Quick Start
Click New to create a pattern. Choose a stitch type and grid size, pick a color from the palette on the right, then draw on the canvas. Your work auto-saves in this browser as you go. Press Save (Ctrl+S) and choose a pattern folder to also keep every pattern as a .ks file in a folder of your own — no account needed.
Bookmark your edition. Press Ctrl+D (⌘+D on a Mac) while Krazy Stitcher Pro is open to bookmark it, and the bookmark brings you straight back to Krazy Stitcher Pro next time (the address is krazystitcher.com/KrazyStitcherPro.html). Use the same browser you entered your key in: your patterns and license are kept in that browser.
Saving to a Folder
Krazy Stitcher can keep each pattern as a real file, Pattern Name.ks, in a folder you choose. You can see those files, back them up, and open them from any browser that uses the same folder. This works in Chrome, Edge and Opera on a computer.
- Pattern Folder — File menu. Choose or change the folder your patterns are saved to, copy the patterns already in this browser into it, read it again (Refresh from folder), or stop using it. The first time you press Save, Krazy Stitcher asks you to pick a folder.
- Save — Ctrl+S. Saves the pattern in this browser and writes it to its .ks file in your pattern folder. Changes you make are also written to the folder automatically a moment later.
- Save As — File menu. Saves a copy of the pattern under a new name, as a new file. The original stays as it is.
- Open from Folder — File menu. Lists the .ks patterns in your pattern folder; type to filter, then click one to open it. Other file opens a pattern from anywhere else.
- Cloud and network folders — Choose a folder inside Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud Drive (with its desktop app installed), or a network drive, and your patterns sync to your other computers. Point each browser at the same folder and they all see the same patterns. If the same pattern was changed on two computers before they synced, Krazy Stitcher keeps both: the other computer's version appears as “(from other computer)”.
- Different browsers — Each browser remembers your folder separately, so choose the same folder once in each browser you use. Browsers sometimes ask again for permission to use the folder after a restart; click Allow when Krazy Stitcher asks.
- Firefox, Safari, iPhone and iPad — These cannot save straight into a folder. There, Save also downloads the pattern as a .ks file, and Open from Folder lets you pick a .ks file to open.
- Deleting patterns — Deleting a pattern (also Clear All and Archive) moves its file into a _deleted folder inside your pattern folder. Krazy Stitcher never erases a pattern file; empty _deleted yourself when you are sure.
Choosing a Browser
Krazy Stitcher works best in Chrome or Microsoft Edge on a Windows PC or Mac (Opera works the same way). They give you:
- Save where you want — every export (PDF, pictures, Word chart, lists, backups) opens a Save window, so you pick the folder or drive: your Documents, a USB stick, or a Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive folder. Each kind of file remembers the last folder you used. Turn this off in the Print dialog (Ask where to save each file) to send files to Downloads instead.
- Pattern Folder — your patterns kept as .ks files in a folder of your own.
- Automatic folder backup — Version History can copy snapshots into a folder you choose.
- Print now — the chart opens ready to print, and you choose your printer in your computer’s print window.
- Install as an app — Krazy Stitcher in its own window with a desktop icon.
Firefox and Safari work too, and your patterns are just as safe. A few things work differently:
- Saving — files go to your Downloads folder. To choose a folder each time, turn on Firefox’s Always ask you where to save files, or set Safari’s File download location to Ask for each download (Safari Settings › General).
- Pattern Folder and automatic folder backup (Version History) are not available — press Save (it downloads the .ks file) and use Backup All regularly.
- Installing as an app — not available in Firefox. In Safari on a Mac, use File › Add to Dock.
- Each browser keeps its own patterns — if you switch browsers, bring your work over with a backup file (Backup All, then Restore).
Whichever browser you use, set the print window’s Scale to Actual size (100%) so the beads print at their real size.
Search Help and Tools
Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac), or click Search at the top of the window, and type what you are looking for. Typing mistakes are fine (“colr pallete” finds the palette tools), and everyday words work too (“eraser”, “dropbox”, “miyuki”).
- Search — Ctrl+K or the Search button. Searches every tool and every topic in this Help.
- Go there — Opens the menu the tool is in and points to it. It does not run anything for you; drawing tools are also selected.
