Was wir erstellen
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
Warum wir es gebaut haben
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 serves no advertising — it's supported by optional tips on Buy Me a Coffee.
Wie es funktioniert
- 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.
Optionales Konto
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.
Was wir nicht tun
- 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.
Kontakt aufnehmen
Fehlerberichte, Funktionswünsche, Vorlagenvorschläge, Partnerschaftsideen — wir freuen uns über Ihre Nachricht. contact@makebead.com — Kontaktseite.