What RetroBeads can and cannot do today

RetroBeads is a focused fuse-bead pattern maker. It does some things well today, and it deliberately leaves other things alone. This guide is a plain-language scope check for new makers: what the current app supports, what it does not cover, and where to look when a project bumps into one of those edges.

This guide is maintained by the RetroBeads maintainers and reviewed when the app changes how images are imported, how the editor and Boards or Colors panels behave, how PDFs export, which bead palettes are supported, or how projects move between devices. If something on this page no longer matches what you see in the app, the page is probably stale, not the app.

What the app does today

You can take a small idea from “I have a picture” or “I have an idea” to a printable chart and a planned set of bead colors without leaving the browser.

1. Start from what you have. The home surface offers Upload image, Paste from clipboard, and Start blank. The first two open the import wizard; the third opens an empty pegboard. Source RetroBeads product RetroBeads start surface The home surface exposes Upload image, Paste from clipboard, and Start blank as the three entry paths.
2. Choose the right import route. The wizard offers Pixel art, Upscaled pixel art, and Photo routes, each with its own Advanced conversion controls. The deep dives are in the pixel-art guide and the photo guide.
3. Pick a supported bead palette. RetroBeads ships palettes for a number of brands and series. The chart uses one active palette so the color names, codes, and counts match the beads you actually plan to use. The brand and pegboard guide lists which families are supported and which are craft context only.
4. Set the board layout. The Boards panel sets the layout, the board count, and the boards wide and tall. Plan multi-board pieces so seams sit in calm background rather than across faces or text.
5. Fix the chart in the editor. The editor toolbar gives you Paint, Erase, Fill, Shape, and Pick color, plus the Colors panel for color counts. Use them to remove halos, simplify shading, and shrink the color list before you sort beads. The pattern-fix guide is the canonical pre-build pass.
6. Export the right PDF for the table. Pick Chart Reference for symbols and bead counts, or Exact-Size Tracing for full-scale paper layout. Both styles include print IDs and page labels. The PDF guide covers the print scale check and paper assembly.

The capability and boundary map below summarizes both sides at once. Treat it as a quick scan; the rest of this page explains the trickier rows.

What the app does not cover today

These are scope choices for the current app, not promises. They show up here so a project decision does not get blocked by a feature that is not in the box.

• No accounts, login, or cloud sync. RetroBeads does not have a user account today, and patterns do not sync between devices automatically. Use the backup download and import flow if a project needs to move.
• No public gallery or built-in sharing surface. There is no profile page, no public pattern feed, and no like or comment surface. Share a finished chart or a photo of a finished piece through your own channels.
• No multi-user collaboration in one project. Two people cannot edit the same chart at the same time. One person owns the chart at a time.
• No shopping cart or quantity inventory. The PDF gives you bead counts per color so you can plan a purchase. My Beads can mark which colors you own in a palette, but RetroBeads does not order beads, watch supplier stock, or track quantities on hand. Source RetroBeads product RetroBeads My Beads My Beads can mark owned colors in a palette and limit conversion to those colors, but it does not track quantities, carts, or supplier stock.
• No build-progress tracking inside a chart. The app does not check off beads as you place them on the pegboard. Mark progress on the printed Chart Reference, or use your own marker on the table.
• No native desktop or app-store wrapper. RetroBeads runs in the browser. It is installable as a Progressive Web App so it can feel like an app on a desktop or phone home screen, but there is no separate desktop build or mobile app store listing.
• No support for every craft system. Some popular pixel-craft systems are not heat-fuse pegboard beads at all, for example water-fuse beads or interlocking bead systems. The brand and pegboard guide names a few briefly so they do not get treated as fuse-bead substitutes; it also notes large-bead lines that RetroBeads does not chart today.
• No physical guarantees. Even within supported palettes, the app cannot guarantee that two brands match on the iron, that any specific color is in stock at your supplier, or that the finished piece will look exactly like the screen preview. The brand and pegboard guide covers the test-patch habit that handles this.

What to do when you hit a boundary

Most of the gaps above have a maker-side workaround that already exists.

• To move a project between devices, download a project backup from one browser and import that backup in the other browser. The pattern travels as a file, not as a sync. Source RetroBeads product RetroBeads project backups Projects can be exported or downloaded as backups and imported in another browser.
• To share a finished pattern, export the PDF and send the file, or photograph the finished bead piece and post it where you already share work.
• To work with someone else, split the project into sections, build separately, and join the finished pieces. The large-project guide covers section maps, transport stacks, and named helper roles.
• To plan beads to buy, use the bead counts in the PDF export and confirm the substitution rules in the brand and pegboard guide before changing brands.
• To track build progress, check off colors or sections on the printed Chart Reference. A pencil on paper is faster than any in-app tracker for most builds.
• To use an unsupported bead system or large-bead line, treat the chart as a craft reference rather than a brand-accurate plan. RetroBeads can still help with the silhouette and color story; the bead names and counts may not map cleanly.

How this guide stays honest

This is a living scope guide, so it will drift if it is not maintained. The review trigger is intentional and short: when import changes, when the editor or Boards or Colors panels change, when PDF export changes, when supported palettes change, or when how patterns move between devices changes, this page gets a pass. The same maintainers own the rest of the tutorial library, so updates land alongside the deeper guides linked above.

If something here looks wrong while you are using the app, the most useful next step is to try the small pattern in the foundation guide end to end. If the app labels differ from this page, this page needs a review.