About FlossGrid

Why FlossGrid exists

Turning a photo into a stitchable chart should not need an account, an upload to somebody else's server or a monthly plan. FlossGrid does the whole job in your browser: it shrinks the photo to a grid of stitches, drills or beads, picks colors that really exist in the thread or bead range you choose, cleans up stray single stitches and lays out a chart with symbols and a color key.

The other half of the site is a color library. Stitchers and bead crafters constantly swap one brand for another: a pattern calls for DMC and the local shop sells Anchor, or a design uses Perler and your box is full of Hama. Every thread and bead color has its own page with the nearest equivalents in the other brands, computed with a published color-difference formula rather than copied from an old printed table, and the distance is shown so you can judge each match yourself.

Colors on a screen are approximations of dyed cotton and molded plastic, and FlossGrid says so instead of pretending otherwise. Treat every equivalent as a well-computed starting point and check it against a real color card or skein before you buy a large amount.

What is on the site

• The cross stitch pattern maker: drop a photo and get a counted chart with real thread or bead numbers, made in your browser.
• DMC colors: 173 pages.
• Anchor colors: 131 pages.
• Madeira colors: 119 pages.
• Conversion charts: 10 pages.
• Color charts: 37 pages.
• Pattern makers: 13 pages.
• Perler colors: 103 pages.
• Hama colors: 92 pages.
• Artkal colors: 199 pages.
• Nabbi colors: 30 pages.
• Fabric counts: 5 pages.
• How it works: the color science, the pattern engine, the skein formula and the data sources in detail.

How the pages are made

Every color page and conversion chart is generated from open palette datasets, listed below with their licenses. When the site is built, each color is converted from sRGB to CIELAB and compared with every color of the other brands using the CIEDE2000 color-difference formula; the closest matches, their distance and a plain-language quality band are written into the page. The pattern maker loads the same palette files and runs the same color code in your browser, so a chart and a color page never disagree. When a value is corrected in the data, every page that uses it is rebuilt.

Data sources

• sharlagelfand/dmc (data-raw/floss_adrianj.csv); codes 01-35 from KDE KXStitch dmc.xml, MIT (codes 01-35: GPL-2.0-or-later), retrieved 2026-10-26: DMC (489).
• KDE KXStitch floss schemes, GPL-2.0-or-later, retrieved 2026-10-26: Anchor (445), Madeira (369).
• maxcleme/beadcolors, MIT, retrieved 2026-10-26: Perler (103), Perler Mini (41), Hama (92), Hama Mini (78), Artkal S (199), Artkal C (174), Nabbi (30).

Data last updated October 26, 2026. DMC, Anchor, Madeira, Perler, Hama, Artkal and Nabbi are trademarks of their owners and are used only to name their products; FlossGrid is independent and not affiliated with any of them.

How the site is funded

The free pattern maker and the color library are paid for by an optional one-time Pro upgrade for people who chart big projects: full-size multi-page PDFs, more colors, a shopping list and saved projects (see pricing). There are no display ads and no sponsored placements, and photos you use in the tool never leave your browser. The privacy policy lists the little that is recorded.

Spotted an error?

A color number that points to the wrong shade is worse than no answer. If a code, name or equivalent looks wrong, please get in touch with the page address, the brand and code, and what you compared it with.