My Perler Bead Pattern Tool

Posted by on June 21, 2009 Leave a comment (27) Go to comments

MegamanLast year, I wrote a tool called PerlerPal, to help make perler beading easier.  It’s been over a year now, and I’m cleaning out my closet, so to speak.  I have moved PerlerPal to it’s new home.   It might move to it’s own domain/site at a later date, but just trying to get things organized here.  Please use this post to comment good/bad about the tool.  I have moved the comments from the old blog (which is going away soon) to here, so the dates will be a little off.

Crafts, Web,
  • Terry

    PerlerPal is JUST what I’ve been screaming out for!
    errm… except that I can’t get Perler Beads in the UK (YET!!!)…
    Have you considered adding the Hama Colors to your program? (or the option of using either?)

    Anyways, your program is excellent!
    Cheers
    T

  • Sabine

    Hi
    I´m from Germany and i love perlerbeads.

    Your tool is beautiful, but i can´t print this. I became only white page with caro.

    Please contact me with email

  • Bill

    Hi, I really like your program. I was wondering, could you take off the retarded palettes that others have and made a put just 3. Perler, Hama, and Perler & Hama. That way it will be easier to choose which colors to get & to use. Thanks, keep up the good work.

  • Tony

    Ed,

    Thank you so much for this software! :) I have been using it for a couple weeks now and can’t tell you how much easier it has made my projects. I was wondering if you could help me out on a couple things.

    First off, I use perler clear boards which are 29×29. When working with your software I was unable to work on big projects due to the 30×31 grid set. I was wondering if you could add a 29×29 board option on this software, so I could print out all the sections in advance and place them under my boards.

    Second, I have been having a huge problem with colors lately with both your software and a .net application I found on the Bead Sprite forums. What I have found is that any colors that are a tiny shade off are not used and instead completely different colors are used. My best example is green is turned into brown, black to purple. I was wondering if there was a way to work on or around this? I have run into this problem trying to do a halo or zelda sprite). I can also send you permanent links of examples if you would like.

    Finally, the reason for this is I’m currently working with my son on decorating his room and this has become a great thing for us to do together. I would be more than willing to pay you for your time by donating through paypal for this. Thanks again for your site, software and for your time.

    ~ Tony

  • Zecks

    I noticed the perler palette is not using many colors that are available on the perler website such as dark grey. Is there an updated palette for the perler palette? I love this program but i’m trying to not rely on the perler+hamma palette due to money.

  • Martin

    Hi

    I have a problem dont seem to be able to upload my picture keep getting a green 1up mushroom

    • http://www.edsalisbury.net Ed

      Hmm, is it one particular image or any? PerlerPal should be able to handle just about any image you give it. If you’re still having trouble, email me at ed@edsalisbury.net and we’ll work it out. Thanks for the comment!

  • Fuzz

    Hey Ed!

    I absolutely love your program. PerlerPal is basically what got me into bead spriting in the first place.

    I had a few suggestions I wanted to run by you, just to see what you think.

    1) Is there a way to select a palette to edit? It seems like it defaults to the Perler palette when you decide to create a new one. I was wondering if there is (or could be) a way to choose a palette to work off of.

    2) Could you make a toggle for the pegboard grid lines to be displayed? I would love to see what the raw, re-colored image would look like without a grid.

    Again, thanks for making such an awesome utility. Look forward to a response!

    • http://www.edsalisbury.net Ed

      Fuzz – thanks for your comment – the palette editor is a bit rudimentary, and doesn’t have the ability to edit specific palettes. I will make it more full-featured soon. As far the gridlines option, that’s definitely something I can implement pretty easily. Check back soon, as I should have both of these things implemented in the near future. Thanks for using PerlerPal!

      Happy Perlering!

  • Mike

    Ed-

    Thanks so much for this.

    Two things:

    1) I have to stress the importance of Tony’s request for a 29 x 29 pegboad as opposed to whatever scale is being used now. It seems like everywhere I look, 29 x 29 is the size of people’s large pegboards. Without the pegboard being this, I feel like I cant move forward (as easily) into making a large project. :(

    2) I’m on a Mac. Whenever I go to print, it comes up as a blank grid with no image in it. I dont see any options for turning on background image printing.

    Thanks again.

