Let me show you how to make patterns in Photoshop. Fist step is to find a sprite you want to stitch. Lets try a kangaroo shark! If you have any problems with this tutorial, feel free to e-mail me (jaden_fi at hotmail dot com) so I can improve this site. I'm explaining everything I can, so even people who have never used photoshop before can figure this out. Getting a sprite is as easy as finding one you like on the web, dragging the image to your desktop, and then opening it in photoshop. I use a mac, but this tutorial works just as well with PC's. 1) Get Started! First thing you need to do is change the mode to something editable, you can do this by changing the mode to RGB. Find the Image menu, select Mode, and change it to RGB. 2) Get rid of the nasty checkers! The checkered background drives me nuts, this is to show transparency but it doesn't match the grid we're trying to make and just looks confusing and awful. Most sprites you gank will have this, if not don't bother with this step. You can create another layer by going to the "layers" tab (if you can't find it, find the Window menu, and select Layers). Here you can see how to bring up the layers tab, what it looks like, and I also made a note of the "new layer" button, a little square icon by the trash. Click it, and a new layer will show up in your layer pallet. Next step is to drag the new layer so it's on the bottom, just grab it where it says "Layer 2" and drag it under Layer 1. Make sure the right layer is selected by clicking on it - you'll know if it's selected by the paint brush icon beside name - then select the paint bucket, and fill it any colour you want. This will take away those nasty checkers. If you can't find the paint bucket icon, it shares a space with the gradient icon. All you have to do is click and hold on the gradient icon, and the paint bucket will show up. 3) Grid it Find the Photoshop menu, select Preferences, and then Guides Grids & Slices. I think in older versions of photoshop the Preference option might be under Edit or even File, so look around for it. So here is what comes up, and what you need to select. All you need to worry about is the box titles "grid". Lets review: Chose your "colour", one that doesn't show up in the sprite is best. The "style" should be lines, "Guideline" every 1 pixels, "Subdivisions" 1. Click OK and.....nothing happens. One last thing to do. Find the View menu, select Show, and then select Grids. This should display your new grid, and it should look OK. You might have to go back and change the colour of the lines if you find it hard on the eyes. 4) Printing Well, this is all well and good if you want to cross stitch off your computer screen, but that is a little limiting. I'm not sure if there is a way to print the grid lines, if there is I haven't found it. So here is what I do to make a print file. For PC users: hold the control key and hit zero. This will make the image blow up to full screen size. Now you find the "print screen" button on your keyboard, and hit it. This captures your screen - guides included, it's what I've been doing all along to show you the steps I've gone through. Next you hold the control key again and press N - opening a new photoshop file, it should automatically be the same size as the screen cap you just took (it gives you some options but just hit "Enter"). Now, still holding the control key, press V to paste the screen cap into your new file. Don't forget to turn off your grid so you don't have a bunch of overlaping lines, you turn it off the same way you turned it on. You can also use the crop tool to cut out the part you need. Now you should have a file you can print. The grid might look wrong if you're zoomed out too far, but if you zoom in and everything looks fine you're good to go. Mac users: Blow up your screen nice and big, hold the apple key and hit zero. This should make your image full screen size. Now, holding the apple and the shift key, also press 4 and now you can select an area of your screen as-is. It's how I've been showing all these steps. once you select an area (your mouse should have turned into cross-hairs), it saves the image, hopefully to your desktop, with the name "Picture 1". You can drag this into photoshop, and it gives you an image with the grid that is totally printable. Don't forget to turn off your grid! Otherwise it will overlap and look really confusing. Turn it off the same way you turned it on. Also, the grid might look wrong if you're zoomed out too far, but if you zoom in and everything looks fine you're good to go. Now print - or save for web if you want to share.