Lettering is one of the most satisfying diamond paintings to finish quickly: a name or a short quote is a few hundred to a few thousand drills, the shapes are crisp, and the result makes a personal gift. This tool lays your text out on the drill grid with tidy spacing and a matching border.
How it works
- Type your text. Names, initials, dates or a short quote, up to 40 characters across one or more lines.
- Choose the look. Basic 5×7, Serif 7×9, Tiny 3×5, Bold 6×7, Outline 7×9 or Big 10×14, laid out horizontally, stacked letter above letter, or sideways.
- Pick DMC colours and a border. Text, background and border colours come from the DMC-numbered drill palette, with borders from a simple single line to hearts or stars.
- Download. Get a PDF chart with drill counts, a PNG image or a share link that rebuilds the same design.
Tips for great diamond painting lettering from text
Choose square drills for crisp edges. Letters depend on clean straight strokes. Square drills butt together without gaps, so the edges of each letter look sharp. Round drills give a softer, glitterier finish that suits a celebratory word more than fine lettering.
Frame the text, then size the canvas. Because the letters themselves are small, the overall piece is mostly padding and border. Decide how large you want the finished plaque to be, divide by 2.5 mm to get the drill count, and use the fixed width to match it. A 120-drill width is 30 cm with square drills, a good size for a door sign.
Use Serif for names and Basic for quotes. Serif letters have a little more character and read well for a single name. A quote of several words is easier to fit and read in Basic, while Tiny is best for a date or a small signature under the main text.
Choose the background colour with care. The background is most of the piece, so its colour will be by far your biggest drill bag and the shade you look at for hours. Dark backgrounds make pale letters shine; pale backgrounds suit deep, saturated text.
Add a hearts or stars border for gifts. These decorative borders turn a simple name into a finished keepsake, and they are an easy way to use up a contrast colour you already have.
Check the realistic view. The drill rendering shows how the facets catch the light and whether a one-drill stroke in the Tiny font still reads clearly.
Start small with children. A short name in the Basic font on a plain background is a few hundred drills, which most children can finish in a sitting. Pick two strongly contrasting colours with clearly different symbols so the chart is easy to follow.
Going further
Want the name under a photo? Make the picture in the photo pattern maker, then open it in the editor and draw the letters onto it, using the text chart as your guide.
What you get
| Sizes | 40–400 drills wide from a photo; editor up to 2,000 × 2,000 |
|---|---|
| Colours | 5–120, matched by CIEDE2000 colour difference |
| Palettes | DMC |
| Downloads | PDF (cover, colour key, numbered chart pages, optional colour pages), PNG, SVG, shopping list CSV, .cpat project |
| Files accepted | JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF, iPhone HEIC; .cpat and OXS patterns; PDFs made by CraftPatterns |
| Privacy | Runs in your browser. Images are never uploaded. |
| Price | Free — no sign-up, no watermark |
How it compares with other free tools
What you can expect here, every time — no tiers, no trial.
| Free printable PDF | Yes, with no watermark |
|---|---|
| Sign-up needed | No |
| Image uploaded to a server | No — processed on your device |
| Editor | Yes — pencil, fill, line, rectangle, mirror, undo |
| Progress tracker | Yes — free, works offline |
| Switch the same pattern to another craft | Yes — one tap |
Frequently asked questions
How tall are the letters in drills?
Basic letters are 7 drills tall, Serif 9 and Tiny 5. With square 2.5 mm drills that means about 17.5 mm, 22.5 mm and 12.5 mm respectively, so diamond painting lettering is naturally small and delicate.
Can I make the letters bigger?
The fonts are fixed pixel designs, so letter height is set by the font rather than scaled up. Serif is the largest at 9 drills tall. Round 2.8 mm drills make the whole piece a little larger, and generous padding and a border make a small name feel like a finished plaque.
What can I make with a lettering pattern?
Popular projects include bedroom door signs, bookmarks, coasters, keyring blanks, greetings card fronts and a name panel added below a larger picture. Small projects like these are also a good first diamond painting for children.
Can I leave the background without drills?
Yes. Choose an empty background and only the letters and border are charted. That suits pieces where the letters are applied to a coloured backing or card, and it greatly reduces the number of drills to place.
Which colours give the most sparkle for text?
Golden yellows, silvery greys, pale pastels and white tend to catch the light well, especially against a dark background such as navy or black. Strong contrast between text and background matters more than the exact shades.
Can I write a quote on more than one line?
Yes. Press Enter to start a new line, up to 40 characters in total, and use the line spacing control to set the gap between lines. A fixed width wraps longer text automatically and centres each line.
Does it count the drills for me?
Yes. The colour key lists every DMC number with its drill count, including 10% spare, and the CSV shopping list gives you the same figures to paste into an order.
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