What we make
MakeBead turns any image — a photo, a character, a logo — into a ready-to-build bead pattern in seconds. We support eight craft styles out of the box:
- Perler / Hama / Artkal / Nabbi — 5mm fuse beads, 420+ real colors
- Cross stitch — DMC thread color matching
- Pixel art — pure pixel grids with a 24-color default palette
- Minecraft — block-by-block build guides with biome-tinted blocks
- LEGO mosaic — official LEGO color palette & parts list
- Kandi / pony beads — cuff and bracelet patterns
- Diamond painting — DMC diamond color matching
- Bead loom (Miyuki Delica) — woven bead patterns
Why we built it
Pattern makers in this space tend to fall into two camps: feature-rich tools locked behind paywalls or sign-up walls, and free tools that haven't been updated in a decade. We wanted something free and modern — with browser-side processing (your photos never leave your device), accurate color matching to real bead colors, dithering for smooth gradients, and a print-ready PDF that actually helps you build the project.
MakeBead is an indie project. There's no VC funding, no paid plans, no upsells. The site is supported by Google AdSense and optional tips on Buy Me a Coffee.
How it works under the hood
- All image processing — pixelization, palette quantization, Floyd–Steinberg dithering, background removal — runs in your browser using HTML Canvas. No uploads, no server round-trips.
- Color matching uses a weighted RGB algorithm tuned for craft beads, with optional perceptual weighting for skin tones.
- Bead RGB values are sourced from the open-source beadcolors project (MIT license), sampled from physical beads by the community.
- The site is built with Astro, React 19, and Tailwind CSS 4, deployed on Cloudflare Workers.
Optional account
The whole tool — converter, designer, editor, PDF and PNG export — works without an account. You can land on the homepage, drop in a photo, build the pattern, and download it without ever seeing a sign-in prompt. That part is the way it has always been and is not going to change.
A free account becomes useful once you decide a pattern is worth keeping. With one, you can:
- Save patterns to a private library and pick them up on any device.
- Publish a pattern to the public gallery — appears on your profile at
/u/<username>and lets others remix it in the designer. - Like & favorite patterns from other creators — likes are public, favorites are your private "save for later".
- Tag & describe what you publish so it shows up under tag pages and full-text search.
Sign-in is Google OAuth or one-tap email magic-link — no password to remember. If you've already shared an anonymous pattern, signing in claims it into your library automatically.
What we don't do
- We don't upload the images you convert — they stay in your browser.
- We don't gate the core tool behind sign-in, paywalls, or trials.
- We don't sell your data to anyone.
- We're not affiliated with Perler, Hama, Artkal, Nabbi, or LEGO. Trademarks belong to their owners.
Get in touch
Bug reports, feature requests, template suggestions, partnership ideas — we want to hear from you. contact@makebead.com or use the contact page.