- Help — Opens this Help at that topic.
- Keyboard — Arrow keys move through the results, Enter chooses, Esc closes the search.
- Locked results — Tools that come with Studio are listed too, greyed out with a lock and Available in Studio. Click About it to read what the tool does.
Tools
- Draw — Paint beads with the selected color. Click or drag.
- Erase — Remove beads (set to empty/white).
- Fill — Flood-fill a contiguous region with the selected color.
- Color Pick — Click a bead to make its color active.
- Line — Click start and end points to draw a straight line.
- Rectangle / Filled Rect — Draw outlined or filled rectangles.
- Select — Click and drag to select a region. Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+X cut, Ctrl+V paste, Delete clear. Arrow keys nudge the selection.
- Text — Type text onto the canvas in a bead font at sizes 5, 7, or 9 beads tall.
- Pan — Click to pan the canvas once, then auto-returns to your previous tool. Also hold Space + drag with any tool for temporary panning.
Stitch Types
- Loom — Square grid, simplest layout.
- Peyote — Offset rows (odd rows shift right half a bead).
- Brick — Like peyote rotated 90°; offset columns.
- Peyote 2-Drop through 9-Drop — Groups of N rows share the same offset.
- Gourd Stitch — Tubular peyote variant with alternating-row offset.
- Herringbone — Square grid with pair-bracket visual guides.
- RAW (Right Angle Weave) — Square grid with cross-stitch visual guides.
- Square Stitch — Aligned grid identical to Loom; thread passes through beads differently, but the pattern grid is the same.
- Spiral Rope — Each row rotates a quarter bead-width, creating the twisting look of a tubular spiral rope.
- Dutch Spiral — Same twisting offset as Spiral Rope, traditionally worked with two contrasting colors for a two-tone twist.
- Netting — Open, lacy diagonal lattice; rows offset by a third of a bead-width for a net-like, zigzag look.
- Shaped Peyote — Peyote with increase/decrease shaping; diamond boundary guides show where to add or skip beads for shaped pieces.
- Ndebele — Flat herringbone; beads sit in V-shaped pairs, with pair guides and V-connections shown.
- Ladder Stitch — Narrow single-column grid; each bead sits directly above/below the next with no horizontal offset. Best used at width 1.
- Albion Stitch — Decorative combination stitch charted as a repeating 4-row stepped/pyramid unit (offsets of 0, ¼, ½, ¼ bead-width) rather than a one-directional diagonal, echoing its ladder-spine-plus-picot construction.
- Bead Crochet Rope — Diagonal-offset grid for tubular crochet ropes. Width = number of beads around the tube. Each row shifts diagonally to show how beads spiral. Use Tubular Preview (U) to see the 3D result. Presets available for 6-, 8-, and 12-around ropes.
Photo Import
There are several ways to load an image into Krazy Stitcher:
- Drag and drop — Drag any image from Finder, Photos, your Desktop, iCloud Drive, or a shared network drive directly onto the canvas. The Import Photo dialog opens automatically with your image loaded.
- Paste from clipboard — Copy an image or take a screenshot (Cmd+Shift+4 on Mac), then press Cmd+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows). The image loads straight into the Import Photo dialog.
- Click Import Photo — Opens the Import Photo dialog where you can click "Drop image here or click to browse" to open your system file picker. On Mac, this gives you access to local drives, iCloud Drive, network shares, and any mounted volume.
- TIFF pictures — Import Photo also takes .tif and .tiff pictures: color or gray, 8 or 16 bits, or with a color palette, uncompressed or LZW or PackBits compressed. Only the first page of a multi-page TIFF is used. TIFFs that are JPEG or ZIP compressed, CMYK or tiled cannot be read; save them as PNG or JPEG first.
- Drop into the dialog — If the Import Photo dialog is already open, you can drag an image directly onto the drop zone at the top of the controls panel.
Once loaded, use the controls to adjust max bead width, max colors, quantization method (Median Cut or K-Means), dithering algorithm, and brightness/contrast/saturation sliders. The side-by-side preview updates live so you can dial in the look before importing.
