Free · browser-based · 454 floss shades
FlossPixel converts photos or text prompts into print-ready, floss-matched charts right in your browser. No account. Nothing uploaded. Full commercial rights on every pattern.
Pick the route that fits your photo — or skip the photo entirely.
Drop in a well-lit photo with one clear subject. FlossPixel maps every pixel to the closest floss shade and builds the chart locally in your browser — nothing leaves your device.
Busy background? Soft gradients? Let Nano Banana 2 or GPT Image 2 redraw the photo into flat, stitchable colour areas first — then convert as usual.
No photo? Describe what you want — "folk-art fox in autumn leaves, 8 colours" — and get an original needlework design generated for stitching.
Live examples
Input on the left, chart on the right. The charts you see here are being converted in your browser right now — every cell is matched to a floss shade the moment the page loads.
Clean backgrounds and crisp lighting need no AI: fur edges stay defined and the floss count stays sane without spending a credit.
Colour clustering keeps petal gradients readable while cutting the palette down to skeins you can carry in one project bag.
A wider grid resolves roofs, windows and stone texture without pulling extra colours into the palette.
Skin gradients are confetti factories; one AI redraw before converting roughly halves the floss palette you will need.
Ask the AI for a solid off-white background and the converter rewards you with dozens of saved colours and calmer stitching.
Keep your composition while the AI restyles the photo into timeless folk-art needlework with a period palette.
No photo needed. Describe your idea in a line and the AI draws an original design ready to be charted from scratch.
Generate several needlework concepts at once, then chart whichever layout came out cleanest.
Chart small motifs under 60 stitches wide — bookmarks, ornaments, gift tags — and finish one in an evening.
Try it with your own photo
Quick preview at 80 stitches wide with a 40-shade sample palette. The full maker uses all 454 floss shades.
The pipeline
Every step runs in your browser tab. Watch the thread travel through it.
The image is decoded locally and resampled to your chosen stitch width.
Colours are reduced to a palette sized to your limit, weighted by area.
Each palette colour finds its nearest floss shade by Delta-E in CIELAB.
Confetti stitches merge into neighbours according to your slider.
Paged PDF with symbols, key, skeins and Aida sizes — plus a PNG.
confetti stitches: 0 · 14-ct Aida: 21.8 × 21.8 cm
Live controls
Lonely single stitches — "confetti" — are what make a chart miserable to work. FlossPixel's smoothing slider merges them into their neighbours in real time, so you can trade a little detail for a lot of stitchability and watch the result as you go.
Colour matching
Most converters pick the nearest RGB value, which is why skin turns grey and sky turns lilac. FlossPixel measures Delta-E distance in CIELAB space — a model of human vision — so each cell lands on the floss that looks right, not the one that's numerically closest.
RGB vs CIELAB
Hover or tap a sample to see which floss each method would choose.
Numerically closest. Often visibly wrong.
Perceptually closest. What you'd choose by eye.
Made with FlossPixel
A few of the things people stitch from their charts. See the gallery →
The export
Every download is a complete, paged PDF: a symbol chart split across printable sheets with overlap guides and a page map, then a colour key with the symbol, swatch, floss code and name for every colour, per-colour stitch counts, skein estimates and finished sizes on 11, 14, 16 and 18-count Aida. A PNG preview comes along for sharing.
Everything a stitcher needs, nothing they have to work out themselves.
Symbol chart split across printable pages with overlap guides and page map.
Symbol, swatch, floss code and name for every colour in the design.
Stitch counts per colour with estimated skeins, so you buy once.
Finished size on 11, 14, 16 and 18-count Aida, plus a PNG preview.
Compare
| FlossPixel | Typical converter | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct photo conversion | Free, unlimited | Free trial, then subscription |
| Photo leaves your device | Never (direct mode) | Uploaded to a server |
| Account required | No | Usually |
| Colour matching | ΔE in CIELAB, 454 floss shades | Nearest RGB |
| Confetti control | Live slider with count | Fixed or none |
| Watermark on export | None | Often |
| Commercial use | Included | Extra licence |
Photo tips
Direct conversion is only as good as the photo. Three things matter most. Full guide →
Overcast daylight or a window, not a flash. Harsh shadows become their own colours in the chart.
Fill the frame. A face, a pet, a flower — not a whole room. Crop before you convert.
Plain walls and blurred backdrops convert cleanly. Busy ones? That's what AI redraw is for.
Guides & notes
A complete guide to making a cross stitch pattern with realistic floss limits, Aida sizing and confetti control.
2 September 2026 · 7 min read
Why capping your palette to 25–35 colours produces cleaner embroidery with fewer thread changes.
1 September 2026 · 5 min read
Calculate exact cut sizes across 11, 14, 16 and 18-count Aida with the built-in fabric calculator.
30 August 2026 · 4 min readYour work stays yours
Sell finished pieces, sell pattern kits, print charts for a class — every pattern you make on FlossPixel is yours to use however you like. We never claim rights over your photos or your designs.
Direct photo conversion is free and unlimited, with no account. Only the optional AI features (redraw and text-to-pattern) cost credits, because they run on paid models.
Nowhere. In direct mode the image is processed in your browser and never uploaded.
Yes — finished pieces, kits and printed charts. No licence fees.
No account, no upload, no watermark. Your first chart is one click away.
Open the maker