Jernej LeticaPhotography Tools & Stories
Photo Printing

Cross Stitch Pattern Maker from a Photo

A photo needs a different crop from a chart design. Frame your subject here, watch it turn into stitches and keep the pattern as a PDF.

Built and written by Jernej Letica

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How to make a cross stitch pattern from a photo

This page starts at 120 stitches and 24 colours on 14-count fabric, a good size for a portrait.

  1. Choose the photo with the simplest background you have. Phone photos work well.
  2. Set the crop shape to Square or 4:5 for a person or pet, then pull the frame in until the subject fills it.
  3. Look at the stitch preview at arm's length. If the face reads, the pattern will read on fabric.
  4. Raise the colours in small steps if skin or fur breaks into blotches, or raise the width if the eyes are lost.
  5. Download the PDF once the preview holds together, and keep the original photo beside you as you stitch.

What I look for in a photo before stitching it

Editing photographs taught me that a picture survives reduction by its shapes, not its detail. A cross stitch is an extreme reduction: at 120 stitches, a 6000 × 4000 px photo gives up 50 of its pixels for each stitch. So I look for one clear subject, strong light from one side, and a quiet background.

The crop does the most work. In a square crop the tool gives me 120 × 120 stitches, so a head and shoulders get every one of them. Left at the full 3:2 frame, the same width has 120 × 80 stitches and a lot of that goes to the room behind the person. I always crop in until it feels slightly too tight, because a border on the fabric gives the space back. The table lists what each shape on the widget gives at 120 stitches on 14-count.

Each crop shape at 120 stitches wide

Crop shapeStitchesFinished size on 14-countIn inchesA4 pages
3:2 landscape120 × 8021.8 × 14.5 cm8.6 × 5.7 in5
5:4 landscape120 × 9621.8 × 17.4 cm8.6 × 6.9 in5
Square120 × 12021.8 × 21.8 cm8.6 × 8.6 in9
4:5 portrait120 × 15021.8 × 27.2 cm8.6 × 10.7 in9
2:3 portrait120 × 18021.8 × 32.7 cm8.6 × 12.9 in9

Pages count one thread list page plus the colour and symbol charts for 24 colours. A taller chart costs a second row of sheets once it passes 102 rows.

Which photos turn into good patterns

Portraits with soft, even skin work when the face takes up most of the frame. Pets are often easier than people, because nobody checks a dog's likeness as closely as a grandmother's. Landscapes want a clear horizon and big shapes: a mountain, a lake, a tree line. Busy street scenes, crowds and thin lines such as wires or fine hair fall apart, as one stitch cannot hold anything narrower than itself.

Light matters more than the camera. A photo taken in flat shade gives a pattern of close greys, and those merge into one thread. A photo with a clear bright side and a clear dark side keeps its shape at any size.

Fix the photo before you open it here

The tool stitches what it sees, so small edits pay off. Lift the shadows if a face is too dark, raise the contrast a little, and clear a distracting object from the background. A plain background saves many stitches of confetti later. If the picture is sideways on your phone, the tool turns it upright by itself.

Resolution rarely limits you. Even the widest chart is only 300 stitches, so a photo 1200 px wide still has four pixels across for every stitch. An old scan or a small social media copy is fine as long as the subject is sharp.

Tips for stitching a photo

  • Squint at the preview: what you can still recognise is what will survive on fabric.
  • Give a face most of the width: a likeness lives in the eyes and the mouth.
  • Plan on a wider border than you think; photos look better with room around them.
  • Mark the eyes on the printed chart first and stitch them early, so you can judge the likeness.
  • Backstitch around a jaw or a window after the crosses are done if an edge looks soft.

Privacy

Your photo never leaves your device. The pattern and the PDF are made in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

Frequently asked questions

Can I turn any picture into a cross stitch pattern?

Any JPG, PNG or WebP opens here, up to 50 MB. A single clear subject with strong light gives the best chart. Crowds, fine wires and flat shade come out as speckles, so crop tighter or choose another photo.

How many stitches does a portrait need?

I start at 120 wide with a square crop, which is 120 × 120 stitches and 21.8 × 21.8 cm on 14-count. Small faces in a group photo need far more, and 300 stitches wide is the limit here.

Does it work for a photo of my pet?

Yes, and pets are a good first project. Crop close around the head, use a plain background if you have one, and try 24 colours. Dark fur needs a little more contrast in the photo, or the eyes disappear.

Why does my pattern look speckled?

Fine texture lands between two threads and alternates between them. Tick Remove stray single stitches, which gives each lone stitch the commonest colour around it. Fewer colours also helps. Neither step ever adds a colour to the list.

Will I get the same pattern if I run the photo again?

Yes, in the same browser. The steps contain nothing random, so the same photo, crop and settings give the same chart. A different browser may shrink the photo a little differently, which can change a few stitches.

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