Tip — Max Colors: The "Max Colors" setting is an upper limit, not a guarantee. The quantization algorithm may produce fewer colors if your image doesn't have enough variation, and mapping to the nearest bead color can further reduce the count. Check the status line below the preview to see the actual color count before importing.
Tip — How many pages will it print on? Under Max Width in the Import Photo dialog, Krazy Stitcher shows about how many pages the new pattern would print on at the standard size, and updates it as you change the width. A wide pattern can run to hundreds of pages; you can still fit it to fewer pages or print part of it later from Print….
Tip — Cleaning up after import: Photo imports often produce scattered single-color pixels (especially white dots). After importing, click Cleanup to automatically remove isolated beads, then use Recolor to replace any remaining unwanted colors.
How the Color Engine Works
When you convert a photo, Krazy Stitcher does two things to get the best possible bead pattern:
First, it picks the best bead colors. Your photo might have thousands of colors, but your bead palette has a few dozen. Krazy Stitcher doesn't just match each dot to the closest bead color one at a time — it looks at the whole image and figures out which combination of bead colors will represent it best overall. Think of it like a painter choosing which tubes of paint to bring, not just grabbing whatever's closest.
Then, it smooths out the transitions. With only a handful of bead colors, you'd normally see harsh jumps between areas — like a sunset going from orange to purple with nothing in between. Dithering fixes this by mixing neighboring bead colors in clever patterns that your eye reads as a smooth blend, even though each bead is still a solid color.
Choosing a Dithering Style
Different dithering styles work better on different types of images. There's no single "best" setting — what looks amazing on a sunset photo might not be ideal for a portrait or a pet photo. Experiment! That's what the sample photo and presets are for.
- None — No smoothing at all. Each bead is simply the closest color match. Works well for simple graphics, logos, or cartoon-style images with flat color areas.
- Floyd-Steinberg — The reliable all-rounder. Produces a nice balance of detail and smoothness. If you're not sure what to pick, start here.
- Atkinson — Makes edges pop and increases contrast. Great for photos where the main subject needs to stand out clearly — think landscapes with mountains, buildings with clear outlines, or portraits with strong lighting.
- Stucki — The smoothest option. Gradients look the most natural, with the least visible "speckling." Perfect for skies, water, sunsets, and anything with gentle color transitions.
- Sierra — Falls right between smooth and sharp. A versatile choice that works well on most photos without favoring one quality over the other.
- Burkes — Similar smoothness to Stucki but processes faster on large patterns. A good pick if you're working with patterns over 200 beads wide.
Blending Two Styles Together
This is where it gets fun. You can pick two dithering styles and blend them together to get a result that neither could produce on its own.
How to use it: Pick your Primary dither (the main style), then pick a Secondary dither. A Blend slider appears. Slide it to control the mix — all the way left is 100% Primary, all the way right is 100% Secondary, and the middle is an equal mix.
Why blend? Sometimes you want sharp, defined edges on the subject but smooth gradients in the background. Blending Atkinson (sharp) with Stucki (smooth) gives you both qualities in one pattern.
Combos to try:
- Atkinson + Stucki at 50% — Crisp foreground, smooth background. Great starting point for landscapes.
- Floyd-Steinberg + Atkinson at 30% — Adds a little extra edge definition to a smooth base. Nice for portraits.
- Stucki + Burkes at 50% — Extra-smooth. Best for images that are mostly gradients, like sunsets or watercolors.
- Sierra + Atkinson at 60% — A balanced sharpness boost. Good all-purpose blend.
Important: What works beautifully on one photo may not be the best choice for another. A landscape, a portrait, and a close-up of a flower are all very different images. Take a minute to experiment — the preview updates quickly so you can try several combinations before committing.
Saving Your Favorite Settings
Once you find a combination that works, save it as a preset so you don't have to remember the exact settings. You get three preset slots.
To save: Set up your preferred dithering style, blend, brightness, contrast, saturation, and max colors. Click the Save button next to the presets and choose a slot (1, 2, or 3).
To load: Click any preset button to instantly apply those saved settings. If you have an image loaded, the preview updates automatically.
Tip: You might save one preset for landscapes, another for portraits, and a third for graphics or logos. Your presets are saved on your computer and will be there next time you open Krazy Stitcher.
