FAQ

Yes — Beadinn is completely free and needs no registration or login. Just open the page to use every feature: upload an image, turn it into a bead pattern, export the chart and shopping list, and save your project. There are no usage or feature limits, and no watermark is added to your work.
You fully own the copyright to everything you create, and are free to use it for personal display, sharing, or even taking commissions.

No. From the moment you drop in an image to exporting the chart, the entire pipeline runs locally in your browser, powered by Canvas and WebAssembly. Neither your images nor the finished patterns ever touch our servers, and they never leave your device.
Likewise, any project you save lives only in your browser's local IndexedDB (see "Where are my works saved?" below). We cannot and will not upload any of your material, so you can safely process private images.

Beadinn ships built-in color charts for eight major fuse-bead brands totalling 1,061 colors: Artkal (176), COCO (291), Hama (89), MARD (221), Perler (117), IKEA Pyssla (18), NABBI (30) and Yant (119) — covering red / orange / yellow / green / blue / purple / pink / neutral and fluorescent families.
Switch brands anytime in the tool and every cell is re-matched to its color code automatically. You can also browse the full tables (codes, HEX, RGB and family) for all eight brands at the bead color chart.

Just five steps:

1. Upload: drag in or pick an image; crop the framing first if you like.
2. Enhance: adjust brightness, contrast and saturation, and sharpen if needed for crisper edges.
3. Pick brand & size: choose a bead brand and pegboard size (this sets the final detail level).
4. Generate: the tool matches every pixel to the closest bead color using the CIEDE2000 color-difference algorithm, producing an editable bead pattern.
5. Export: download the chart with color codes, the shopping list, or save a project file.

Just follow along in the bead tool — the whole thing usually takes under a minute.

The tool offers standard square sizes such as 29×29, 52×52, 64×64 and 78×78, plus custom dimensions.
Rule of thumb: icons, text and emojis look great at 29×29; cartoons or pets are nicer at 52×52; realistic photos or landscapes benefit from 64×64 or even 78×78 — more cells mean more detail, but also more beads and longer assembly time.

Three exports covering assembly, shopping and re-editing:

• Printable PNG chart: every cell is labeled with its color code and row/column coordinates, so you can't go wrong.
• CSV shopping list: counts how many beads of each code you need, so you can stock up efficiently.
• Project file (.json): saves the full layers and palette; re-import it into the bead tool later to keep editing.

Two ways:

• In the tool, tick "Show color codes" and the canvas labels every cell with its brand code;
• the exported PNG chart already includes row/column coordinates and color-code labels by default — no extra setup needed.

If you have a third-party chart and can't tell which product number a color maps to, read "How to read a bead pattern", which breaks down color codes, grids and coordinates.

Via the Project Vault in your browser's local IndexedDB (auto-downgraded to localStorage if a browser doesn't support it) — nothing is uploaded to a server.
Note: local storage travels with the browser, so switching browsers, devices, or clearing site data will lose it. For important works, regularly export the .json project file as a backup; re-import it on any device whenever you need it.

Yes. Beadinn is a web app, so it works in a mobile browser and is adapted for touch (drag, pinch-zoom, tap).
Tip: very large sizes (e.g. 78×78) are heavier to generate and render; complex works are smoother on a computer. Phones are great for light patterns and checking saved projects on the go.

A bead chart is essentially a color-coded coordinate grid; the letter/number in each cell is the code for the bead to place there. Four steps:

1. Lay the chart on the pegboard, starting at row 1, column 1.
2. Use tweezers to pick the bead of the matching code, point up, and place it in the cell.
3. Leave chart "blanks" empty — that's the negative space.
4. Once done, iron with low heat through ironing paper, then let it cool before removing.

For a detailed color-code reference and reading guide, see "How to read a bead pattern".

Click the language switch button (EN / 中文) at the top-right of the page to toggle between the Chinese and English interfaces.
Your choice is stored locally in the browser and reused next time, so you don't have to set it again.

The tool itself is free, and you own the copyright to what you create, so you can sell, display or take commissions.
The only caveat: if your image is a tracing or adaptation of someone else's photo, artwork or anime character, get the original author's permission before commercial use to avoid infringing their copyright.

A few practical tricks:

• Reduce kept colors: lower "colors kept" in the generation settings; the tool merges similar colors with k-means quantization.
• Raise contrast / saturation: makes the subject pop and reduces noise.
• Enable dithering: Floyd–Steinberg dithering simulates gradients with fewer colors for a smoother look.
• Crop first: drop the cluttered background and keep only the subject.

For finer results, switch to a larger pegboard (see "What pegboard sizes are available?" above).

Yes. Click "Import project" in the tool and choose the .json project file you exported earlier — it fully restores layers, palette and size, and you can then edit, switch brands or re-export.
Pure images (JPG / PNG) can also be re-uploaded and regenerated; if someone shares a color-coded PNG chart, you currently need to manually re-create it against the color chart in the tool — direct parsing of third-party chart files isn't supported yet.