Every chart generator hands you a grid and leaves you to count squares. This one reads the grid the way the stitch actually works it and gives you the rows — C2C, tapestry, or mosaic.
PNG, JPG, GIF or WEBP. A screenshot of a graph, a pixel-art picture, or a chart from any other generator.
Any characters work — letters, digits, dots. Every distinct character becomes a colour. All lines must be the same length.
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How you are working it
Row 1 is the single block in this corner. Everything else follows from it.
Used only to estimate the finished size. A ch-3 + 3 dc block in worsted with a 5.5 mm hook is about 1.25 in.
Overlay mosaic has rules that most charts break. Each row is worked in one colour; a square showing that colour is a double crochet dropped two rows down, and a square showing the previous row's colour is a single crochet in the back loop only. Two things follow: rows 1 and 2 are the plain setup and must each be a single colour, and no two contrast squares may stack in the same column with exactly one row between them — you cannot drop a double crochet onto another dropped double crochet. This tool checks your chart and tells you exactly where it fails rather than printing rows you cannot work.
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Your written pattern
Colour key
Rename a colour to your actual yarn and the written rows update.
Chart preview
Written rows
Colour
Squares
Share
Rows it appears in
Why written rows and not another grid
There is no shortage of crochet chart makers. Upload a photo, pick your colours, and every one of them hands back the same thing: a picture of a grid. That is fine for a wall chart and useless in your lap. When you are actually crocheting, you are counting — five squares of cream, four of rust, five of cream — and you are doing that counting off a picture, on a phone, with a hook in one hand. Written rows are what crocheters work from, and almost nobody generates them.
This tool does the reading for you. It takes the grid, works out the order the stitch travels through it, compresses each run of the same colour into a count, and prints the result as text you can follow line by line, tick off, or paste into a notes app.
How each technique reads the chart
C2C, corner to corner
C2C does not work in horizontal rows at all. It works in diagonals. Row 1 is the single square in your starting corner, usually the bottom right. Row 2 is the two squares next to it, worked in the opposite direction because you turned. Row 3 is three squares, and so on. Each row grows by one block until the diagonal reaches the shorter side of the chart, then rows start losing blocks at whichever end has run into an edge. A chart that is 40 wide by 50 tall gives you 40 + 50 − 1 = 89 rows, and the total number of blocks always comes out to columns × rows.
That is also why C2C instructions carry increase and decrease notes on each row. When the end you are starting from has grown, you begin with ch 6, turn and that chain becomes the new block. When it has not, you sl st across the first block and drop one instead. The generator labels every row with what happens at each end, so you never have to work it out mid-row.
Tapestry and intarsia
These work in ordinary horizontal rows, one chart square per single crochet. The only thing to keep straight is direction. Worked flat and turning, odd rows are right side and read right to left; even rows are wrong side and read left to right, because after the turn the leftmost chart column is the first stitch you meet. Worked in the round with the right side always facing, every row reads the same way. Each row prints as colour runs — 12 A, 3 B, 5 A — with the direction stated on the line.
Overlay mosaic
Mosaic is the one that cannot take any chart. Each row is worked in a single colour, alternating. A square that shows the current row's colour is a double crochet dropped two rows down; a square that shows the previous row's colour is a single crochet in the back loop only, which leaves the row below showing through. Two rules fall out of that. The first two rows have nothing beneath them to drop into, so they are the plain setup and each has to be a single colour. And you cannot drop a double crochet onto another dropped double crochet, which means no two contrast squares may stack in the same column with exactly one row between them. Most picture charts break those rules in dozens of places. This tool checks yours and lists the exact squares that fail, instead of pretending.
A worked example you can check by hand
Take a 4 × 4 chart: colour A everywhere except a 2 × 2 block of B in the middle. Worked C2C from the bottom-right corner, that is 4 + 4 − 1 = 7 rows and 16 blocks total:
Row 1 (1 block, increase): 1 A
Row 2 (2 blocks, increase both ends): 2 A
Row 3 (3 blocks, increase both ends): 1 A, 1 B, 1 A
Row 4 (4 blocks, increase both ends): 1 A, 2 B, 1 A
Row 5 (3 blocks, decrease both ends): 1 A, 1 B, 1 A
Row 6 (2 blocks, decrease both ends): 2 A
Row 7 (1 block, decrease both ends): 1 A
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 16 blocks, which is 4 × 4. The four B blocks land in rows 3, 4 and 5 — one, two, one — which is exactly what a 2 × 2 square looks like when you slice it on the diagonal. Paste that grid into the “letter grid” tab (AAAA / ABBA / ABBA / AAAA) and the tool will print those seven rows back to you.
Working out the finished size
For C2C, one block is one ch-3 and three double crochets. In worsted-weight yarn on a 5.5 mm hook that block is close to 1.25 in square, so a 40 × 50 chart finishes near 50 × 62 in — a proper throw. Change the yarn or the hook and the block changes with it, so swatch four or five blocks and measure before you commit to a chart size. The tool takes your block measurement and estimates the finished size for you.
For tapestry crochet one square is one single crochet, so the finished size comes straight from your own gauge: columns divided by your stitches per inch, rows divided by your rows per inch. If those two numbers are not equal — and in single crochet they rarely are — your image will look slightly stretched vertically. Charts intended for tapestry are usually drawn a little squashed to compensate.
Common questions
How do I turn a crochet graph into a written pattern?
Read the chart in the order the technique works it, then write each run of the same colour as a count. C2C reads diagonally from a corner; tapestry reads the bottom row first, right to left, then alternates. This tool does that reading and prints the runs as text, e.g. Row 14 (14 blocks): 5 A, 4 B, 5 A.
Which corner does a C2C pattern start from?
Most published C2C patterns start bottom right and work toward the top left, turning at the end of each diagonal. Some designers start bottom left. It changes nothing except which way round the image reads — pick the corner your pattern names, and this tool regenerates the rows to match.
How many blocks are in a C2C row?
Row 1 has 1 block and each row grows by one until you reach the shorter side of the chart. On a square chart the widest row is the diagonal and every row after it loses one. On a rectangle the count holds steady for a stretch — increasing on one end, decreasing on the other. The blocks always total columns × rows.
Do I read a tapestry chart right to left or left to right?
Worked flat and turning: odd rows are right side, read right to left; even rows are wrong side, read left to right. Worked in the round with the right side facing: every row reads the same way. Every generated row is labelled with its direction.
Can any two-colour chart be worked as mosaic?
No. Overlay mosaic makes contrast squares with double crochets dropped two rows down, so rows 1 and 2 must each be a single plain colour, and no two contrast squares may stack in the same column with one row between them — a double crochet cannot be dropped onto another dropped one. This tool checks your chart against those rules and lists the squares that break them.
What size will my graphghan finish at?
C2C: columns × block width, rows × block height. A worsted block on a 5.5 mm hook is about 1.25 in, so 40 × 50 squares lands near 50 × 62 in. Tapestry: one square is one stitch, so use your own gauge. Swatch first either way.
Can I use this for knitting charts?
The tapestry output works for stranded or intarsia knitting as-is — one square is one stitch and the row directions are the same, with right-side rows read right to left. The C2C and mosaic outputs are crochet-specific.