Dot to dot generator

How to make a dot-to-dot

1. Pick a way in: open a photo or a drawing, type a name or word, tap one of the ready pictures under Start from a picture, or choose Tap your own dots and place every dot yourself, with or without a picture underneath.
2. Pick a size: Few dots, big numbers (20 dots, 6 mm numbers), Medium (50, 4 mm) or Many dots, small numbers (150, 2.5 mm), then fine-tune the count anywhere from 10 to 300. For adults, Extreme starts at 500 dots with 2 mm numbers and goes up to 1,000 on A4 or Letter, or 2,000 on A3 or 11 × 17 in.
3. Tidy the outline: crop to the subject, raise Simplify to smooth a ragged edge, or tap Fix dots by hand to drag, delete or add dots.
4. Press Reveal to watch the line join from 1 to the last dot, so you see what the child will see.
5. Print: the PDF (A4, Letter, A3 or 11 × 17 in, portrait or landscape, at true size) with an optional title, a Name line and the answer page, or a PNG of either page, or print straight from here.

How the dots are placed

The outline. A photo or drawing goes through the same steps as the outline style of Photo to Sketch: grey, a difference of two blurs that marks the dark side of every edge, specks removed, then thinned to one-pixel centre lines. Each centre line is walked into a path; a path whose ends meet is a closed shape. A typed name is drawn in the font and thinned the same way, so you get the middle of each pen stroke. The longest paths get the dots (Outlines with dots), the rest are dropped or, if you tick it, printed as plain lines.

The rule. Corners that turn by 50° or more are kept first, sharpest first, and never closer together than half the even spacing; the remaining dots are spaced evenly along the path between them. A square with 8 dots gets its four corners plus one dot in the middle of each side; a circle with 40 dots gets one every 9°. With several outlines the dots are shared by length, at least 4 for a closed shape and 3 for an open line, and the numbers carry on from one to the next. A closed shape starts at its top (or the corner nearest it) and runs clockwise; a ring marks every start, and the last dot of a closed shape is joined back to its ring.

The numbers. Each number sits beside its dot, on the side away from the shape when there is room, and its box keeps a clear gap of a third of the number height (never under 0.8 mm) from every dot and every other number: 2 mm for 6 mm numbers, 1.33 mm for 4 mm, 0.83 mm for 2.5 mm. If some number cannot be placed that way, all numbers shrink in steps (down to 1.8 mm) and the page tells you; fewer dots or a larger sheet brings them back. Each label's box is as wide as the label itself, added up from the font's own glyph widths, so 10,990 (Extreme counting by 10s from 1,000) gets five digits of room and a W more than an i, and both keep the same gap. On a page of more than 300 dots whose numbers are already at 1.8 mm, a number with no room at those 6 distances tries 32 directions at 8 more before the page counts it as not placed.

Extreme dot to dot for adults. Extreme (adults) starts at 500 dots with 2 mm numbers. The slider goes to 1,000 on A4 or Letter and to 2,000 on A3 (297 × 420 mm) or 11 × 17 in, which print at true size. From a photo it numbers the outline and then the picture's inner lines, the next-longest lines the outline step found, longest first, up to 40 lines; each new line starts at a ring and the count carries on. The 2,000 is measured, not a guess: the page's test traces a picture of 54 filled discs, squares and triangles, places 2,000 dots on A3, and checks that every number is 1.8 mm high and clear of every dot and every other number (the same check at 1,000 on A4). Under the preview a line such as 1,000 dots · 16 lines · smallest number 2.0 mm · A4 tells you what you will print.

Christmas dot to dot printables

Ten Christmas pictures, six everyday ones. Under Start from a picture: a Christmas tree, a star, a bell, a snowman, a stocking, a candy cane, a gift box, a bauble, a gingerbread figure and a mitten, then a heart, a house, a fish, a cat, a butterfly and a car. Each is an outline drawn for this page as path data (in dot-pictures.js), not traced from someone else's artwork, and none is a character or a brand.

The dots. The outline gets dots first, starting at its top. Inner lines (the snowman's arms, the bauble's bands, the house's door and windows) join in as the count grows: one more line for every 12 dots asked for, longest first, each starting at its own ring with the count carrying on. Lines without dots are printed as plain grey lines, so a 20-dot sheet for a four-year-old is the outline alone with the details already drawn. A Christmas tree at Few dots, big numbers is 20 dots with 6 mm numbers; at Many it is 150 dots with 2.5 mm numbers, a good sheet for a seven- or eight-year-old.

The title. The picture's name prints at the top of the sheet in bold ("Christmas tree"); type over it to write a child's name or "Merry Christmas, Sam", or clear it for no title.