Color Tools
- Recolor — Replace every instance of one color with another. Useful for removing unwanted colors introduced during photo import.
- Merge — Combine two similar colors into one to simplify your palette.
- Cleanup — Remove isolated beads (single beads surrounded by a different color). Run this after photo import to clean up noise.
- Counts — See a sortable table of every color and how many beads you need. Low-count colors are highlighted.
Transform Tools
Mirror flips left-to-right. Flip flips top-to-bottom. Rotate rotates 90° clockwise (swaps width and height). Turn piece also rotates 90° clockwise, but turns the whole piece the way you would turn the real beadwork on the table: the bead holes flip (see Bead Shape), and a peyote piece becomes brick and a brick piece becomes peyote (2-drop and 3-drop too). It works on loom, square, peyote and brick patterns, and Undo puts everything back. Change stitch switches a loom pattern to square stitch or a square stitch pattern to loom: the chart is laid out the same in both, so no bead moves; only the stitch type changes, and with it the thread and time estimates. It asks first, and Undo puts it back. Other stitches have no identical twin, so they are not offered.
Bead Shape
Real beads are rarely square. A Delica, for example, is a little taller than it is wide when it sits in loom work, so a square chart can look squat next to the finished piece. Bead Shape draws every bead on the chart in the shape of the beads you stitch with. Your design and bead counts never change; only the way the chart is drawn.
- Where: Analyze → Bead Shape (next to Size). You can also click the Bead shape label in the status bar at the bottom of the screen; it appears whenever the open pattern is not square.
- Square — the classic chart look. Every pattern starts square unless you choose otherwise.
- Match my beads — pick your bead (Delica, Toho Aiko, rounds, and so on). For loom and square stitch you choose which way the holes run (Automatic is left to right, the way a loom is woven). For every other stitch the stitch sets it: brick charts draw the holes left to right, peyote and gourd charts up and down, and stitches such as herringbone and RAW stay square because their beads sit at angles. If your piece really is different, tick Different on your piece? Choose it yourself. Round beads always draw square.
- Custom — type your own height-to-width ratio, from 0.5 (twice as wide as tall) to 2 (twice as tall as wide). Above 1 is taller than wide.
- Brand Swap — a pattern set to Match my beads switches to the new brand’s bead when you swap (for example Delica to Toho Round). Square and Custom stay as they are.
- Use this shape for new patterns — tick this to start every new pattern with the same shape. A message tells you each time a new pattern picks it up, so a shape is never carried over by accident.
- Reset to Square — one click puts the open pattern back to square and turns off the new-pattern setting.
- What follows the shape: the canvas, PDF and printed charts, PNG and Hi-Res PNG exports, SVG export, the print layout and B&W chart pages, the 3D preview, the Finished Size calculator, the Brand Swap previews, and Photo Import (with a saved shape, Photo Import takes fewer rows for tall beads, or more for wide ones, so the finished piece keeps the photo’s proportions). Pattern thumbnails in the Saved Patterns list stay square. Bead Shape changes can be undone with Ctrl+Z.
Export Options
- Export PDF — Generates a print-ready PDF with your pattern grid and color legend. A pattern that would print on more than 30 pages opens Print… instead, so you can see the page count, fit it to fewer pages or print a range.
- Export PNG — Saves the pattern as a PNG image file.
- Word Chart — Exports a formatted HTML word chart with color blocks, row-by-row instructions, and bead count summary. Open in any browser and print.
- Export Pattern and Import Pattern — Export your pattern as a .ks JSON file for backup or sharing. Import .ks, .json, or .ksp package files, or .oxs (Open Cross Stitch) charts from MacStitch, WinStitch and other cross-stitch programs. An .oxs chart asks whether to match its thread colors to beads of the brand you choose (your My Matches pins are used) or keep its thread colors.
- Export Open Format — File > Export > Export Open Format (.json) saves the pattern as indented JSON in the published Krazy Stitcher open pattern format (krazystitcher.com, KrazyStitcher-OpenFormat.html), for other programs, scripts and your own records. It holds everything the pattern has, the same as a .ks file. Every edition, Essentials too, opens it with Import Pattern; parts an edition has no tool for are kept, and the message after opening says so.
