LearnFollow your chart
Track your cross-stitch PDF pattern on iPhone, iPad and Mac
Crosstela is a free cross-stitch pattern tracker for iPhone, iPad and Mac: open the PDF chart your designer sent and tap or drag over the squares you have stitched to mark them. It reads PDFs saved by design programs (not scans), shows one colour at a time, finds your last stitch and keeps your marks in sync through your own iCloud.
On this page
What a pattern tracker does
A printed chart works, but it asks a lot of you. You print the pages, tape them together and colour over every square you stitch with a highlighter. The highlighter hides the symbol underneath, a wrong stroke cannot be taken back, and once a page is mostly yellow it is hard to see which squares are left.
A pattern tracker keeps the chart on a screen and keeps the record for you.
| On paper | In a tracker app |
|---|---|
| Highlighter over the symbol | The symbol gives way to a sewn cross in the thread’s colour |
| A mistake stays on the page | Erase the mark, or undo with a two-finger tap |
| Hunting for one colour among forty | Tap the colour; the rest of the chart steps back |
| “Where was I?” | One button flies back to your last stitch |
| Counting what is left by hand | Done and left, counted for you |
| The chart lives in one folder | The same chart and marks on your phone and tablet |
Paper still has its place, and some stitchers keep a printout in the project bag anyway. A tracker simply takes the bookkeeping off your hands. For the longer version, including who should stay on paper, see paper chart or app.
Which PDFs work
Most patterns sold online are PDFs saved straight from a design program. Those are the ones a tracker can read: the symbols, the grid and the symbol key are real text and lines inside the file, so Crosstela can tell which thread belongs to each square.
A scan or a photo of a paper chart is different. It is a picture of symbols, not the symbols themselves, and Crosstela does not read it. Open one and the card says This looks like a scan or a photo of a chart, with a Send it to us button.
How to tell before you open a file:
- Zoom far into the PDF. If symbols and lines stay crisp, a program most likely made it; if they break into blurry blocks, it is a scan.
- Try to select a thread number in the key. If it selects as text, that is a good sign.
- A chart from an old magazine or a kit leaflet is usually a scan.
Some shops lock their PDFs; Crosstela then asks for the password the designer sent you. A PDF can run to 400 pages. If the shop also offers the design program’s own file, such as .oxs, .xsd or .pat, take it too: it carries the exact threads and stitches. More in When a file doesn’t open.
Open your PDF
- On the shelf, tap +, then Choose a file…, and pick the PDF in Files. Or, in Mail, Messages or a browser, tap Share and choose Crosstela.
- A card shows Importing while the chart is read. When it is done, the pattern opens.
- Crosstela keeps its own copy. Your original PDF stays where it was.
AirDrop and drag and drop on iPad are in Bring in a pattern file.
Mark what you stitch
- Tap Mark. A tap marks one square, and one finger dragged across squares marks every square it crosses, which suits a run of one colour along a row.
- The squares wait in a lime frame. Tap 👍 to mark them, or ✕ to drop them, so a stray touch never counts.
- Made a mistake? A two-finger tap undoes, a three-finger tap redoes, and the eraser takes a mark off.
On iPad with Apple Pencil, turn on Only Draw with Apple Pencil in the iPad’s Settings: the Pencil marks and your fingers move the chart. Half and quarter stitches, backstitch, French knots and beads are marked and counted too.
Details: Mark stitches, Confirm marks with 👍, Stitch with Apple Pencil, Half stitches, knots and beads.
Stitch one colour at a time
Tap a colour on the colour rail at the side of the chart. Its stitches keep their colour, every other colour fades towards the cloth, and a capsule shows how many of its stitches are left. Tap ▶ to fly from one patch of that colour to the next. Tap the colour again to see the whole chart.
On iPhone the colour row is off at first: open the Palette and tap its pin. See Stitch one colour at a time.
Pick up where you left off
A chart opens where you left it. If you have wandered off, tap Last stitch and the chart flies back to the stitches you marked last.
To hold your row, Crosstela has rulers along the edges, a reading strip that covers the rows past yours, and a work area that darkens everything outside the part you are stitching. Keep your place compares these with the paper methods. If you stitch with the parking method, you can park a thread in its hole; see The parking method.
Progress on every device
Tap the percentage at the top of the chart to see how many stitches are done out of how many, what you stitched today, your pace and a forecast of when you might finish. Started the piece before you had the app? I’ve stitched some of this before lets you mark the earlier work so it counts. See See your progress.
Sign in to the same Apple Account with iCloud on, on your iPhone and your iPad, and your patterns and marks arrive on each one by themselves. Every mark is saved on the device first, so Crosstela keeps working without internet. See Continue on another device.
Other files it opens
PDF is not the only way in. Crosstela also opens .oxs, Pattern Maker .xsd, PC Stitch .pat, WinStitch and MacStitch .chart, Cross Stitch Saga .saga (with its progress, when Saga put it in the export), Cross Stitch Paradise .dize, Cross Stitch Professional .xsp, FlossCross .fcjson, clean chart pictures, and zip or RAR archives holding any of these.
Coming from another app? See Open your files from Saga, Markup R-XP, Pattern Maker and more. The full list is in Files Crosstela opens. To make a new pattern from a photo of your own, see Photo to pattern.
Free, with nothing to buy
Crosstela is free. There are no purchases, no subscription, no ads and no account to create. It runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later, and on Macs with Apple silicon as the iPad app from the App Store. Your patterns and marks stay on your device and in your own iCloud.
Questions people ask
Can I mark stitches on a PDF pattern on my iPad?
Yes. Open the PDF in Crosstela, tap Mark, and tap or drag over the squares you have stitched, then tap 👍 to confirm. With Apple Pencil, the Pencil can mark while your fingers move the chart.
Does Crosstela read a scanned pattern?
No. Crosstela reads PDFs saved by a design program, with real symbols and a symbol key. A scan or photo of a paper chart is refused with a short explanation, and you can send the file to us.
Is Crosstela free?
Yes. There are no in-app purchases, no subscription and no ads, and you do not need an account.
Does it work on a Mac?
Yes, on Macs with Apple silicon. The iPad app installs from the App Store and syncs with your iPhone and iPad through iCloud.
Will my progress move to my other devices?
Yes, through your own iCloud. Sign in to the same Apple Account on each device; there is nothing to switch on inside the app.