BeadPattern

BeadPattern is an online pattern generator for physical perler bead hobbyists (Perler / Hama / Artkal / MARD and more), combining AI text-to-image, photo-to-pixel conversion, and online pixel editing into one pipeline that finally exports PDF / PNG with grids, color codes, and bead count lists. Suited to bead crafters, craft e-commerce shop owners, and parents doing crafts with kids.

Core Capabilities

• Real brand palettes: 22 color code systems tested in-app, including Perler/Hama/Artkal, Chinese brands MARD/COCO/Manman, plus DMC's 507 colors, Diamond Dotz's 461 colors, LEGO, and Minecraft; the site's '5 sets' copy is outdated rather than inflated.
• AI text-to-pattern: A 6-step wizard generates chibi cartoons or illustrations, then pixelates them into patterns, 10 credits each.
• Photo to pixels: One-click JPG/PNG/WebP conversion to patterns; the dominant-color algorithm avoids black/gray edges, with adjustable board width, bead count, and color-merge thresholds, 5 credits each.
• Bead counts and export: PDFs include grid lines, color codes, coordinates, per-color bead counts, and ironing tips, printable on A4; a Grid Maker is also available.
• Pixel editing and inventory: Brush / fill / eyedropper, undo-redo, CSV inventory import, cloud sync (paid), and an 11-language interface.

Use Cases Crafters working with specific brand beads who need printable patterns with color codes and bead count lists, Etsy shop owners, parents doing DIY with kids, and art teachers. If you only need pure digital pixel art or want completely free, lighter alternatives exist.

Unique Advantages Its color code coverage is the broadest in the category (22 systems versus most competitors' 3-5), stacked with one-click AI generation, a cloud project library, and multilingual UI — more productized than the upstream open source project and most free rivals; but the core algorithm comes from a free open source project, so the moat is shallow.

Editorial Review As a tool it is adequate: real palettes plus bead count lists plus standards-compliant PDF export have genuine value. As a commercial product, be cautious: the operator is fully anonymous (WHOIS privacy proxy, a single support@ email, zero social media and press coverage, and 6 'Verified User' testimonials reused verbatim across multilingual pages — low credibility); the top 'limited-time offer' is a permanent regular price, so 'limited-time' does not hold; most substantive is the open source license labeling issue — the site's /about marks upstream as Apache 2.0, while upstream switched to AGPL-3.0 on 2026-03-28 and declared against closed-source commercialization, and the third-party challenge in GitHub Issue #14 remains publicly unresolved (facts stated only, no legal conclusion). Also note: other same-named bead sites/products online are not the same entity — stick to beadpattern.net. The free tier is heavily restricted (50px / watermark / 3 downloads per month); try before buying.