Cross stitch alphabet: free chart to print

This free cross stitch alphabet holds 118 characters (uppercase, lowercase, accented letters, numbers and punctuation) drawn 5 stitches wide by 7 tall. Pick the DMC color and the fabric, then download the sheet as a PDF: on 14-count Aida, each letter is about 0.4 × 0.5 in (0.9 × 1.3 cm).

Print the alphabet in 3 steps

1. Pick the color of the DMC floss and the fabric: the size of one letter shows above the sheet.
2. Choose what to show : the whole alphabet, uppercase, lowercase or numbers.
3. Download the PDF sheet , or print it right away. It's free, and you can keep it next to your work to count stitches letter by letter.

An alphabet designed for embroidery

Each capital letter fits in 5 stitches wide by 7 tall. Leave one empty column between letters, and two rows between lines. It's the stixiva editor's alphabet, the same as the name tool: 118 characters in all, including accented letters (é, è, ê, à, ç, ô…), numbers and common punctuation, each with its own design.

This compact format has an upside: letters stay readable even when small, and a whole word stitches up fast. It suits names, dates, the initials of a sampler or the words of a Christmas piece.

Uppercase and lowercase

Lowercase letters are as wide as capitals, 5 stitches. Their body is 5 rows, tall letters (b, d, f, h, k, l, t) rise to capital height, and g, j, p, q, y drop 2 rows below the line: a lowercase word therefore takes 7 or 9 rows.

For a name, a capital followed by lowercase letters (“Emma”, “Oliver”) reads better than a word in all caps. For a date, initials or a short title, capitals stay crisper.

How big are the stitched letters?

Size depends on the fabric. Count 6 stitches per letter, minus one for the last: “NOËL” takes 4 × 6 − 1 = 23 stitches across.

On 14-count Aida, a letter is therefore about 0.4 × 0.5 in (0.9 × 1.3 cm). For bigger letters without changing fabric, you need a taller alphabet: that's what “Create my alphabet” is for.

Stitching an alphabet sampler

An alphabet sampler gathers all 26 letters in one piece, often in rows of 6 or 7 letters. With this alphabet, a row of 7 capitals is 41 stitches wide; 4 rows of 7 letters (the last has 5) with 2 rows of space between them fit in a block of about 2.9 × 2.4 in (7.4 × 6.2 cm) on 14-count Aida, before the border.

To frame it, the borders and frames tool draws a border all around the chart, with matching corners, and the size and fabric to cut tool gives you the piece of fabric to plan for, margins included.

Creating your own alphabet

Want taller letters, a gothic or rounded style? In “Create my alphabet”, each character is drawn stitch by stitch on its own grid, up to 32 stitches tall, as wide as it needs. You can start from a blank page or from a copy of the 5 × 7 alphabet to tweak.

The alphabet is saved in your browser as you draw. Its sheet prints just like this one, it downloads as a .json file, and in the editor it becomes a font for the text tools: stitched text, text in a circle around a motif.

Our take

A cross stitch alphabet doesn't need to be big to be beautiful: regularity matters more than size. We kept a 5 × 7 design so that a name, a date or a word fits on a small piece and stitches up in one evening. For a more ambitious piece, draw your own alphabet: it then follows all your projects in the editor.

For a name or a date, the cross stitch name tool builds the chart for you, with the stitched size and the skeins. The guide how to cross stitch a name explains how to center and stitch it.

To go further than this tool: the free cross stitch software stixiva draws, converts and prints your charts, online or on Windows, and its Stitch mode tracks your stitches as you work.