Crochet Pattern Maker

Photo, name or drawing in; a crochet graph you can work row by row out. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and the picture never leaves your device.

Photo or picture

Choose image No file chosen

PNG, JPG, SVG or WebP, up to 10 MB; you can also drop it here. It is read in this browser and never uploaded.

Loading the maker…

Stitches: –
Rows: –
Total stitches: –
Finished size: –

Tap a cell to see its row, column and color.

Colors, stitch count and yarn weight all change how a chart crochets up, so not every photo makes a good graph. Fewer colors and a wider chart usually read better; work a small swatch first.

Stitch

Width

Set width by Stitches across

Gauge

Stitches Rows

Gauge measured over

Units and terms

Show sizes in Stitch names

Switching units only converts the sizes shown; the chart and your gauge stay the same.

Colors Number of colors (2–12)

Invert light and dark Mirror left–right

Yarn shades

Row-by-row instructions

US terms: each square is 1 sc (single crochet).

–

Row tracker

–

Row 1 of 1

The current row is outlined in orange on the chart and highlighted in the row list; tap any row in the list to jump to it. Saved in this browser only.

Crochetability check

Lone stitches: –
Busy rows: –
Colors carried in one row (max): –
Background (flood fill from the corners): –

Row	Color changes	Colors in row

Yarn by color

Yarn weight (for yarn amounts)

Estimates. Yards, meters and grams are the estimate; skein counts already include the 10% extra we suggest buying.

Compare stitches and yarn weights in the yarn calculator.

Save and print

Free for personal use: the whole chart, every row, yarn per color, the PNG (with a small crochetgraph.com credit in the corner), one-page printing and share links.

Pattern files 7-day pass or monthly

Paid files are yours to use commercially: sell the pattern, print it for a class or add it to your shop, no credit needed. Using your files

Paper Chart cells

Everything in one zip

Both PDFs in Letter and A4, a large labeled PNG without the credit, a finished-look PNG for listings and the instructions as a TXT file. Fill in a shop or course name to add the seller and teacher edition (US and UK terms, Letter and A4) to the same zip.

Shop or course name (optional) Copyright line (optional)

Logo (optional, PNG, JPG, WebP or SVG)

Choose logo No file chosen

Your logo is drawn onto the seller edition in this browser after download; it is never uploaded.

Add your shop or course name to include the seller and teacher edition (no CrochetGraph credit).

See sample pages of every file.

Examples to open and change

Each card is a finished chart drawn by the same engine as the maker above, at the size and color count shown. Open one and it loads into the maker with its settings; change the width, a color or the stitch and it redraws, so you can see what 40 versus 90 stitches does to the same heart before you pick your own picture.

How to make a crochet pattern from a photo

Choose what to chart. Use Photo for a PNG, JPG, SVG or WebP up to 10 MB, Name for block letters (up to 16 characters), or Draw for a blank grid from 5 × 5 to 300 × 300. The picture is decoded on your device; nothing is uploaded.
Pick the stitch. Single crochet gives one cell per stitch for graphgans and pillows; tapestry carries the colors you are not using inside each stitch; C2C turns every cell into a block worked on the diagonal; filet turns light and dark into open and filled mesh squares.
Set the width. Type a stitch count from 10 to 300, or switch to Finished width and enter inches or centimeters with your gauge. Stitches = width × stitches per 4 in ÷ 4. Rows follow the picture at your row gauge, so a square photo at 16 × 18 becomes 60 × 68, not 60 × 60.
Reduce to yarn colors. Set how many yarns you will buy, then rename any color, type a hex code or match the palette to Red Heart Super Saver shades. For photos, open Photo cleanup to merge the background, remove lone stitches or dither soft shading.
Check that it is crochetable. The check counts lone stitches (a stitch with no neighbor of its color, so one-stitch lines and letter strokes are never counted) and lists, row by row, the color changes and how many colors each row carries; rows over 10 changes (or over 3 colors in tapestry) are highlighted. Preview the cleanup to see the chart before and after with every changed stitch outlined, then keep it or undo it. Lower the colors, widen the chart or fix single cells with the pen.
Save, track and print. Download the PNG with its legend, print the chart on one page, copy every row in US or UK terms, share a link and move the row marker as you work. For a tiled large-print chart, a tick-box worksheet or a seller edition, get the pattern files.