- Export OXS — Saves the pattern in the Open Cross Stitch (.oxs) format, which MacStitch, WinStitch, Cross Stitch Saga and StitchHub read. Each bead becomes one full stitch with its bead code and name. OXS charts are square, so peyote, brick and other offset stitches show there as square charts; Krazy Stitcher keeps the stitch when you open the file again.
- Share — Package your pattern as a .ksp file (zip containing pattern data, PNG preview, PDF, text chart, bead count CSV, and metadata) and share it via your device’s share menu or download it. If the full chart would run over 30 pages, the package holds a one-page overview and the color key instead, with a note; the pattern file is complete either way.
- Archive — Downloads a .ksp package of the pattern, then asks you to check that it is in your Downloads folder. Only when you click OK does it remove the pattern from browser storage; Cancel keeps it. Use Import Pattern to restore an archived pattern.
Other Features
- Trace Overlay — Click the Trace button in the toolbar to load a reference image as a semi-transparent overlay. Adjust opacity with the Trace slider or clear it; Adjust moves, sizes and turns the picture. The trace does not auto-enable on photo import.
- Remap Palette — Convert all colors to the nearest match in a different bead brand (e.g., Miyuki to Toho), compared the way people see color. A color you have pinned in My Matches uses your bead.
- My Matches — Pin your own bead for a color, for example DMC 321 → Delica DB0723. Your pin is used instead of the automatic match when you remap to that brand, in Brand Swap to that brand, in Colorways’ Match in this brand, when an OXS chart is brought in as beads, and in the DMC converter. Rows that use a pin are marked (your match). Pins are kept in this browser and in Backup All; Export and Import share them as a .ksmatches file.
- Difficulty Score — See a 0–100 difficulty rating based on size, color count, stitch complexity, and isolated beads.
- Time estimate — The Difficulty Score also shows about how long the pattern takes to stitch, from the bead count, the stitch and the color changes. It uses a typical pace for the stitch; type your own pace (beads an hour) and it is remembered. It is an estimate, not a promise.
- Pattern Check — Analyze > Pattern Check lists what is worth a look before you print or publish: isolated beads, colors used only a few times, two colors that look almost the same, colors that share a chart symbol, colors with no bead code, a 2-drop (or more) peyote width or brick height that does not divide evenly, odd-count peyote, and empty rows or columns at the edges. Show takes you to the spot; press it again for the next one.
- Colorways — Color > Colorways: the same pattern in other beads. Make up to 3 colorways, each with real beads of one brand (choose each bead, or Match in this brand to fill the closest beads). See each one next to the original, save a shopping list (CSV) per colorway, save one PDF with a page per colorway, or Make a copy in this colorway to get a full pattern you can print and edit. Colorways are saved with the pattern. A color you have pinned in My Matches for that brand gets your bead in Match in this brand.
- Show chart as (colorway view) — in the Used in Pattern box, choose Original or one of the pattern's colorways (or press Show on the chart in Colorways). The chart, the Used in Pattern key, the color count, Bead Count, the Shopping List window, the 3D Preview and the tube preview then show that colorway. It is a view only: the pattern, its file and Undo are not changed, the drawing tools are off until you choose Original again (anything else that changes the pattern goes back to Original), and prints and saved files use the pattern's own colors (the 3D picture is named after the colorway). Opening another pattern or reloading goes back to Original.
- Watermark — File > Watermark: put your name or shop name across the PDFs and pictures you share (PNG, 300 DPI PNG, 3D picture). It stays on for every export until you turn it off. When it is on for PDFs it is also on the charts printed from the browser (Print Layout, B&W chart, Word and Text chart). A watermark discourages copying; it cannot prevent it.
- Size Calculator — Click Size to see the finished dimensions of your pattern in real-world units (mm and inches) for various bead sizes.
- Grid / Symbols — Toggle gridlines and color-symbol overlays for readability.
- Thread Estimator — Calculates thread or cord needed per color based on stitch type, with waste margin.
- Grams Converter — Converts bead counts to grams using standard beads-per-gram ratios for each bead size.
- CSV Shopping List — Exports a ready-to-print CSV of all colors, bead counts, gram weights, and finish types.
