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A LITTLE GUIDANCE

Crosspic help and shortcuts

Convert your own image, draw a chart, or edit a sample. Image conversion runs on your device, and projects are saved in this browser. Use this reference while you work, or follow the practical guides. For quick answers, visit the frequently asked questions.

Convert your image into stitches

Open Import image and follow four steps. Use Back to change an earlier choice. See the original worked examples for sources, actual settings and generated charts.

  1. Upload image: choose a JPG, PNG, or WebP file up to 30 MB.
  2. Crop & compose: choose a crop shape, drag to position the image, zoom, or rotate. On a touchscreen, tap Move image before dragging, then Done moving to scroll freely again.
  3. Pattern size: use the Width and Height sliders to set stitch dimensions. Lock the aspect ratio to keep the proportions, and choose your fabric count and units to see the finished size.
  4. Colors & preview: choose a maximum color count and review the stitch preview. Fewer colors simplify the pattern; more colors preserve subtle detail. Choose Open in editor when ready.

Start with a clear subject and crop away distracting surroundings. Colored and white backgrounds become chart stitches. Transparent areas in a PNG can remain unstitched; Crosspic does not automatically remove an image background. Digital stitch previews show the generated design, not a physically stitched piece.

Need to decide on a crop and grid before conversion? Follow the photo-preparation guide.

Generate a name or short message

The lettering generator uses one block alphabet: A–Z, 0–9 and the listed punctuation. Lowercase becomes uppercase; unsupported characters produce an error. Set letter scale, gaps, alignment and empty chart margin, then inspect the actual grid. Scale enlarges the letters by whole stitches; fabric count changes their physical size. There is no font upload or automatic line wrapping.

Choose Edit chart & export PDF to save a new local project and open the existing editor. Download editable backup creates a .crosspic file directly, including when local storage is unavailable. Add decoration with drawing tools and export your PDF from the editor. Keep an editable backup before clearing browser data.

Choose chart dimensions and fabric size

Width and height are stitches, from 1 to 500 per dimension. A wider chart gives small features more room but increases the work. In the image importer, Lock aspect ratio keeps both sides within that limit together, rounded to whole stitches. For example, a 3:4 portrait crop can reach 375 × 500 stitches; a 4:3 landscape crop can reach 500 × 375. Turning the lock back on restores the crop proportions using the current width, reducing it if needed to fit. To choose a different shape, go Back to Crop & compose and review the framing, then continue to Pattern size.

Fabric count changes physical size, not the number of chart stitches. At 14 stitches per inch, a 140-stitch width is 10 inches (25.4 cm). The designer expects effective stitches per inch: use 14 for 14-count Aida, or for 28-count linen stitched over two threads. Use the fabric calculator to enter the actual linen thread count, select over two, and add your finishing allowance. Floss strands are a separate choice.

Choose and change your threads

Maximum colors is a limit, not a promised number of threads. Several shades can map to the same DMC thread, so the result may use fewer. Start with 20, then compare a lower limit for simpler stitching and a higher limit for more shading. Review the actual DMC list before buying threads.

Colors & preview lists DMC numbers, color names, and stitch counts. Remove an unwanted color with its × button; those stitches use the closest remaining color without leaving holes. Keep at least one color. Restore a removed color using its Restore DMC button.

Choose Change beside a color to search for another DMC thread. The replacement updates the preview and preserves the stitches. Choosing a thread already in the pattern merges the colors. Reset color replacements returns to the original choices.

Expand Use only threads I own to limit the available threads. The full DMC list is searchable, with only your pattern colors checked initially. Uncheck threads you don't have, or check others to include them. Use pattern colors selects the current preview's threads; Use all DMC colors allows the entire reference palette again.

Edit stitches and selections

Create a blank pattern or open a saved pattern from My patterns. The editor starts with Pan selected so you can position the chart before drawing.

On a touch screen, pinch with two fingers to zoom in or out. Move both fingers together to pan around your pattern without drawing stitches.

Select a floss on the right and draw with the pencil or brush. Use Fill for connected areas, Eyedropper to sample a stitch, or Rectangle and Line for shapes. Pick a stitch type above the canvas. Backstitch connects grid corners; drag for each segment. Use the backstitch manager to change endpoints or delete lines.

