Any photo can be turned into a cross stitch chart: the image is shrunk to a grid where each square is one stitch, and every square is given the closest DMC floss color. The quality of the result depends far more on the photo and three settings — size, number of colors and clean-up — than on the software. This guide walks through each decision.
1. Choose a photo that will stitch well
- One clear subject, filling the frame. A pet's face that fills the photo will look better than a whole dog in a busy garden.
- Good, even light. Strong shadows turn into large dark blocks; blown-out highlights become flat white.
- A simple background. Busy backgrounds use up colors and stitches. You can mark the background color as “don't stitch” afterwards to leave the fabric bare.
- Strong contrast between subject and background, so the outline survives at a small size.
Crop before converting. Square, 4:3 and 3:4 crops fit standard hoops and frames.
2. Pick the size in stitches
Width in stitches is the biggest quality lever. More stitches keep more detail but take longer to finish. Divide by the fabric count to get the finished size:
| Width | 14-count | 16-count | 18-count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 stitches | 5.7 in | 5.0 in | 4.4 in |
| 120 stitches | 8.6 in | 7.5 in | 6.7 in |
| 150 stitches | 10.7 in | 9.4 in | 8.3 in |
| 200 stitches | 14.3 in | 12.5 in | 11.1 in |
As a starting point: logos and simple graphics 60–100 stitches, pets and landscapes 120–150, faces 150–200. Use the size calculator to check fabric to cut.
3. Decide how many colors to use
Every color is another skein to buy and another thread change. Too few colors and gradients band into stripes; too many and you get a speckled chart with little visible gain.
- Graphics and illustrations: 6–12 colors
- Most photos: 20–35 colors
- Detailed portraits: 35–60 colors
The converter chooses the best set of DMC colors for your photo, then matches each one using CIEDE2000, a color-difference formula designed around human color perception. That is why it handles skin tones and skies better than simple RGB matching.
4. Clean up stray stitches (“confetti”)
Photos contain fine noise, and a straight conversion leaves isolated single stitches of a color scattered across the chart. Stitchers call this confetti: it is slow to stitch and wastes thread. The clean-up setting merges tiny isolated patches into the closest neighbouring color:
- Low removes single isolated stitches — good for portraits where detail matters.
- Medium removes patches of up to 2 stitches — a good default for pets and everyday photos.
- High removes patches of up to 4 stitches — best for graphics and logos.
Dithering does the opposite: it mixes neighbouring colors to suggest in-between shades. Turn it on for soft skies and sunsets, leave it off for anything with clean edges.
5. Fix colors by hand
Click a color in the list to highlight it on the chart. From there you can replace it with any DMC shade, merge it into another color in the pattern, or mark it “don't stitch” to leave that area as bare fabric. The paint and erase tools change individual stitches.
6. Print and stitch
The PDF has a cover with the finished size, a floss key with skein estimates, and color and black-and-white charts. Each chart page shows 10×10 gridlines, row and column numbers, and three shaded overlap rows or columns repeated from the neighbouring page so you never lose your place. Start from the center, marked with red arrows on the chart edges.