    Mike

  • Mike

    Fixed!

    Thanks Ed.

    Via the link you sent me, this worked:
    -On the File menu, click Print. On the Copies & Pages pop-up menu, click Safari. Select Print Backgrounds. Click OK.

    Also, I still swear the grid looks like rectangles on larger images, but I counted it out and it is in fact 29×29. I think I figured out why though…. each peg itself is a rectangle. Thats why the whole grid looks higher than wide.

  • Fuzz

    Thanks for replying- appreciate it. :)

    One thing I wanted to point out- I made a rather large color palette a while back (I think it’s called “Full” or something similar), and I noticed that when I use it, some of the colors glitch out. Black especially- it shows up on PerlerPal as just..well, nothing. The default grey background color. Does this happen when the palette exceeds a certain number of colors, or is this my computer acting up?

  • Exodecai

    Hey, I love this tool and have made a few things with it already. The only question I have would be if the current palette will be updated to include the newer colors that are out there (Dark Grey, The Very Dark shade of Blue, etc).

    Thanks! =D

  • Sukari

    I have a feature request; The ability to select multiple palettes for a single image. That way, I could enter in the Nabbi PhotoPearl palette and use it along with the full Perler and full Hama palettes to get the absolute best colors (and reducing the need for “combined palettes” like “nabbi+hama”, “hama+perler”, “perler+nabbi”, “nabbi+hama+perler”, etc).

  • Lee

    love it my only critique would be on Hama beads there is transparent black ..however that isn’t a color available in hama so is a bit irratating having to play about with it at times :( but great job otherwise

  • Cherv

    @Lee

    Does it mean translucent grey?

    —

    Also, this program is really useful, but if I could make a few suggestions:

    -Maybe instead of having all the long list of palettes, it could have the user’s palettes off to one side, and then check boxes for Hama and Perler (and both at once). And perhaps a toggle for grey or colour. I would guess these are the ones that most people use.

    -Would it be possible to show the entire relevant palette (with mouseover colour names) at the bottom? I ask because sometimes it will pick the wrong colours, and I want to go into paint to edit the image, but there’s only a list of colours that are in it, not all available hama colours.

  • http://www.edsalisbury.net Ed

    Thanks for all of the suggestions / comments guys – I should have a new version up this week with at least some of these suggestions. Stay tuned!

  • Cherv

    I have another idea, how about adding the number key for each bead by its name, at the side? Because the packets don’t have names on them, and sometimes the names vary.

  • http://www.edsalisbury.net Ed

    Hey guys, I have updated PP to 1.4, which fixed a lot of issues and added some new features – be sure to check it out! (Use the new comments post to make comments so that I know you guys are talking about the new version)

  • Mary

    I tried you program, but it would print anything out in color, only black and white, and very dark so it made it hard to see. Also, can you send me a link to your program, as I thought I saved it in my favorites, but must not have.

  • Aidensyiayia

    Where can I find your perlerpal tool? I am trying to make some large – extra large dinosaurs to put on my grandson’s bedroom wall. All that I have found are made out of 1 square, they aren’t big enough

    • Anonymous

      Aiden, you can find the tool at http://mypixelpal.com – you can make them as big as you’d like, but keep in mind that the big stuff takes a lot longer to make!

      • G2isthebest73

        just dropped in to say THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for this cool program

        and request if i may , swarovski crystal palletes / sequins colour palletes is gonna work awesome

        thank you once again

  • moesprincess10

    im trying to find something to download a pattern maker kind of thing to where i can make my own patterns.. but the only downloadable ones i am finding are for pc and i have a mac..any ideas where i can get a free pattern maker at thanks

  • Mary Brown

    I am having a problem getting the picture to print.  I looked forbackground image printing in my print settings and can’t find anything.  All I get when I print is the grid, and you help me???????

  • Peje208

    whattt i honestly dont know hat this site is i am looking for perler beads

  • http://www.edsalisbury.net Ed

    Bill, thanks for the comment – I have created a new palette called perler+hama that is a merge of both of those palettes (with a note to say which palette it comes from) – I’m hesitant to remove palettes because, as they are user created, users might be using them for their projects. If things get too unruly, I can put in code that will keep track of the palettes used and remove ones that haven’t been used in x days. Thanks for trying perlerpal!