Bead pattern maker

CreativeTurn a photo into a printable fuse bead pattern for Perler, Hama, Artkal or Nabbi beads, with a bead count per colour. In your browser: free, no upload.

Your picture is turned into a pattern on this device and never leaves it. Nothing you open is ever uploaded. There is no server to upload it to.

What this does

It turns a photo or drawing into a fuse bead pattern: the picture rebuilt from beads, using a real brand’s colour range, laid out on standard 29 × 29 pegboards. You choose the beads, the size and the most colours you want to buy; the preview shows the result bead by bead, holes and all, with the pegboard edges drawn in. The download is a pattern you can work from: an overview with a map of the boards, a shopping list with every colour’s code and count, and a page for each pegboard.

Everything happens in your browser. The photo is never uploaded.

How to use it

  1. Drop a JPEG, PNG or WebP onto the tool, or press “Choose an image”.
  2. Choose your beads: Perler, Hama Midi, Artkal S or Nabbi.
  3. Set “Beads across”. The height follows the picture, and the line under the controls counts the beads and the pegboards. 29 across is one board; 58 is two.
  4. Set the most colours you want to buy. Fewer is cheaper and simpler; more is closer to the photo.
  5. Download the PDF pattern. Print it, put a page under a clear pegboard or beside it, and work board by board.

Choosing the colours, measured

When you cap the colours, something has to decide which beads make the cut. The obvious rule is to keep the ones the picture would use most. This tool instead groups the picture’s colours into as many clusters as you allow and takes the nearest bead to each, which keeps small but distinctive colours, like eyes, that a most-used rule spends on background shades.

We measured both on the 24 standard Kodak test photographs, 58 Perler beads across, judging each bead against the true colour of its square by CIEDE2000, the industry’s standard formula for how different two colours look. Capped at eight colours, the clustering choice was 5% closer to the photographs (10.73 against 11.30) and better on 18 of the 24. Capped at sixteen, the two methods tie, so the choice matters most when you are keeping the colour count low.

The same test explains why bead art is an approximation however many colours you allow: with all 103 Perler colours available, the average difference was still 9.8. Photographs contain colours no bead is made in, so the pattern gets the nearest bead, and the eye forgives it at a distance.

The pattern

The PDF opens with an overview of the whole picture with the pegboards marked, A1, A2, B1 and so on. Next comes the shopping list: each colour’s symbol, code, name and bead count, most used first. Then each pegboard gets its own page, with every square showing its colour and its symbol, gridlines heavier every five so you can count along a row, and coordinates that count across the whole picture, so a bead is findable without counting from a corner. Under each board is what that board alone needs.

Where the bead colours come from

The colour ranges come from the beadcolors project, an open dataset of bead colours sampled by hobbyists from real beads, published under the MIT licence by maxcleme and its contributors. They are good approximations, not manufacturer measurements, and a bead’s colour shifts with the light anyway. Clear, glitter, glow and metallic beads are left out by default, because one colour value cannot describe a bead you can see through or that sparkles; tick the box to allow them.

Limitations

5 mm beads on square pegboards. Mini beads and shaped boards are not covered.

Approximate colours. As above: buy by code, and expect the finished piece to look slightly different from the screen.

Transparency becomes white. Transparent parts of a PNG are treated as white beads.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a bead pattern from a photo?

Drop the photo onto the tool, choose your beads and how many across the pattern should be, and the preview shows it bead by bead, with the pegboard edges marked. Set the most colours you are willing to buy, then download the PDF: an overview, a shopping list with every colour's code and count, and one page per pegboard.

Which beads does it work with?

The 5 mm lines that fit the standard 29 × 29 square pegboard: Perler, Hama Midi, Artkal S and Nabbi. Each brand's own colour range and codes are used, so the shopping list is something you can order from.

How many beads and pegboards will I need?

The line under the controls says, and updates as you drag: the total bead count, the number of colours, and how many 29 × 29 pegboards the pattern covers. One full board is 841 beads. The PDF's shopping list breaks the total down by colour, and each pegboard page lists what that board alone needs.

Why limit the number of colours?

Beads are bought a colour at a time, so every extra colour is another bag. The tool picks the colours that best fit this particular picture rather than the ones it would use most, which keeps a small but important colour, like a pair of eyes, that a most-used rule would drop.

Are the colours on screen exactly the beads?

No, and no screen can promise that. The bead colours come from hobbyists' samples of real beads, and a bead looks different under different light. Treat the preview as a guide and buy by the code on the shopping list.

Can I print the pattern in black and white?

Yes. Every colour has a symbol as well as a fill, printed in each square of the pegboard pages and beside its code on the shopping list, so a black-and-white print still says which bead goes where.

Is my photo uploaded?

No. Bead patterns are mostly made from photos of children, pets and family, and the conversion runs in your browser; there is no server that could receive them, and the network panel will show you nothing carrying your photo leave.