Hover over a sidebar tool to see its name and shortcut immediately. The Eyedropper button's background shows the selected thread color. Selecting Brush reveals a compact vertical size control. Use − and + to choose from 1 × 1 cross to 10 × 10 crosses. On desktop it sits beside the sidebar; on mobile it appears above the zoom controls.

Scroll to zoom around the pointer, Shift + scroll to move left or right, and Ctrl/Cmd + scroll to move up or down. You can move freely even when the entire pattern fits on screen.

Drag a selection, then copy, cut, paste, move with arrow keys, or delete it. Magic wand selects every stitch using the clicked color. Copy immediately opens a movable preview over your selection. Drag it to position it, then press Ctrl/Cmd+V, Enter, or choose Place copy. Escape cancels. Paste opens another preview in the center of the view. On desktop, use Paste after Cut to position the cut stitches. On touchscreens, drag the preview and tap Place. Erasing or replacing stitches keeps the operation in your undo history.

Selection copy and paste include stitch cells, stitch types and their colors; they do not copy backstitch segments. Manage backstitch separately in Your workspace. Undo and Redo retain up to 100 editing commands during the current editing session.

On desktop, drag inside the outlined copy to position it. Drag anywhere outside the copy to move the view while carrying the copy with you. The cursor changes to show what you can move. Hold Space to move the view even when your pointer is over the copy. Pan becomes active after you place or cancel the copy. Ctrl/Cmd + scroll moves vertically, Shift + scroll moves sideways, and scroll zooms around the pointer. The copy stays visible while you pan and is only applied when you choose Place copy. Arrow keys move the copy one stitch; Shift + arrow keys move it ten stitches. Hold Space with the arrow keys to move the view instead.

Clean up a palette safely

In the editor, open the palette manager to merge colors, reduce the color limit, merge rare or similar colors, or remove isolated stitches. Unlike removing a color during import, Remove active color in the editor clears its stitches and backstitch lines. Remove isolated stitches also leaves blank cells. Check the chart after each change and choose Undo if the result loses detail you want to keep.

Keyboard shortcuts

Export and print your chart

Open Export from your pattern. Choose PDF booklet or PNG image at the top of the page to see the settings and preview for that format.

PDF booklet

Choose A4 or US Letter, page orientation, and a chart style. Turn off Automatic chart sizing to set columns and rows per page yourself. Expand Booklet contents & chart details to choose the cover, stitched preview, color and symbol keys, project guide, page overlap, center arrows, and grid numbers. Choose Generate PDF preview, review the pages, then Download PDF. If settings change, regenerate the preview before downloading.

Colors + symbols helps identify both placement and thread; black and white symbols suits monochrome printing. Automatic sizing splits large charts into readable pages. Overlap repeats three stitches at adjacent page edges: stitch those cells only once. Review the page map and thread key before printing. Printed chart squares are reading aids, not a scale template for your fabric.

PNG image

Choose a stitched preview, colored chart, symbol chart, or colors + symbols. Pick a white or transparent background and review the live image preview. The checkerboard indicates transparency and is not included in the downloaded image. Resolution defaults to 4× (16 pixels per stitch), with 2× and 1× available for smaller files. The output dimensions appear below Download PNG. Choose that button to save your image; Preparing image appears while it is generated.

Understand floss estimates

For counts from another chart or a different extra allowance, use the standalone floss calculator to estimate skeins separately for each color.

Estimates account for diagonal stitch length, travel on the back, selected strands, and a 15% margin. Skeins assume 8 meters of six-strand floss. Each occupied cell is estimated as a full stitch; fractional stitches, petite stitches and knots are not individually modeled, and backstitch is excluded. The displayed meters are the combined length of individual strands. PDF skein quantities round up; the pattern information dialog shows fractional skein estimates. Actual use depends on your stitching technique. Compare digital colors with a physical thread card.

