~ Perler Beads · 103 Colors ~
Perler Bead Pattern Maker
Turn any photo into a Perler bead pattern with the official 103-color palette, a shopping-ready bill of materials and print-ready PDF boards. Free, instant, and everything runs in your browser.
Bead Pattern Examples
Every card below is the photo converted by our pattern maker — real brand colors, 87 beads wide, exactly what you get. Click one to load it into the tool.
How to Make a Bead Pattern from a Photo
01
Upload or Pick a Sample
Drop in any photo or choose one of the samples. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded to a server.
02
Match Your Brand
Pick the brand you own — Perler, Hama, Artkal S, Nabbi or MARD. Every cell snaps to a real color code you can actually buy. Adjust width in whole pegboards.
03
Export and Craft
Download a zoomable PNG pattern sheet or a print-ready PDF: overview, bill of materials, and one page per pegboard with color codes in place.
Bead Pattern Maker Features
715 Real Brand Colors
Perler, Hama, Artkal S, Nabbi and MARD palettes with authentic color codes — 715 colors in total, each verified against the community beadcolors registry.
Bill of Materials
Know exactly what to buy: per-color bead counts and percentages, updated live as you tweak the pattern. Shop once, craft without interruptions.
Multi-Board PDF
Large patterns split across standard 29-bead pegboards automatically. The PDF prints one page per board with guide lines, rulers, and symbol-coded colors.
My Bead Set
Only own part of a palette? Check the colors you have and the pattern is built exclusively from your stash — with a matching bill of materials.
Color Limit
Cap how many distinct colors a pattern uses. A smaller palette is cheaper to buy and easier to sort — great for kids' projects.
Private and Free
No sign-up, no watermark, no upload. Decoding, matching and PDF rendering all happen locally in your browser.
What Are Perler Beads?
Perler beads (also called fuse beads or Hama beads in Europe) are small plastic tubes placed on a pegboard one bead at a time, then fused with a household iron. What starts as a grid of loose beads becomes a solid pixel-art piece you can hang, frame, or turn into a coaster.
The craft is essentially physical pixel art: each bead is one pixel, each pegboard is 29×29 beads. That is why photos must be simplified before crafting — a phone photo has millions of pixels, while a large bead project might have a few thousand. A bead pattern maker does that simplification for you: it resamples your image to the bead grid and maps every cell to the closest color your brand actually sells.
Brand matters because colors are not interchangeable: Perler carries 103 colors, Hama 92, Artkal S 199, Nabbi 30 and MARD 291. The same photo produces three different patterns depending on which catalog it is matched against — so pick the brand you own, and the maker guarantees every bead in the pattern has a real code on that brand's chart.
Who Is This For?
Perler beginners
You bought a mixed jar of Perler beads and want to make something that isn't the kit on the box. Your own photo becomes a pattern using only the official 103 Perler colors, with SKUs you can search on any craft store.
Perler collectors
You already organize by Perler code (80-xxxxx). Patterns print with those exact codes in every cell and in the legend, so sorting trays and re-orders stay painless.
Parents of Perler kids
Your kid wants their pet, their logo, their avatar. Convert it, cap the color count for young attention spans, and print a one-board starter pattern they can finish in an afternoon.
Craft-fair sellers
Perler portraits sell. Price by the bead: the BOM gives counts, the board readout gives size in cm, and the PDF looks professional enough to hand to a helper.
Teachers with Perler stations
Makerspace bead stations need fresh projects constantly. 36 one-click sample conversions plus any photo means unlimited station content without lesson prep.
Perler gift makers
Name signs and initials are the classic Perler gift. Type the name in the Bead Letters generator, print, and finish in under an hour.