What it cannot do

• It finds edges, not objects. A busy photo (a pet on grass, a face against a bookshelf) gives a messy outline. Crop it, raise Simplify, or tap your own dots over the picture.
• One picture per sheet, and caps on the dots: 300 with Few, Medium and Many; with Extreme, 1,000 on A4 or Letter and 2,000 on A3 or 11 × 17 in (the largest count the placement test passed with every number at 1.8 mm or more).
• 16 ready pictures, all simple outlines (10 for Christmas), drawn for this page; you cannot upload your own into the picture row (open it as a photo instead). On A4 every one of them keeps all its numbers clear at 150 dots (Many). The stocking and the butterfly, the tightest, lose a number at 160; above that each picture runs out of room at a different count, and the status line says how many numbers could not be kept clear. A ready picture cannot hold 1,000 clear numbers: Extreme is for photos with many lines.
• 1,000 dots need a picture with many lines. The cap is what fits on a busy picture, not a promise for every picture. A single round outline filling an A4 sheet kept all its numbers clear at 500 dots in our test but not at 600, and a wide picture on a tall sheet uses only a strip of it (choose Landscape). When numbers do not fit, the status line says how many could not be kept clear.
• An A3 sheet needs a printer that takes A3 (or a print shop or copy centre). Printing it on A4 with "fit to page" shrinks the 1.8 mm numbers to about 1.3 mm.
• Big puzzles take a moment. On our build server (4-core AMD EPYC, headless Chrome), placing 1,000 dots took 0.1 s for a 320 × 240 photo and 0.5 s for a busy 1,200 × 630 graphic, from opening the picture to the finished preview. A phone is slower, and every change to the slider places them again.
• No colouring-in inside the shape. For a colouring page of a photo use Photo to Sketch; for numbered colours, Paint by Numbers.
• Letters follow one font. Names are drawn in Patrick Hand, which has Latin letters only; anything else (Greek, Cyrillic, emoji) falls back to your device's own sans-serif font, so it looks different on another phone.
• Very crowded pages shrink the numbers. 300 dots round a small shape cannot all carry 6 mm numbers; the page says when it had to make them smaller. Numbers never go below 1.8 mm.
• Letters are the Latin A–Z only, 26 at most. An alphabet sheet labels the dots A to Z or a to z and stops at the 26th dot: no AA, no accented letters, no other alphabets. For a longer picture, count by numbers instead.
• Nothing is saved. Reloading the page starts again; download the PDF to keep a puzzle.

Questions

How do I make a dot to dot from a photo?

Open the photo. The page finds its strongest outline (the same edge and centre-line steps as the photo-to-sketch tool), keeps the sharpest corners as dots, spaces the rest evenly and numbers them. Crop to the subject, raise Simplify to smooth a ragged edge, or tap Fix dots by hand to move, add or delete dots. A plain background works best: a dark dog on a light wall gives a clean outline, a dog on grass does not.

Can I make a connect the dots puzzle of a name?

Yes. Choose Name or word and type up to 30 letters. The letters are drawn in Patrick Hand, an open-licence print face, and each stroke becomes a run of numbered dots. The count carries on from one letter to the next, and a ring marks where each new line starts, so the child lifts the pencil there.

How many dots should a dot to dot have?

It depends on the picture and on who is joining them, so the page sizes by what you see, not by age. Few dots, big numbers gives 20 dots with 6 mm numbers; Medium gives 50 with 4 mm; Many dots, small numbers gives 150 with 2.5 mm. Any count from 10 to 300 works with any number height, and Extreme goes to 1,000 (2,000 on A3); if the numbers cannot all sit clear of each other the page shrinks them and says so.

Can it make an extreme dot to dot for adults?

Yes. Choose Extreme (adults): 500 dots with 2 mm numbers to start, and the slider goes up to 1,000 dots on A4 or Letter, or 2,000 on A3 or 11 x 17 in. From a photo it numbers the outline and then the picture's inner lines, longest first, up to 40 lines; each new line starts at a ring and the count carries on, so a face gets its eyes and mouth as part of the puzzle. Numbers never go below 1.8 mm and each keeps clear of every dot and every other number. Tick Answer page and its second page draws every line.

Can it make skip counting or alphabet dot to dots?

Yes. Set Count by to 2s, 3s, 5s or 10s and the dots read 2, 4, 6 … instead of 1, 2, 3 …; Start at changes the first label to any whole number from 0 to 1,000, so counting by 10s from 100 gives 100, 110, 120 … A 20-dot sheet counting by 5s ends at 100, so the child practises the 5 times table to finish the picture. Letters A to Z or a to z label the dots with the alphabet instead, 26 dots at most: ask for 50 and the sheet stops at Z and says so, never going on to AA. These sheets get a heading line such as Count by 5s or A to Z, which you can untick. Reveal and the answer page join the dots in the same order as before.

Are there Christmas dot to dots to print?

Yes. Under Start from a picture there are 10 Christmas pictures drawn for this page: a Christmas tree, a star, a bell, a snowman, a stocking, a candy cane, a gift box, a bauble, a gingerbread figure and a mitten (and 6 everyday ones). Tap one and every control works on it: Few dots, big numbers (20) for small children, Medium (50), Many (150), or Extreme for adults, counting by 2s, 5s or 10s, or A to Z. The picture's name prints as a title line at the top of the sheet, and you can change it, for example to a child's name. Inner lines such as the snowman's arms or the bauble's bands get their own ring and the count carries on into them; with few dots they are printed as plain lines instead. Every picture keeps all its numbers clear on A4 at 150 dots.

Does it make an answer key?

Tick Answer page and the PDF gets a second page with the finished line drawn from the first dot to the last, every closed shape joined back to its start. You can also download it as its own PNG. On screen, Reveal draws the line from 1 to the last number in about two seconds.

Is it free, and is my photo uploaded?

It is free with no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many puzzles you make. The photo is read and traced by this page inside your browser; it is never sent anywhere, and the PDF and PNG are made on your device too.