Guides / Making your chart
Which photo makes a good cross-stitch chart
The choice of photograph matters more than every setting put together. A few simple tests tell you in advance whether a picture will make a good chart.
A cross-stitch chart is a very low-resolution picture: 70 stitches wide is 70 pixels, less than an app icon. The photo you choose matters more than all the settings put together.
A subject that fills the frame
This matters more than anything: every stitch spent on the background is one less for the subject.
What makes a good photo to convert: a subject that fills the frame, clear contrast and a plain background. Each fix makes the chart cleaner.- Between two photos, take the bigger subject, even if it is a little less sharp.
- Crop before converting: preparing a picture takes a minute on a phone.
- ✓ The dog fills three quarters of the picture
- ✗ The same dog ten metres away: a brown smudge in the middle of the garden
Tip. Disappointed by a chart? Changing the photo works more often than changing a setting.
Contrast before sharpness
A slightly blurred but contrasty photo makes a good chart. A sharp one whose subject is as dark as the background does not.
- Go for daylight, near a window: true colours, soft shadows.
- Flash leaves white highlights; a yellow lamp pulls the whole chart towards orange.
- A dark photo makes a muddy chart: every shadow lands on the same black.
- ✓ A ginger cat on a blue throw, even a little blurred
- ✗ A black cat on a dark sofa, however sharp
Tip. Squint at the photo. If the subject still stands out from the background, the chart will tell them apart too.
A simple background
A busy background steals the subject's colours and fills up with confetti, single stitches that each need their own thread.
- Crop tight: it works best.
- On a plain background, the converter's “Remove the background” leaves bare fabric.
- Or use fewer threads: the background melts into a single mass.
- ✓ A plain wall, a sky, a sheet
- ✗ A bookshelf, foliage, a busy street
Animals, the safest subject
Fur comes down well to a few related colours, as the animals in the gallery show.
- Photograph them at their own height, from the front or three-quarters.
- Keep the catchlight in the eyes: it is what brings the face to life.
- A black animal needs more threads, not fewer: 310, 3799, 413, 317.
100–150 stitches wide for a detailed pet portrait
Portraits, the hardest
We recognise a face by tiny differences of shape and tone, and the eye sees at once when they are wrong.
- Below 90 stitches, you get someone who looks vaguely similar.
- A profile or a silhouette against the light works better than a face head-on.
- To settle the width: choosing the size of a chart.
120 stitches wide and about fifteen threads for a face
Flowers, objects, landscapes: shape first
Anything with a clear shape and little background works: a flower, a cup, a bicycle, a house.
- ✓ A lone tree, a boat, a lighthouse on the horizon
- ✗ A whole landscape with no main subject
Tip. A name, a date? A letter needs 7 stitches of height to read. Convert without the text, then write it in the pattern maker.