- Pattern Tiling — Repeat your pattern in a grid (2×2, 3×3, etc.) for seamless repeat designs.
- Fringe Designer — Add decorative fringe strands below brick or loom patterns with adjustable length and color.
- Shaped Templates — Start from triangle, diamond, or hexagon masks instead of a plain rectangle.
- Bead Finish Metadata — Tag colors with finish types (matte, luster, metallic, etc.) — shown in the color legend and CSV export.
- Tubular Preview — Press U to see a 3D cylinder preview of peyote/gourd patterns, with seam alignment scoring and flat seam check.
- Shaping Indicators — Press Shift+I to overlay increase/decrease arrows on shaped patterns, showing where beads are added or removed per row.
- Row/Column Numbers — Toggle row and column numbering on the canvas with the Numbers checkbox or press N. Numbers adapt to zoom level.
- Symmetric Drawing — Press M to cycle through symmetry modes (horizontal, vertical, both, round with 4 turns, kaleidoscope with 8 copies). Draw on one side and the other copies fill automatically.
- Custom Palettes — Save your pattern's colors as a reusable custom palette, or create new palettes from scratch. Manage from the palette panel.
- Pattern Notes — Click Notes to attach construction tips, bead preferences, or reminders to your pattern. Notes are saved automatically and included in .ks exports.
- Gradient Generator — Click Gradient to fill the canvas with a smooth color gradient between two palette colors. Choose horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. Each step snaps to the nearest color in the active palette.
- Color Reduction Slider — In the photo import dialog, drag the Max Colors slider to reduce the palette in real time. All sliders (colors, brightness, contrast, saturation) auto-update the preview.
- Bead Inventory — Click Inventory to keep track of the beads you own, with the amount in grams. Owned colors display a green ✓ in the palette and bead count table; colors not in inventory show ✗. With an inventory, the Bead Count table adds Have and To buy columns (grams, for the bead type chosen there).
- Shopping List — Inventory > Shopping List compares what the pattern needs with what you have: Need, Have and To buy in grams for the bead type chosen in Bead Count, the same numbers as the Bead Count table. Export CSV saves it. In the Print window, tick Shopping list page to add it at the end of the PDF and of the Print Layout.
- Bead Labels — File > Print > Bead Labels (or Inventory > Labels) prints labels for bead tubes and bags: a color swatch with the chart symbol, the bead code, the name and the brand. Choose this pattern's colors or your whole inventory, a label sheet (Avery 5167, 5160, L7651, L7160, or a custom size), how many labels per color, and the label to start at on a partly used sheet. Print a test page on plain paper first, at Actual size (100%).
- Protect this PDF — In the Print / PDF Settings window: Licensed to prints the buyer's name or order number at the top of every page; Password to open (optional, never saved) and Ask PDF readers not to allow copying discourage copying but cannot prevent it (some readers ignore it, and nothing stops a screenshot). Printing stays allowed.
- Recent Colors — The last six bead colors you chose show as swatches above the palette. Click one to pick that color again. Kept in this browser, shared by all patterns.
- Remove Color — Color > Remove Color lists the colors in the pattern with their counts. Click Remove, then again to confirm: every bead of that color is emptied in one step that Undo brings back.
- Ruler — Analyze > Ruler, then click two beads: the real length between them in mm and inches for the bead size chosen in Size and the pattern's bead shape. Measuring never paints. Esc stops.
- Stitching Timer — Stitch > Timer: Start / Pause a timer while you stitch. Sessions are saved with the pattern; the window shows this session, the total and the list of sessions, and the total also shows in the Difficulty Score window.
- Progress Picture — Stitch > Progress Picture: the rows done in the Work Tracker in full color and the rest faded, with the pattern name and your name if you type it. Save Picture saves a PNG.
- Reader Mode — Stitch > Reader Mode (or Follow my pattern in the phone view) shows one row at a time in big type, with the row's beads in stitching order and big Prev and Next buttons (or the arrow keys). It follows the Work Tracker row, so your place is saved with the pattern. Esc or Close goes back.