What people chart with it

Photo blankets and graphgans

A throw-size picture in single crochet runs about 200 stitches wide; in C2C the same blanket is only 50 blocks. Plan it in the C2C graph maker and check the finished size against standard crochet blanket sizes.

Pet portraits and wall hangings

Four to six colors, merged background, 100 to 150 stitches wide. The tapestry crochet pattern maker starts from finished width and shows how many colors each row carries.

Names, initials and words

Name mode uses built-in block letters with crisp edges at any width. For lace lettering on curtains and runners, the filet crochet chart maker gives the foundation chain and open/filled rows.

Pillows, bags and coasters

Small charts of 30 to 80 stitches, two to four colors. Get yardage for the size and stitch from the crochet yarn calculator before you buy.

Pattern sellers and teachers

Fill in your shop name and the pattern zip adds a seller edition: your shop name and logo on the cover, a copyright page and every row in both US and UK terms, with no CrochetGraph credit, ready to sell or hand out in class. New to graphs? Send students to how to read a crochet chart.

Turn a photo into a crochet pattern: what makes a good picture

Every cell in a crochet chart is one stitch, so a picture to crochet pattern conversion throws away most of the detail in the photo. A 4,000-pixel phone photo of a dog becomes, at 80 stitches wide, a grid of about 7,000 stitches; each stitch averages a patch of roughly 50 × 50 pixels. What survives is shape and contrast, not texture. Choose photos accordingly:

Crop tight. If the subject fills only half the frame, half your stitches go to background. Crop so the face or object fills at least two thirds of the width.
Look for contrast between subject and background. A black cat on a cream wall charts cleanly in 2 colors; a tabby on a patterned rug needs 6 or more and still blurs. The Merge background option floods from the four corners and turns everything similar to them into one yarn color.
Keep details at least 3 stitches wide. At 60 stitches, a face that fills the frame has eyes about 3 stitches across. If eyes or letters vanish, widen the chart before adding colors.
Prefer flat colors. Illustrations, logos and cartoons with flat fills chart far better than photos with gradients. For soft shading, Dither mixes neighboring colors, but it also creates lone stitches, which are slow to work in tapestry.

The maker shows the result immediately, so the fastest way to turn a photo into a crochet pattern is to try two or three crops at two widths and keep the one where the subject still reads from across the room.

How many colors and how wide? Sizing a crochet graph

Width decides finished size and how much detail fits; colors decide how much work each row is. These are the combinations we suggest, with finished widths calculated at the maker's default single crochet gauge of 16 stitches × 18 rows, counted per 4 in, and for comparison counted per 10 cm (set "Gauge measured over" to match your yarn label; showing sizes in centimeters never changes the gauge):

Project	Stitches across	Finished width at 16 sts / 4 in	At 16 sts / 10 cm	Colors that work
Coaster, patch or appliqué	30	7.5 in	18.8 cm	2–3
Pillow front	60	15 in	37.5 cm	2–4
Tote or bag panel	80	20 in	50 cm	3–5
Baby blanket (sc graphgan)	120	30 in	75 cm	3–6
Pet portrait wall hanging	150	37.5 in	93.8 cm	4–6
Throw (sc graphgan)	200	50 in	125 cm	4–8

Finished widths from the maker's size math. Your gauge changes them: enter your own swatch in the Gauge fields.

Two practical limits: the maker stops at 300 stitches and 300 rows, which at worsted gauge is 75 in of single crochet, and each extra color adds a bobbin. If the crochetability check lists dozens of rows with more than 10 color changes, drop a color or add width before you start.

Four stitches, one crochet chart maker

The same grid can be worked four ways. Switching the stitch keeps your picture, width and colors; only the gauge and the written instructions change.

Stitch	One cell is	Default gauge (cells × rows per 4 in / 10 cm)	60 cells wide makes	Worsted yarn per sq in	Best for
Single crochet	one single crochet	16 × 18	15 in / 37.5 cm	1.10 yd	graphgans, pillows, fine detail
Tapestry	one sc worked over the carried colors	15 × 16	16 in / 40 cm	1.12 yd	bags, baskets, wall hangings with no loose floats
C2C	one block: ch 3 + 3 dc	4 × 4	60 in / 150 cm	0.85 yd	blankets that grow fast, photo throws
Filet	one open or filled mesh square	5 × 5	48 in / 120 cm	0.56 yd	lace curtains, table runners, names

Yarn per square inch from the yarn calculator's model for #4 worsted (tapestry with 2 colors, filet half filled). Estimates; buy about 10% extra.

