Bead color codes, and how to choose a palette

What a color code is

A code identifies one specific bead color within one manufacturer's range — for example a two-digit number on a Hama bag or a longer article number on a Perler bag. Codes are only meaningful inside their own brand: the same number means a different color elsewhere, and there is no shared standard behind them.

This tool prints the code in every cell of the pattern rather than a color name, because the code is the thing you can search for in a shop and read off the bag while you are sorting.

Which palettes this tool supports

Four palettes are offered, chosen because they are realistically purchasable in Europe and North America. The counts below are the number of distinct colors this tool matches against — not a manufacturer's full catalogue, and not every finish or special edition.

The tool matches against a compatibility list maintained in this project. It is a working approximation of each brand's ordinary bead colors, kept for the purpose of converting images. It is not a copy of any manufacturer's own color chart, and no chart, product photograph, or product description from a manufacturer is reproduced anywhere on this site.

How to pick one

Pick the brand you can actually buy locally, and pick it before you convert. Changing the palette re-matches every cell in the pattern, so a pattern generated for one brand is not a shopping list for another.

A larger palette is not automatically better. More colors mean a closer match to the photograph, but also more codes to buy, more sorting, and more color changes per row. On a first project, a smaller palette often produces a piece that reads better from two metres away.

If you own a mixed tub without codes, match by eye instead: convert against any palette, then use the finished preview to substitute the closest bead you have. The pattern still tells you where the color boundaries are, which is the part that is genuinely hard to judge by eye.

Why there is no cross-brand conversion table

Tables that claim one brand's code equals another brand's code circulate widely, and they are approximations at best. Pigments, opacity, and batch variation differ, so two “equivalent” beads often sit visibly apart in a finished piece.

Rather than publish another approximate mapping, the tool re-matches the source image directly against whichever palette you select. That produces a better result than translating a pattern from one brand to another, because it compares against the actual image instead of against an already-rounded color.

When a color in the list is out of stock

Open the materials CSV and sort by quantity. Colors used only a few dozen times can almost always be replaced by their nearest neighbour without a visible difference — those cells are scattered detail, not areas.

The colors near the top of the list are the ones to get right. If a dominant color is unavailable, it is usually better to convert again with a different palette than to substitute it, because that color defines the piece.

What is deliberately not offered

Several bead brands sold mainly in China are not listed here, because they cannot reliably be bought in the markets this site serves and would only produce shopping lists that cannot be filled.

Cross-stitch thread ranges are also not offered. Thread numbering describes floss, not beads, and mixing the two would produce patterns that match nothing you can place on a pegboard.