Skip to content
Back to work
Craft toolWeb app2026

Pärlly

Pärlly turns a photo into something a family can build with beads. Upload a picture, choose size and number of colours, and get a bead preview, a colour map, a bead list and a printable guide split into boards. The photo never leaves the browser.

View live
Year
2026
Status
Demo
Stack
Next.jsReactVercelCodex
What I built
I built it with Codex: the image-to-pattern pipeline, the studio where you adjust crop, size and colours, and the printable guide with boards, colour map and bead list.
Pärlly

How it works

  1. 01

    The photo is processed in the browser and never uploaded. The server refuses photos by design.

  2. 02

    Each pixel is matched to the nearest of 52 bead colours in a colour space built on how the eye sees differences, not on raw screen values.

  3. 03

    The pattern is split into standard 29 x 29 boards, each with its own colour map and bead count. The dog example is 58 x 58: four boards, 20 colours and 3,364 beads.

  4. 04

    Stray single beads are smoothed away so the pattern stays buildable, and the bead list adds a ten percent margin when you buy.

  5. 05

    Every example pattern on its front page is the app's own output from that example image.

  • Decision 1

    In the browser: a family photo should not have to leave the device.

  • Decision 2

    Real bead colours and standard boards, so the pattern can actually be bought for and built.

  • Decision 3

    Show real output: the examples are what the app produces, not drawings of what it might.

The guide view of the dog example: every bead with its colour symbol, 58 x 58 beads in 20 colours.
The guide view of the dog example: every bead with its colour symbol, 58 x 58 beads in 20 colours.
The print guide: the four boards in building order, and the full colour and bead list with a ten percent margin.
The print guide: the four boards in building order, and the full colour and bead list with a ten percent margin.
← PreviousARVSwedish family researchNext →Wedding Flow StudioConsumer product / planning tool

Happy to walk through the thinking, the trade-offs and where it's headed next.

Get in touch