Single crochet gives the sharpest picture for the yarn. Tapestry uses a little more because the second color travels inside every stitch, but leaves no floats on the back. At the default gauges one C2C block covers about 18 times the area of one single crochet, which is why graphgans are usually C2C. Filet works with one thread and shows the picture as holes and solids.

Reading the graph you get

Row 1 is the bottom row. Right-side rows (odd numbers) are worked right to left and numbered on the right; wrong-side rows are worked left to right and numbered on the left. Columns count from the right edge, every tenth line is heavier, and each yarn has a letter in the legend so similar colors never get confused. The row tracker clips an orange marker to the row you are on. The full walkthrough, with pictures made by this engine, is in How to read a crochet chart.

Free crochet pattern creator, paid pattern files

Call it a crochet chart maker, a crochet graph maker, a crochet grid maker or a crochet pattern generator: it is free to upload, generate, view the whole chart, change colors, stitch counts and stitch type, read and copy every row, see yarn per color, total stitches and finished size, share a link, keep your place with the row tracker, download the PNG with a small corner credit and print the chart and legend on one page. A 7-day pass ($4.99) or the monthly plan ($6.99) adds ready-made files you may use commercially: the tiled large-print chart with 9 mm or 6 mm squares, the tick-box row worksheet, and one zip with everything, including the seller and teacher edition without our credit when you add a shop name.

Crochet pattern maker questions

How many colors should a crochet graph have?

For a first project, 2 to 4 colors. Each extra color means another bobbin, more color changes per row and more ends to weave in. Photos of pets and faces usually need 4 to 6 colors to stay recognizable; logos and lettering read well with 2 or 3. The maker allows 2 to 12, and the crochetability check shows how many rows exceed 10 color changes so you can see the cost of each extra color before you buy yarn.

How wide should my crochet chart be?

Wide enough that the smallest detail you care about is at least 3 stitches across. At the default worsted gauge of 16 sc per 4 in, 60 stitches makes a 15 in pillow front, 120 stitches a 30 in baby blanket and 200 stitches a 50 in throw. A face or a pet usually needs 80 stitches or more; a two-color silhouette looks fine at 40 to 60.

How do I read the chart this maker makes?

Row 1 is the bottom row. Odd rows are right-side rows worked from right to left, so their row numbers sit on the right edge; even rows are worked from left to right and are numbered on the left. Columns are counted from the right edge, every tenth line is drawn heavier, and each color has a letter (A, B, C…) in the legend. Every row is also written out as text, for example "Row 1 (RS): 18 A, 24 B, 18 A", in US or UK terms.

How do I count C2C rows?

C2C rows are diagonals that start in the bottom-right corner. Row 1 is one block, Row 2 is two blocks, Row 3 is three, and so on until the diagonal reaches the shorter side of the chart. On a rectangle you then increase on one edge and decrease on the other, and finally decrease on both edges. A chart that is W blocks wide and H blocks tall always has W + H − 1 diagonal rows; the maker shows that total and the row where decreasing starts.

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No. The picture is decoded and sampled in your browser, and the original is never sent to a server or saved. If you buy a pattern file, only the finished grid of letters, the colors and your settings are sent so the PDF can be built; your picture is not part of that request, and a seller logo is drawn onto the seller edition in your browser too. The last chart (not the photo) is kept in this browser so a refresh does not lose your work.

What is the difference between the free PNG and print and the paid pattern files?

Everything you need to crochet the chart is free: the PNG with the legend and a small crochetgraph.com credit in the corner, a one-page print of the whole chart and legend from your browser, every written row, and yarn per color. The free exports are for personal use. The paid files save time and may be used commercially: a large-print chart with 9 mm or 6 mm squares tiled over as many Letter or A4 sheets as it takes (one shared row and column at each join), a row worksheet with a tick box per row, and one zip with all of it, which also holds a seller edition with your shop name and logo, no credit and US and UK terms when you fill in a shop name.

Why is my chart taller than my photo?

Because crochet stitches are not square. A single crochet at 16 stitches and 18 rows per 4 in is about 12% wider than it is tall, so a square picture needs about 12% more rows than stitches to keep its shape: 60 stitches becomes 60 × 68. The chart on screen is drawn with real stitch proportions, so what you see is the shape you will get.