- Phone view — On a phone the app opens a simple page instead of the full editor, with big buttons for what you do with a phone: Follow my pattern (Reader Mode), Show my design (a full-screen picture, the Progress Picture and 3D Preview) and What to buy (Bead Count and the Shopping List). Choose the pattern at the top, or open a pattern file. Open the full editor anyway switches to the editor, and this browser remembers it; the Phone view button at the top of the editor brings the phone view back. Tablets and computers always open the full editor.
- Thread Preview — Stitch > Thread Preview: the pattern drawn as beads with your thread color showing between them and in empty cells (netting, loom, right-angle weave). Save Picture saves a PNG.
- Export Selection — Select an area with the Select tool, then File > Export > Export Selection (PNG) saves a picture of just that area.
- Cost Estimator — Inside the Counts dialog, expand the Cost Estimator section. Set your price per tube and beads per tube. The estimator shows how many tubes each color needs and the total cost. Colors you own (via Inventory) are marked and excluded from the total. Cost data is also included in the CSV export.
- Fullscreen Mode — Click ⛶ Fullscreen in the toolbar (or press F11) to hide all browser chrome and give your pattern the entire screen. Press Esc or click the button again to exit.
- Scroll-Zoom Lock — Click the lock icon (🔒) in the left toolbar below the zoom buttons to prevent accidental zooming when scrolling. Click again to unlock. The icon changes to 🔓 when locked.
- Touch & Pen Support — Draw, erase, fill, and use all tools with a touchscreen or digitizer pen/stylus. Touch input works alongside mouse input.
- B&W Chart Options — Click B&W Chart ▾ in the toolbar to choose: Show as Overlay displays a black-and-white symbol view over your pattern (click B&W ON / Return in the toolbar to switch back to color); Open as Separate Page opens a printable chart in a new tab with a Return button; Save as File downloads it as an HTML file.
- Floating Help Button — The round ? button in the bottom-right corner opens this help panel from anywhere. It is always visible so you never have to search for help.
- Row Work Tracker — Click Tracker to track your beading progress row by row. The panel shows your current row, completion percentage, and a progress bar. Use Next Row / Prev Row to advance. Progress saves with your pattern and persists between sessions. Use Jump to Row to skip ahead.
- Row/Round Progress Counter — The small counter in the corner of the canvas tracks the physical stitching you've actually done, separate from the pattern design. Click + (or press ]) after finishing each row or round; the total is read automatically from the pattern's grid, with an optional manual override in Progress. Progress is saved per pattern and survives closing the app.
- Pattern Search — The search box and type filter above the pattern list let you find patterns by name or stitch type. Type a name to filter instantly, or select a stitch type from the dropdown.
- Realistic Bead Shading — Check the Shading checkbox in the toolbar to see beads rendered as rounded ellipses with highlight and shadow, plus a thread hole at higher zoom levels, in the flat 2D grid. Uncheck to return to flat squares.
- 3D Preview — Click 3D Preview in the toolbar to open a rotatable 3D view of your pattern, with beads placed using the real geometry of the active stitch type (offset rows for peyote/brick, angled pairs for herringbone, an open lattice for RAW, a wrapped tube for gourd and crochet rope). Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom. Choose the Background (dark, white, light or see-through) and press Save Picture for a PNG of the view, for a shop listing.
- Backup All — Unless you have chosen a pattern folder (see Saving to a Folder above), your patterns live only in this browser. Click Backup All regularly to export every pattern, custom palette, and inventory item as one .ksbackup file; it is still the only backup of your palettes and inventory. Click Restore to load a .ksbackup file back in — nothing you have now is replaced; if the backup has a different version of a pattern, it comes in as a copy named “(from backup)”. To back up to the cloud: save the .ksbackup file into a cloud-synced folder — such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive — and it will be copied off-device automatically and available on your other computers.
- Version History — On top of manual Backup All, Krazy Stitcher automatically saves a timestamped snapshot of everything (patterns, palettes, inventory) to this browser's storage as you work, so a bad edit or accidental overwrite isn't the end of the world. Click Version History in the toolbar to see snapshots listed by date and time and restore any one of them. In Chrome or Edge, that panel also offers optional folder auto-backup: pick a folder once and every new snapshot is additionally saved there as a .ksbackup file — a bonus layer, not a replacement for Backup All or the snapshot history.