Why This Perler Pattern Maker
What makes this the better Perler pattern maker, feature by feature.
| Feature | This tool | Typical competitors |
|---|---|---|
| Perler palette | Official 103 colors with real SKU codes (80-15179 Evergreen, …) | Generic approximations or a short starter palette |
| Cost control | BOM by SKU + color budget slider means you buy exactly what the pattern needs | No bead counts, or counts without purchasable codes |
| PDF quality | One page per 29×29 board, glyph double-encoding, ruler marks | One giant grid you squint at or re-tape together |
| Price & signup | Free, no account, no watermark | Free preview + paid download is the common trap |
| Speed | Conversion is instant and re-runs as you drag sliders | Server round-trips on every change |
| Privacy | Your kid's photo stays on your device | Uploaded to someone's server |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a bead pattern maker?
It converts any photo into a fuse-bead pattern: your image is resized to a bead grid and every cell is matched to the closest color from a real brand catalog like Perler, Hama or Artkal. You get a pixel preview, a bill of materials telling you exactly how many beads of each color you need, and a printable PDF with one page per pegboard.
How do I choose the right bead brand?
Pick the brand whose beads you actually own — Perler, Hama or Artkal S (5 mm). The maker matches your image only against that brand's real color codes, so what you see on screen is what you can buy and place on the board. Switching brands instantly re-matches the same image.
Can I use only the colors I already have?
Yes. Open My Bead Set and check the colors you own; the pattern will be built exclusively from that subset, and the bill of materials updates accordingly. Clearing the set goes back to the full catalog.
How does the PDF printing work?
The PDF contains an overview page with the finished pattern and the complete bill of materials, then one page per pegboard section enlarged for easy reading with bold guide lines every 5 cells and each bead's color code printed in place. Large patterns are automatically split across multiple standard 29-bead boards.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. Decoding, color matching and PDF rendering all happen locally in your browser. Your images never leave your device.
What size are standard Perler pegboards?
The classic square pegboard is 29×29 pegs (about 14.5 cm, one bead = 5 mm). Our width presets are whole boards — 29, 58, 87 and up — so the pattern you print always maps onto real boards with no cut-off rows. Height follows your photo's aspect ratio.
How many beads do I need for my pattern?
The bill of materials under the preview lists the exact count for every color, and the total appears on the PDF overview page. As a rule of thumb, a 29×29 single-board project uses up to 841 beads; an 87-bead-wide photo project often needs 5,000 or more.
Can I convert a photo of a person or a pet?
Yes — that is the most popular use. For best results use a close-up with clear contrast and raise the width to 87 beads (3 boards) or more; small grids cannot carry facial detail. Background removal helps portraits read cleanly on the board.
PNG or PDF — which should I download?
Both, for different moments. The PNG pattern sheet is a single zoomable image with color codes, symbols and a legend — ideal for following along on a phone or tablet. The PDF is made for printing: one page per pegboard with bold guide lines and a cover page with the bill of materials.
Does dithering make better patterns?
Dithering blends colors with scattered pixels, which can help gradients and skies, but it also adds visual noise and makes sorting harder. It is off by default; turn it on for photos with smooth gradients, and compare both versions before buying beads.
Is this a free bead pattern maker app?
Yes — it is completely free with no signup, and it runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet, or phone, so it works like a bead pattern maker app without installing anything. Convert and download as many patterns as you want.
Can I make seed bead or bead loom patterns?
This maker is tuned for fuse beads on pegboards — Perler, Hama, Artkal, MARD, and Nabbi — where each pattern cell is one bead on a square grid. Square-grid seed bead work (miyuki delica on a loom) follows the same grid logic, so many loom beaders use it as a starting chart; off-loom techniques like peyote or brick stitch need offset grids this tool does not produce.
What's the difference between Perler, Hama, and fuse beads?
They are all fuse beads — small plastic beads fused together with an iron. Perler (US) and Hama (Europe) are brand names; Artkal and MARD are other popular makers. The beads are interchangeable in size (5mm midi), but each brand has its own color catalog — this tool matches your photo against each brand’s real colors so the shopping list is accurate for the beads you actually own.