Turn a picture into pixel art
Use Pixel art when you want a photo or drawing turned into cross-stitch-style pixel art without placing every cell yourself. You choose the grid size and the threads, and you get a pixel grid in exactly those threads, dropped into your design as a sprite. New in v1.3.0, it is one of the three advanced auto-digitize methods, so it costs credits.
The result is an ordinary pixel-art sprite: the same object you would get by painting one by hand, so every sprite tool, stitch method, and export route applies to it afterwards.
A 4:3 photo of your cat, to sew as a cross-stitch patch about 65 mm wide.
- Choose the photo, then pick Small: the grid is 43 x 32 cells.
- On From the picture, set How many to 8. If the cat's green eyes have no swatch, click the eyes in the picture to add that green.
- Click Digitize for 60 credits.
- In the pixel editor that opens, set Cell (mm) to 1.5: 43 cells × 1.5 mm is about 65 mm wide.
Open it
Click Advanced auto-digitize in the tool rail's Automation group (or File → Import → Advanced auto-digitize…, or right-click the canvas), then pick Pixel art.
Two steps
1. Choose a picture
Drop a PNG, JPEG, or WebP onto the dropzone, or click to pick one. A picture is required: you don't describe what you want, and there is no prompt field.
An unreadable file is refused as soon as you pick it, and the preview shows the picture exactly as it will be sent.
2. Size and colors
Size is the main control, because in pixel art the grid is the design: a 32 x 32 and a 128 x 128 are two different pieces of work, not one picture at two resolutions.
| Preset | What it means |
|---|---|
| Small | 32 on the short side, so a 4:3 picture becomes 43 x 32 rather than 32 x 24. Grids smaller than 32 are hard to stitch well. |
| Medium | 64 on the long side. The size a fresh panel opens on. |
| Large | 128 on the long side. |
| Custom | Width and height set independently, each between 16 and 128. |
Each preset keeps your picture's shape, so choosing a photo does not quietly square it off. Custom has its own aspect lock you can release.
A time estimate appears for whatever is selected: "Time estimation: 45 sec". That is the digitizing time only; waiting for a machine to be free is reported separately while the job runs.
Below 32 on either axis you get a warning, not a refusal: "Pixelization at lower resolution is harder and might fail to reconstruct details." A 16 x 16 icon is a fine thing to want; there is just not much grid left to hold a shape.
The charge is the same across the whole range. What a bigger grid costs you is time, not credits, which is what the estimate tells you.
The palette is the decision
The result uses only the colors in your palette: nothing is added and nothing is blended, so a color that is not in the palette cannot appear. Gold glasses with no gold in the palette come back white, so check the palette before you digitize.
The palette holds 2 to 64 colors, numbered in the order you add them. Three tabs answer "where do these threads come from":
- From the picture (the default): Boldbobbin proposes a palette from your picture, six colors to begin with, and How many changes that count. Each proposed swatch shows how much of the picture it covers, so you can tell "gold is not in the list" apart from "gold is not in the picture". You can also click the picture itself to pick up a color the proposal missed.
- My threads: this design's own threads first, then a browser over the thread charts you own, searchable by code or name.
- Suggestions: the built-in palettes, shown in their actual colors and grouped by how many they hold.
Two rules worth knowing:
- Switching tabs never loses what you chose. Individual swatches append.
- Anything that names a count replaces: "Use these 8" and picking a ready-made palette both swap the whole list, and the button says so.
Until you edit the palette by hand, moving How many from twelve to eight updates the proposed list. Once you add or remove a swatch yourself, moving How many no longer throws your chosen threads away.
Digitize
The button says the price: Digitize for 60 credits. See Credits for what happens if you are short, and for what the status messages mean while it runs.
Pixel art is the one advanced method that reports real progress, so you get a percentage rather than only a spinner.
On success the sprite goes straight into your design and the pixel editor opens on it. There is no preview-then-accept step: you have already paid, the result is yours, and closing the editor keeps the sprite (unlike the starter sprite a brand-new pixel object gives you, which Cancel discards).
The sprite arrives on the same defaults a hand-made one does, so retune the cell size and stitch method from there. See Create pixel art for the editor, the three stitch methods, and the Pro gate on painted sprites.
Previous digitizations lists every result. Opening a pixel-art row there puts the sprite in your design without capturing the window, so you can bring in several and compare them. See Previous digitizations.
Exporting
Exporting a design that contains a digitized sprite does not need Pro, in any stitch method: the credits were the payment. A sprite you painted by hand and set to cross-stitch or mini-satin is the case that needs Pro.
What decides it is the pixels: as long as the cells are the ones you paid for, export is free.
| You... | Export |
|---|---|
| Leave the cells alone | Free, as cross-stitch, mini-satin, or tatami |
| Change a thread's color, the cell size, or the stitch method | Still free |
| Copy, paste, or duplicate the sprite | Still free: the copy counts as paid for too |
| Repaint or erase cells, or change the grid's width or height | Needs Pro for cross-stitch or mini-satin, like a hand-painted sprite |
| Undo that edit | Free again |
In v1.3.0, every digitized sprite was caught by the cross-stitch gate at export, because it lands as cross-stitch, so a Free account could not export one it had paid for. From v1.3.1 an untouched result exports on any plan, as described above.
See Plans and credits.
If the result looks wrong
- A color you expected is missing: it was not in the palette. Click that part of the picture on the From the picture tab to pick it up, then digitize again.
- Two threads look identical on fabric: they are close enough in color that they will not read as two. Drop one.
- The shape is unreadable: the grid is too small for it. Move up a preset.
- It came back the wrong shape: check the aspect lock on Custom, or pick a preset, which follows your picture's proportions.