How many colours should a cross-stitch pattern have?
Short answer
Between 12 and 25 colours suits most photographs. Fewer than about 8 and faces go flat and poster-like; more than about 30 and you are buying skeins for colours that do a hundred stitches each and are nearly indistinguishable from their neighbours on the fabric. Start around 18, look at the preview, and move it only if something specific is wrong.
What more colours actually buy you
Colours are how a chart renders gradients. Skin, sky and fur are smooth in a photograph and have to become steps in thread, and more colours means smaller steps. Up to a point that reads as smoother shading.
Past that point it stops helping. Two threads a shade apart, scattered a few hundred stitches each across a face, are not visible as different colours once stitched — but they are two more skeins to buy, two more symbols to keep track of, and two more thread changes per area.
A starting point by subject
| Subject | Colours | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Logos, lettering, flat graphics | 2–6 | No gradients to render |
| Simple illustrations, silhouettes | 6–12 | Shape matters more than shading |
| Pets, landscapes | 12–20 | Fur and foliage need mid-tones |
| Portraits | 18–28 | Skin is the hardest thing to render in steps |
| Detailed or group photos | 25–40 | Several subjects, each needing its own range |
Where the colours go matters more than how many
A face needs most of its colours in a narrow band of skin tones. A landscape needs them spread across greens, blues and browns. That is why the same number of colours can look excellent on one photo and muddy on another.
If a portrait looks blotchy, the usual cause is not too few colours overall — it is a busy background eating the budget. Crop the background out and the same number of colours goes entirely to the face.
The hours nobody counts
Every additional colour is a thread to buy, a symbol to learn, and a set of thread changes. A 20-colour chart is genuinely more relaxing to stitch than a 40-colour one of the same size, and on the wall at normal viewing distance the difference is far smaller than it looks on screen at full zoom.
If you are making this for someone as a gift with a deadline, fewer colours is the kinder choice.
How to decide with the preview in front of you
Set the colours to 18 and look at the result. Then drop to 12: if nothing important was lost, stay there. If the face flattened, go back up. Keep moving only while each change makes a difference you can actually see — the moment it stops being visible, you have found the number.
Common questions
- How many DMC colours do I need for a portrait?
- Usually 18 to 28. Skin tones need a fair number of close shades to look smooth, which is why portraits need more colours than landscapes of the same size.
- Does using more colours make a better pattern?
- Only up to a point. Past roughly 30 colours, the extra threads do too few stitches to be visible as distinct colours once stitched, while still costing money and thread changes.
- What is the minimum number of colours?
- Two will produce a chart, and for lettering or a silhouette that is the right answer. For anything photographic, below about eight the shading collapses into posterised bands.
- Can I change the number of colours after generating?
- Yes. The colour count is a control you can move at any time before you unlock the PDF, and the chart redraws as you do.
Turn your own photo into a pattern
Upload a picture and the chart builds in your browser — DMC colours, finished size and thread list, before you pay for anything.
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Updated 28/09/2026