Artkal Bead Pattern Maker for S-Series Beads

Why Artkal works so well for photo patterns

When a converter only has a few dozen colors, a sunset turns into stripes and skin tones turn orange. More colors give the matcher more chances to land on the right shade. With Artkal S, BeadSheet can choose from 199 colors, roughly double our Perler or Hama palettes. Gradients, shadows and soft backgrounds hold together, often without dithering.

The trade-off is shopping. A 58 × 58 portrait with no color limit can easily ask for 40+ different bags. That's why the "Max colors" slider matters most on this page: start around 20–30 for a four-board portrait, look at the preview, and raise it only where you see banding. BeadSheet drops the least-used colors first and re-matches those beads to the nearest remaining shade, so cutting colors costs as little detail as possible.

How to make an Artkal pattern

1. Upload or paste a photo. Well-lit, in-focus pictures with clear contrast convert best.
2. Keep "Artkal S (5 mm)" selected and choose your layout: 1 × 1 up to 4 × 4 boards, or a custom size up to 200 × 200 beads.
3. Set a color cap and compare dithering on and off. With Artkal's dense palette the non-dithered version is often smooth already, and it's easier to build.
4. Nudge the image. A little extra saturation helps, because fused beads tend to look duller than a backlit screen. Contrast helps faces.
5. Export. PDF for building, PNG for sharing, CSV for your shopping list.

The Artkal family: S, R, C, A and more

Artkal (made by Ukenn Culture Development) sells several bead lines, and the letter tells you which one:

Artkal says the hard S and C beads stay rigid and durable after ironing, while the soft R and A beads bend and spring back. That's nice for bracelets, less so for a flat wall piece. If you're building from a BeadSheet pattern, buy S-series beads so the codes in your bead list match the bags.

Color counts differ between Artkal's own pages (the S range is listed at 200+ colors). Our 199-color S palette comes from the community beadcolors dataset, so a handful of new or discontinued shades may be missing or extra.

Reading Artkal S color codes

Standard colors run S01 (White), S02, S03 and up, with S13 as Black. Artkal also groups special finishes under their own prefixes, and BeadSheet keeps them:

• SE: an extra series of muted tones (Moon, Rose Quartz, Desert, Toffee…)
• SG: glow in the dark
• SL: glitter
• SN: neon
• SP: pearlescent
• ST: transparent

Turn on "Exclude translucent, glow & metallic beads" and the transparent, glow, glitter, pearlescent and metallic shades drop out of the match, so a portrait stays opaque. Neon beads stay in. Want a pattern from what's already in your Artkal box? Tick your colors in My colors and switch on "Only use colors I own". Ownership overrides the specialty filter, so any owned glitter bead can still be used.

Artkal pegboards and pattern sizes

Artkal's large square 5 mm pegboard is about 14.5 cm across and links to others. A standard 29 × 29 grid at 5 mm gives the same size, so BeadSheet uses 29 pegs as the default. If your board has a different peg count, type it in and the PDF re-splits the design.

→ Presets: Artkal 29x29 pattern maker · Artkal 58x58 pattern maker

How to iron Artkal beads

Artkal's method differs from Hama's "keep the iron moving" approach:

1. Cover the whole design with ironing paper (matte finish) or Artkal ironing film (glossy finish; Artkal warns to keep the film below 180 °C).
2. Set a dry iron to medium, about 160–180 °C (320–356 °F).
3. Hold the iron on the paper for about 2–3 seconds at a time, working across the piece until the beads have joined.
4. Peel off the paper, flip the design and iron the back the same way.
5. Cool it flat under a heavy book.

For big multi-board pieces, Artkal also recommends taping the design with masking tape, flipping it off the pegboard and ironing it away from the board. That protects the board and keeps large pieces together.

Mixing Artkal with Perler or Hama

Artkal says its S beads are compatible with Perler and Hama, and many crafters mix them. Sizes and grids match. Colors and finishes don't. Two "blacks" from different brands rarely look identical next to each other. If you mix, keep each brand to whole areas (outline in one, fill in another) and iron a test patch first. Or switch "Bead brand" and regenerate for Perler or Hama.