If you want to turn one of your own photographs into a paint by numbers canvas, there are two ways to do it. You can run the picture through converter software and print the template yourself, or you can order a printed kit made from the photo. This article covers the software first, honestly, including what it does not give you — and then what the printed route costs and what you get for it.
Worth saying up front: this is Ledgebay's blog, and we sell custom paint by numbers from photos. The free tools below are genuinely good and we would rather tell you what they do well than pretend otherwise.
How paint by numbers software works
All of these tools do the same underlying job. They reduce your photograph to a small number of flat color regions — usually somewhere between 12 and 30 — trace the outline of each region, and drop a number inside it. What comes out is a line drawing plus a color key telling you which paint goes where.
The quality of the result depends almost entirely on the photograph. A picture with clear shapes and good contrast converts well. A busy background, low light, or a face in soft focus does not, because there are no clean edges for the software to find.
The software, reviewed
1. PBNify — free, browser-based
PBNify is the simplest of the lot and it is free. It runs entirely in the browser: you drop in an image, click around the picture to pick out the colors you want in the palette, and it returns an outlined template you can print. The whole thing takes about five minutes. Daniel Munro built it and published the source code with nothing but a donate button attached.
It is not flawless. Conversions sometimes fail outright, and the usual fix is to try a different browser or device — the FAQ says as much, which tells you how common it is. It also struggles with intricate images, flattening detail that matters. But for a straightforward photo it is the first thing to try, and it costs nothing. We have written a longer look at PBNify if you want the detail.
Good for
- Free, with no account required
- Very fast, very simple
- Handles most straightforward photos well
Watch out for
- Conversions that silently fail
- Browser only, so nothing works offline
- No support if something goes wrong
2. STOIK Color by Number — paid desktop software
STOIK is the same idea as a downloadable Windows program, with a free trial. It works offline, it can pull an image straight from a scanner or camera, and — the detail that actually matters — it prints the color key alongside the template.
That last point is easy to underrate. The template on its own is just numbered outlines. Without the key you have no record of which paint each number stands for, and matching it back by eye afterwards is far harder than it sounds. STOIK is slower than PBNify on the conversion itself, but it comes with support and it is inexpensive.
Good for
- Prints the color key with the template
- Works offline
- Free trial, low price, real support
Watch out for
- Slower conversions than the browser tools
- Windows only
3. Paint by Numbers Creator for iOS and Android
Régis Cosnier's app does the conversion on your phone, for iOS and Android. It is more capable than its size suggests: you can set how many colors to use, adjust the size of the printed numbers, edit the palette after the conversion has run, and export as SVG or PDF.
The trade-off is detail. Converted images come out coarser than the desktop tools produce, which is likely a limit of what a phone can do with a large image. For a simple subject it is the most convenient of the three.
Good for
- Adjustable color count and number size
- Palette is editable after conversion
- Exports to SVG and PDF
Watch out for
- Loses fine detail compared with desktop software
What the software gives you, and what it does not
This is the part most articles leave out. Every tool above produces a file. Turning that file into something you can actually paint is the rest of the job, and it is the part people underestimate.
You still need:
- Something to print on. Home printers print on paper. Paper buckles under acrylic, so for anything you intend to keep you need the template printed on canvas or transferred onto one.
- Paint that matches the key. The software picks colors from your photograph. Matching those to tubes you can buy is a mixing exercise, and getting a specific mid-tone right by eye is genuinely difficult. Our guide to the color wheel covers the mixing, if you want to try.
- Realistic numbering. On a home printout the numbers land small. Faint or tiny numbers are the most common complaint in this whole category, and a converter has no way to know how small is too small.
One correction to something you will read elsewhere: oil paint is not the right choice here. Oils take days to weeks to dry, and paint by numbers depends on being able to work adjacent sections without lifting the one beside it. Acrylic is what kits use, for that reason.
When a printed kit makes more sense
If the photo matters — a house you grew up in, a dog that is gone, a wedding picture — the free route is often a false economy. You spend an evening on the conversion, another on printing and mixing, and the result is limited by whatever your printer can do.
Two options if you would rather have it made:
Ledgebay. We take your photograph, convert it, and print it on canvas with a numbered paint set matched to that specific image. The canvas ships rolled in a tube rather than folded, the paints are vacuum-sealed, and it comes with an 11x17 reference print so you are not squinting at the numbers. Sizes are 12x16, 16x20 and 18x24, framed or unframed, and you can add a spare set of paint at checkout. It is the thing most of our customers come back for, and you can see what people have said about it or browse the customer gallery to see finished ones.
Paintillio. A Canadian company doing something similar at the premium end — canvas print, wooden frame, paints and brushes included, sizes up to very large. Quality is high and so is the price, and turnaround is around two weeks or more. They are a competitor of ours, and if you want a large framed piece and the budget is not the constraint, they do good work.
Which to choose
For experimenting, or for a photo you are not precious about, start with PBNify. It is free and takes five minutes, and you will learn quickly whether your photograph is the kind that converts well. If you find yourself doing it often, STOIK earns its price mainly by printing the color key.
If the photograph is one you want on a wall, have it printed. You can upload a photo and see the sizes here, or read our guide to choosing a photo that will convert well first — that choice makes more difference to the finished painting than any of the software does.