- Print Layout — Click Print Layout to generate a print-optimized HTML file with a cover page (color legend, symbol key, bead counts, notes), followed by symbol grid pages that split large patterns across multiple printed sheets, and the shopping list page when the Print window’s Shopping list page box is ticked. The watermark is on every page when it is on for PDFs. Open in any browser and print.
- Print… — Click Print… to choose a cell size, paper size (Letter, Legal, A4, A3, Tabloid), and orientation before exporting a custom PDF sized to fit. Add your name or shop branding to every exported page, and save your settings as a named Preset to reuse next time. The dialog shows how many pages the PDF will have. Choose Fit to to set how many pages across and down, or print just a range of chart pages (the color key always prints). A PDF over 30 pages asks before it is made. Cut lines (on unless you untick them): every chart page that continues another has a dashed gray line on its left or top edge, with a thin gray strip on the side you cut away. Cut along it, lay the page over the one before it so the beads line up (with Page Overlap, the repeated beads are shaded gray and sit on top of the same beads), and tape from the back. It all prints in black and white. Smart Print, in the same window: print just the area you selected with the Select tool (or rows and columns you type), click pages on the page map to leave them out, start the PDF with a page map, add page-join marks (which page continues right and below), and put page breaks on whole 10s.
Keyboard Shortcuts
DDraw tool
EErase tool
FFill tool
IColor picker
LLine tool
RRectangle
Shift+RFilled rectangle
SSelect tool
TText tool
Ctrl+SSave
Ctrl+KSearch help and tools
Ctrl+ZUndo
Ctrl+YRedo
Ctrl+CCopy selection
Ctrl+VPaste selection
Ctrl+XCut selection
DeleteDelete selection
Arrow keysMove selection
+Zoom in
-Zoom out
HomeZoom to fit
SpaceHold to pan
Shift+TPattern tiling
UTubular preview
Shift+IShaping indicators
NToggle row/column numbers
MCycle symmetry mode
]Increment row/round progress
[Decrement row/round progress
Ctrl+Shift+BReport a bug / request a feature
Tips
- Use scroll wheel to zoom in/out on the canvas. Click the lock icon (🔒) to disable scroll zoom if it gets in the way.
- Where your patterns are stored — Always in this browser, on this computer, and never on any server. Without a pattern folder, that is the only copy: clearing your browser's history/site data, switching browsers, or moving to a new computer erases them permanently. Choose File › Pattern Folder (Chrome, Edge, Opera) to also keep every pattern as a .ks file in a folder of your own. Click Backup All in the toolbar regularly to save a real backup file you control.
- Moving to a new computer: your patterns don't travel on their own. On the old computer, click Backup All in the toolbar — it saves every pattern, custom palette, and inventory item as one
.ksbackup file. Copy that file to the new computer any way you like (USB stick, email it to yourself, or a cloud folder such as OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive), open Krazy Stitcher there, and click Restore. To bring over just one pattern you saved as a .ksp or .ks file, copy that file over and use Import Pattern instead. A password-protected .ksp asks for its password when you open it. Need your license key for the new computer? Open About and click Copy key.
- Where are my .ksp files? Only where you put them. Patterns aren't kept as files — a
.ksp exists only once you create one with Share → Download .ksp File or Archive, and it goes wherever your browser saves downloads (usually your Downloads folder).
- App looks out of date, or no place to enter your license key? Your browser is showing an older saved copy of the app. Add
?v=2 to the end of the web address (for example https://krazystitcher.com/KrazyStitcherPro.html?v=2) and press Enter. If that doesn't fix it, click Backup All first, then clear this site's data in your browser settings (search “krazystitcher” under Cookies and site data) and reload.
- Krazy Stitcher also keeps an automatic Version History for the pattern you have open (on Save, every 20 minutes, and when you switch patterns) — open it from the toolbar to roll back a mistake without touching your other patterns. On Chrome/Edge you can additionally point it at a real folder on your computer for automatic file backups — see the Version History panel to set it up.
- Use Duplicate in the pattern list to experiment without losing your original.
- After photo import, run Cleanup to remove isolated beads, then Merge to combine similar colors.