Selling copies of the chart itself is not allowed, and you are responsible for having the right to use the photo you upload — please don't chart someone else's photograph or artwork without their say-so.
Which fabric should I buy?
14-count Aida is the usual choice and the default here. Pick a higher count for a smaller, finer piece; the finished size shown on screen updates as you change it. The cover sheet tells you what to cut.
Something went wrong with my download.
Email hello@thestitchpattern.com with your Stripe receipt and we'll sort it out or refund you.