If you want to stitch, bead or crochet a picture of your dog, your kid or your house, you need a tool that turns the photo into a chart with real thread or bead codes. I went through the ones I could find and open without an install. Prices and features were checked on 2026-11-07 on each site. I built one of them (Photo Pattern Maker), so read that entry with that in mind.
What to look for
- Real brand colors. A chart is only useful if every square maps to a DMC floss number or a Perler/Hama bead code you can actually buy.
- A color count you control. Fewer colors means less buying and less sorting.
- A usable output. A printable PDF with a symbol per square, grid lines and a color key with counts.
- What happens to your photo. Some tools keep it on your device, some upload it.
1. StitchBitz
A free cross stitch pattern generator that runs in the browser. Per its homepage: your photo stays on your device, no sign-up, free PDF and JPG downloads, an editable DMC chart, and an optional AI background cut-out.
- Price: free
- Best for: a quick cross stitch chart from a photo that you can then tweak by hand
- Limit: cross stitch only
2. Pic2Pat
A long-running photo-to-cross-stitch tool. You pick the photo, size, fabric and number of colors, watch the pattern update, then download the chart as a PDF. Its homepage says the PDF is free and lists every floss color and the skeins needed. It also has a shop link for materials.
- Price: PDF download free
- Best for: people who want to adjust fabric and color count while previewing
- Limit: cross stitch focus
3. Stitch Fiddle
A chart editor more than a photo converter. It covers crochet, cross stitch, knitting, diamond painting, fuse beads and more. The basic version is free (15 charts); Premium is $2.50 a month on its pricing page.
- Price: free tier, $2.50/month Premium
- Best for: designing and editing charts by hand across many crafts
- Limit: you start from a grid, not a one-click photo conversion
4. BeadSheet
A free photo-to-bead tool for Perler, Hama and Artkal, with real color codes, board-by-board printing and an exact bead count. Photos stay on your device.
- Price: free, no sign-up
- Best for: fuse bead projects
- Limit: beads only
5. Photo Pattern Maker (mine)
I built Photo Pattern Maker because I wanted one photo to become different crafts without re-uploading. It makes a printable chart in DMC colors for cross stitch and needlepoint, Perler/Hama/Artkal bead patterns, crochet graphs (C2C, graphgan, tapestry, filet), knitting colorwork, LEGO mosaics and diamond painting. You see the finished look as a free preview before paying. The PDF has a symbol in every square, bold lines every 10, row and column numbers, a color key with brand codes and counts, and the finished size.
- Price: the first pattern is free with no sign-up, a new account gets 5 more, then $1.99 per pattern or from $0.20 with credit packs ($4.99 for 15)
- Best for: trying the same photo as several crafts, or wanting crochet, knitting or LEGO charts
- Limit: not free for every pattern, unlike the first three tools above; and it sells the pattern only, you buy floss, beads or yarn elsewhere
If you only need a DMC color match, the DMC color chart on the same site finds the closest DMC colors to any hex code and is free.
Which one should you pick?
- Free cross stitch from a photo: StitchBitz or Pic2Pat.
- Hand-editing charts, any craft: Stitch Fiddle.
- Perler or Hama beads only: BeadSheet.
- One photo into several crafts, with a finished-look preview: Photo Pattern Maker.
Photos with a busy background or tiny details usually need more colors or a larger size, whatever tool you use. Try the same photo in two tools and compare the charts before you buy floss.
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