Chart from a photo: how a picture becomes a cross stitch chart
Many stitchers want to stitch their own photo — a pet, a house, a holiday view. Software can turn a picture into a chart in seconds, but the result depends a lot on the photo itself and on a few decisions. Here's what happens inside and how to get a chart that's a pleasure to stitch.
What happens to the photo
- A grid. The photo is divided into squares, and each square becomes one cross. More squares mean more detail — and more hours.
- Fewer colours. A photo has thousands of shades; a chart has a few dozen. Similar shades are merged.
- Real threads. Each remaining colour is replaced by the nearest thread from a maker's range. That way the chart can actually be stitched, not just looked at.
- Clean-up. After matching, single crosses of another colour are left scattered about — "confetti". They are removed or merged with their neighbours, or the stitching gets slow and tiring.
Which photo works
- A large main subject. A face or figure should fill most of the frame. A small detail on a big background turns into a handful of squares.
- Clear light. Hard shadows and blown-out areas become patches that are hard to stitch well.
- A simple background. A plain or blurred background is easy to stitch or to leave as bare fabric.
- Sharpness. A blurry photo stays blurry in the chart.
Size and time
The chart's size in squares is the main decision. The bigger it is, the more detail — and the more hours. For the size on fabric and the time, see "How to work out the size and the thread" and "How long does a cross stitch take?".
Check the chart before buying thread
- Look at the chart small: does it look like the photo from a distance?
- Check how many colours there are and whether some colours have only a couple of stitches.
- See whether there are many single crosses — more in "Confetti in cross stitch".
Where the app fits
Crossette has "Chart from a photo": it builds a chart from your pictures with real DMC threads, all worked out on your phone. You can then work through the chart in the same app, like any other.
About the author
This article was written by the Crossette team. We're building Crossette, a cross stitch tracker for iPhone and iPad. It's in development; to join the beta, email [email protected].