Worked estimate: 1,000 full crosses in one color on 14-count fabric, using two strands, gives about 20.15 meters of individual-strand length with this model, including its 15% margin. An 8-meter six-strand skein contains 48 meters of individual strands: 20.15 ÷ 48 is about 0.42 skein, rounded up to one in the PDF key. Estimate each color separately; this is a planning aid, not a guaranteed amount to purchase.

Back up and restore your editable work

Use Back up editable project on the export page to download a .crosspic file. This preserves your editable stitches, palette, backstitch, and source image. Browser storage can be cleared or evicted; a project backup is the best way to keep your work.

To restore it, go to My patterns, choose Open project and select your .crosspic file. It opens as a new local copy. You can transfer the file to another device and open it there the same way. PDF and PNG files cannot restore the editable project. Projects are not synchronized between browsers or devices.

Troubleshoot a problem

My image will not open

Choose a JPG, PNG or WebP under 30 MB. Re-export unsupported formats such as HEIC in one of those formats. If conversion fails, try a smaller image or lower stitch dimensions. Renaming a file extension does not convert the image format.

The subject looks blurred or hard to recognize

Return to Crop & compose and make the subject fill more of the crop. Increase stitch dimensions to give important features more cells. Increasing fabric count only makes the finished embroidery smaller; it does not add chart detail. Compare different color limits, then refine individual stitches in the editor.

Check the smallest feature you need to keep, such as an eye or a petal edge. If it occupies only one or two cells, extra thread colors cannot add space for its shape. Use the crop and stitch-grid planning guide before increasing the whole pattern. Change one setting at a time so you can compare the same feature in each preview.

My photo pattern has too many isolated stitches

Scattered single stitches, often called confetti, can come from textured backgrounds or subtle shading. Keep the crop and stitch dimensions fixed and compare a lower maximum color count in Colors & preview. Check whether the subject still looks right: an isolated eye highlight may be useful even when surrounding speckles are not.

In the importer, removing a pattern color remaps its stitches to the nearest remaining shade; it does not leave empty fabric. In the editor, inspect the stitches before merging shades or erasing unwanted marks. Follow the palette cleanup guide and compare the actual 10-color and 6-color landscape. Fewer colors do not necessarily mean fewer occupied stitches.

Why does the white background become stitches?

White pixels are a color, so an opaque white background becomes stitched cells just like a colored background. Crosspic does not automatically remove it. Crop away unwanted surroundings, prepare a PNG with a transparent background in an image editor, or erase unwanted background stitches after conversion. Saving an opaque image as PNG does not make it transparent.

Removing white from the import palette assigns those cells another thread color; it does not make them unstitched. Compare the transparent flower example with the full-coverage landscape to see the difference between chart dimensions and occupied stitches. Review pale details inside the subject before erasing a whole color.

There is no preview after choosing my own threads

Select at least one DMC thread, or choose Use all DMC colors. If you removed pattern colors, restore at least one. A completely transparent image contains no stitchable pixels; check your source.

My saved pattern is missing, or saving fails

Projects belong to the browser and device where you created them. Use that same browser, or restore a .crosspic backup with Open project. If storage is full or unavailable, allow site storage and download a backup before closing an open editor. Clearing site data deletes locally saved projects. Crosspic cannot recover a cleared project without your backup.

My project file is rejected

Open an editable .crosspic file smaller than 50 MB. A PNG, PDF or renamed image is not a project file. If you changed the JSON by hand, return to the original backup: Crosspic checks dimensions, stitch references, palette and backstitch data before importing.

The PDF download is unavailable or out of date

Choose Generate PDF preview and wait for generation to finish. After changing settings, regenerate the preview before downloading. For a generation error, try Automatic chart sizing and a smaller chart. Keep an editable backup before restarting the browser.

Transparent export still shows the background color

Transparency changes the area behind stitches; it does not remove stitched background cells. An opaque source background is converted into stitches. Erase unwanted background cells in the editor, or start from a source PNG with transparency.

Still stuck? Contact Crosspic with the page, browser, device and error text. Keep a backup of your work.

Color reference attribution

Thread-conversion data by Stitchies, CC BY 4.0. Adapted to a 552-color DMC reference palette with RGB values derived from hex swatches. Crosspic is an independent application and is not affiliated with DMC.