LearnFollow your chart
Paper chart or app? An honest comparison for cross stitchers
Paper needs no battery, takes a pencil mark anywhere and has nothing to learn, so many stitchers never switch, and for a small chart there is no reason to. An app earns its place in a few specific ways: it keeps your place when the chart moves, lights one colour at a time, tallies for you, zooms for tired eyes and keeps your marks safe. It cannot read a scan or a photo of a paper chart, so those stay on paper.
On this page
If you stitch from paper and it works for you, you do not need an app. Paper is a good way to stitch, and people have stitched from it for generations. This guide is for the stitcher who suspects an app might help but does not want to learn something new for a small gain. It says what paper does well, what really changes in an evening with an app, what is worth worrying about, and who should keep the pencil.
What paper does well
- It needs no battery and has no screen. A paper chart works on a train and in a power cut.
- You can write anywhere on it: a tick, a note in the margin, “two strands here”, a ring round a colour you keep mixing up.
- There is nothing to learn. You already know how to use a pencil.
- A chart spread on a table shows the whole design at a size you can read. On a phone you trade size against how much you see.
- A kit leaflet or an old magazine chart is paper already, and it stays paper (more on that below).
What changes in an evening with an app
An app does not make you stitch faster. What it takes away is the bookkeeping around the stitching: finding your place and tallying what is left. Each point below is something Crosstela does, with the Handbook page that shows it.
The chart moves and your place stays
On paper your place is a finger, a pencil dot or a magnetic strip. Put the work down for a week, or let the chart slide off the arm of the sofa, and you start by working out where you were. In the app, a chart opens where you left it. If you have wandered off, Last stitch flies back to the last square you marked and lights it up. A marked square turns into a sewn cross, so the edge of the finished area is easy to see. See Find your place.
One colour lit, nothing to misread
Late in the day, a ring and a filled dot can look alike, and a highlighter makes it worse because it covers the symbol it marks. In the app, tap a colour on the rail beside the chart. Its stitches keep their colour, every other colour fades towards the cloth, and a capsule shows how many stitches of that colour are left. See Stitch one colour at a time.
Counting you no longer do
The capsule counts what is left of a colour. The progress panel shows how many stitches are done out of how many, and what you stitched today. Rulers number the rows and columns along the edges, and Counters put a small number beside each run of the colour you picked, saying how many stitches lie together. Cross stitch is still counted embroidery: you still match squares to holes in the cloth. What goes is the tally. See See your progress.
A big chart in your pocket
A chart that prints on many sheets, taped together, becomes one file. Pinch in and let go, and the whole pattern fits the screen; spread two fingers to read the squares. On a phone you see less at a time than on an iPad, but the chart goes wherever the phone goes. See Gestures.
Tired eyes
A printed symbol is as big as the printer made it, and a copier can enlarge it at the price of more sheets to tape. On a screen you zoom until the symbols are easy to read. An unmarked square shows its symbol on a pale tint of its thread’s colour, so you have two clues, not one. See Mark stitches.
Several charts, one bag
If you keep a few projects going, their charts sit on the shelf of one phone or iPad instead of in folders. See Organise your shelf.
If the paper gets wet
A chart marked in pencil exists once. Every mark in the app is saved on the device the moment you make it, and with iCloud on it also goes to your own iCloud and on to your other devices. A phone can fall in a sink as well, which is why the second copy matters. See Continue on another device.
Marks with a finger or Apple Pencil
Tap a square, or drag a finger along a row. By default a mark waits in a lime frame until you tap 👍, so a stray touch never counts, and a tap with two fingers undoes. On an iPad with an Apple Pencil, turn on Only Draw with Apple Pencil in the iPad’s Settings: the Pencil marks and your fingers move the chart, so a resting hand marks nothing. See Stitch with Apple Pencil.
