Turn a Photo into a
Perler Bead Chart

Yes. Free tier: 1 fully editable pattern project with no account required, a full browser preview, Perler color matching, and per-color bead counts. A $2.99 single-pattern unlock gives you the HD PNG and the printable PDF chart for that pattern. Pro ($6.99/month or $39.99/year): unlimited projects, every export, and every other craft generator.

Yes. Hama midi, Artkal, and any other 5mm fuse bead sit on the same 5mm grid as Perler midi, so the chart transfers directly — one cell is still one bead. The only difference is the legend: colors are matched to Perler's names because that is the range most people can name and buy, so with another brand you match by eye against the swatch in the legend rather than by bag label.

Anything worked one bead per grid cell on a flat pegboard: Perler, Hama, Artkal, melty and fuse beads at mini, midi, or biggie size, plus pony beads laid out on a square grid. Those all share the same chart — a grid where each cell names a bead color — so one generator serves them all and only the legend and the physical size change. It does not cover woven beadwork: peyote, brick stitch, and bead loom bracelets are seed beads on thread, and peyote offsets every other column by half a bead, so a pegboard chart would come out skewed. That has its own tool — the seed bead pattern generator charts peyote and loom stitch with Miyuki Delica colors. If you are charting fused beads or pixel bead art, this is the right page; if you are weaving seed beads, start there.

The standard large square pegboard is 29×29 pegs, which at midi (5mm) beads finishes about 14.5×14.5cm — coaster-sized. That is why the generator defaults to a 29×29 grid. For anything larger you tile boards: 58×58 is four boards in a 2×2 block, 87×87 is nine. The shopping list tells you how many boards your chart spans so you can lay them out before you start placing beads.

One grid cell is one bead, so a full 29×29 board is 841 beads and a 58×58 piece is 3,364. Single-color Perler bags hold 1,000 beads. ArtPatt counts beads per color from your chart, adds a buffer for the ones that end up on the floor, and rounds each color up to whole bags — so you get "2 bags of Black, 1 bag of Cheddar" rather than a raw count to divide yourself.

Midi (5mm) unless you have a reason not to — it is the standard size, has the widest color range, and is what every published pattern and pegboard assumes. Mini (2.6mm) packs roughly four times the detail into the same physical area and suits small, detailed sprites and portraits, at the cost of much slower placing. Biggie (10mm) is the large size made for young children.

From a bold, simple one, yes. A bead is a pixel, and on a single board you only have 29 of them across, so fine features and soft shading cannot be rendered at all. Silhouettes, sprites, logos, lettering, and high-contrast subjects on plain backgrounds convert cleanly. If the photo needs detail, either give it more boards or pick a bolder image — the free preview shows you exactly what you would be placing before you buy anything.

Place every bead first — nothing is fixed until it is fused. Lay parchment or the ironing paper that came with the beads over the finished board, set the iron to medium with no steam, and move it in slow circles for 10 to 20 seconds, watching the bead holes through the paper. Stop when the holes are still visible but the beads have joined. Let it cool flat under a book, then peel it off the board, flip it, and fuse the back the same way for a flat, even panel.

Plan on roughly 600 beads an hour once you have a rhythm and your colors are sorted into cups. A single 29×29 board (841 beads) is an evening; a 58×58 four-board piece (3,364 beads) is a weekend project. The generator estimates the time for your exact chart, which is worth a look before committing to a nine-board design.