How to Turn a Photo Into a Paint by Number (Free)

To turn a photo into a paint by number, upload it to a converter, reduce it to 8–24 flat colours, and print the numbered board it generates. Fill it in with paint — or with numbered stickers, which are far easier for kids.

That is the whole process in one paragraph. The rest of this guide is the part the generator sites skip: which photos actually convert well, how many colours to pick, what to do when the result looks like mud, and how to end up with something a 4-to-12-year-old can genuinely finish.

Which photo-to-paint-by-number tool should you use?

There are more of these than you would expect, and they are not interchangeable. Here is an honest read on the main ones.

Tool	What it gives you	Cost	Best at	Weak spot
PBNify	Printable numbered outline + colour key	Free	Fast, no sign-up, works in the browser	Outline only — no pieces, no play, no sharing
Davincified	Numbered canvas, 16–80 colours	Free tier + paid kits	Very fine colour control on portraits	High colour counts get fiddly for kids
paint-by-number.com	Printable template, upsells to a canvas kit	Free generator	Nice preview before you commit	Built to sell you a physical kit
Custom kit sellers	Printed canvas, paint pots, brushes shipped to you	$25–50 per photo	A real gift-quality object	Slow, single-use, expensive per picture
QrdyCraft	Numbered board + sticker sheet and an online drag-and-drop version with its own link and QR code	100 free mosaics a month	Kids 4–12, no mess, sharing a mosaic with someone else	Mosaic-style output, not a fine-art painting canvas

Two things worth saying plainly. First, PBNify and Davincified are good at the one job they do, they have been doing it for years, and if a printable numbered outline is genuinely all you need, they will get you there in a minute for free. Second, none of them produce something a child can play before anything is printed, and none of them give you a link you can hand to another person. That gap is the reason we built QrdyCraft the way we did.

How the conversion actually works, in 3 steps

1. The photo is reduced to a limited palette. A phone photo contains millions of colours. The converter clusters them down to a handful — typically 8 to 24 — so that every pixel is snapped to the nearest one. This is the step that decides whether the result looks crisp or muddy, and it is why a bright, high-contrast photo beats a dim one every time.
2. Regions or cells get numbered. Classic paint by number draws outlines around each colour region and drops a number inside. Mosaic-style conversion instead lays a grid over the picture and numbers each cell. Grid cells are better for young kids: every piece is the same size and shape, so there is no "this bit is too small for my brush" moment.
3. You print two sheets and fill it in. One board with the numbers, one sheet of matching numbered pieces (or a paint palette, if you went the paint route). The child finds number 7, finds cell 7, presses the piece down. Repeat until the picture appears.

That third step is the whole activity. Matching a number to a number needs no drawing skill at all, which is exactly why it works for a four-year-old who would be defeated by a colouring book.

Choosing your photo: what converts well and what doesn't

The single biggest predictor of a good result is the photo you start with, not the tool.

Works well: one clear subject filling most of the frame, strong light, a plain or simple background, bold colour differences. A pet on a lawn. A child's face against a wall. A red bike on grey pavement.

Works badly: group photos, busy backgrounds, dim indoor shots, anything where the subject is the same colour as what's behind it. Fine detail — individual hairs, fence wire, small print — disappears completely at any sensible piece count, so don't pick a photo whose charm lives in the details.

If you can, crop tight before uploading. Every converter is deciding how to spend a limited number of colours and cells; a tight crop spends them all on the thing you care about.

How many colours and pieces should you pick?

More colours means a more faithful picture and a much longer, fiddlier job. Fewer colours means a bolder, poster-like result that a child can actually finish in one sitting. A rough guide by age:

• Ages 4–6: 6–10 colours, 50–120 pieces, about 20 minutes. Big pieces, chunky shapes.
• Ages 7–9: 10–16 colours, 150–300 pieces, 30–45 minutes.
• Ages 10–12: 16–24 colours, 300–600 pieces, an hour or more, ideally across two sittings.
• Adults: 24 colours and up if you want something that reads as a real portrait.

The most common mistake is picking a high colour count because the preview looks better. The preview always looks better. The finished picture only exists if someone gets to the end of it.

The version your child can play before you print anything

QrdyCraft is built around how craft evenings actually run: the parent creates, the child plays. You upload the photo, choose the piece count, and get two outputs at once — a printable board plus sticker sheet, and an online version your child fills in by dragging pieces with a finger.

That second output changes the routine more than it sounds like it would. A half-finished mosaic can be picked up tomorrow instead of living on the dining table. You can test a photo on the screen before deciding whether it is worth the sticker paper. And because every mosaic gets its own link and QR code, you can text one to a grandparent, drop it in a class group chat, or tape the QR code inside a birthday card so another child can play the same puzzle at home. Printable-outline converters cannot do any of that.

The free tier is 100 mosaics a month — more than one a day, which is more than any family gets through. If you would rather start from a ready-made shape than a photo, there are a few hundred in the gallery, including a corgi and a kitten.

👉 Turn your first photo into a mosaic free at craft.qrdyai.com — no paint, no cleanup, ready in about two minutes.

Printing it at home without a headache

Print the board on ordinary paper and the pieces on full-sheet adhesive sticker paper — a pack of 25 sheets runs about $10, so roughly 40 cents per mosaic. Print both sheets at the same scale, or the numbers will not line up.

For children under six, cut the pieces out yourself in advance. Cutting is the step that turns a lovely craft into a meltdown, and it is much less painful if you do it while they are not watching. If you would rather skip sticker paper altogether, print both sheets on plain paper and use a glue stick.

For more on the format itself, see What Is a Mosaic Sticker Book?, or Paint by Sticker vs Paint by Number if you are still deciding between the two formats.