What is worth worrying about
“I am not good with technology”
The routine for a first evening is short. Tap +, tap Choose a file…, pick the PDF. Tap Mark, tap the squares you have stitched, tap 👍. A new Crosstela has four designs on the shelf, so you can practise before you open a chart of your own. Marked too much? A tap with two fingers undoes it. If you are stuck, write to us. See Welcome to Crosstela.
“The screen will be in the way”
It is one more object beside the hoop. An iPad on a stand keeps both hands free, and the chart screen keeps its tools around the edges; a tap with five fingers hides them. While a chart is open, Crosstela stops the device going to sleep, and you can switch that off under Tools › Screen. One real difference: a screen shows colours its own way, and Night Shift or True Tone change them further, so match your floss to the number in the key, not to the screen. See Cross stitch on iPad.
“What about the battery?”
It uses the battery, and a screen that stays awake uses more than one that sleeps. We have no hours to quote, because they depend on the device. If you have a stand near a socket, keep the device on a charger while you stitch. Running flat costs you no work: each mark is saved the moment you make it, and Crosstela needs no internet.
“My charts are on paper already”
Plainly: Crosstela does not read a scan or a photo of a paper chart. Open one and the card says This looks like a scan or a photo of a chart. It needs the designer’s PDF or pattern file. Most patterns sold online are PDFs saved straight from a design program, so a recent chart you bought may well have one: ask the shop or the designer. A chart from an old magazine or a kit leaflet usually has no file at all. Keep stitching those from paper; that is fine. A few other apps do take a photo of a paper chart, and the comparison of cross-stitch apps says which. See When a file doesn’t open.
“Do I have to pay or sign up?”
No. Crosstela is free, with no ads, no account, no subscription and nothing to buy. It runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 18 or later, and on a Mac with Apple silicon. There is no Android version.
Who should stay on paper
Stay on paper if:
- your charts exist only on paper and the designer has no PDF;
- there is no iPhone, iPad or Apple-silicon Mac in the house;
- the chart is small enough to finish in a few evenings without losing your place, because paper does all the app would do;
- you like a table with no screen on it. That is reason enough.
Many stitchers use both: the app for the long project, a printout in the bag. Crosstela makes a printable PDF of any chart you have open; see Print a pattern.
Try it in five minutes, changing nothing
Leave your paper chart where it is and try the app on a small free pattern.
- Install Crosstela, free, on an iPhone or iPad.
- On the same device, open the Strawberries pattern: a free beginner chart with 1,401 stitches in 8 colours, full crosses only. Tap its PDF, tap Share and choose Crosstela. A card shows Importing, and the chart opens. See Bring in a pattern file.
- Tap Mark, tap a few squares, tap 👍. Pinch to see the whole chart, then tap a colour on the rail.
- Go back to the shelf and open the chart again. It opens where you left it.
For a fair test, print the same PDF for the table and stitch the first colour from paper and the next from the app. See which one you reach for. If it is the paper, you have lost five minutes and nothing else.
Questions people ask
Is it better to cross stitch from paper or from an app?
Neither is better for everyone. Paper needs no battery and no learning, and it is enough for a small chart you finish in a few evenings. An app helps most on long charts and busy ones, where finding your place, one colour at a time and the tally save the most effort.
How do I mark a cross-stitch pattern without a highlighter?
Tick the squares in pencil on a working copy, so they rub out if you unpick a stitch, or slide a ruler or strip of card under your row and cover what you have done. In an app, a tap marks the square and a sewn cross replaces the symbol. See How to keep your place on a cross-stitch chart.
Can I use a photo of my paper chart in Crosstela?
No. Crosstela reads PDFs and pattern files made by a program. A clean chart image saved by a design program can open, but a photo or scan of a paper chart is not read, and the card says so. Ask the designer for the PDF, or keep that chart on paper.
Do I need to pay or make an account to use Crosstela?
No. It is free, with no ads, no subscription and no account. Your patterns and marks stay on your device, and go to your own iCloud if you have iCloud on.