How many DMC colours do I need for a portrait 100, 150, 200 or 300 stitches wide?
At the default colour setting of 80, our 10 colour-photo tests produced a median of 69–75.5 DMC thread colours at widths of 100, 150, 200 and 300 stitches; with the setting at 25, the median was 35–36. The setting, not width alone, controls palette size: a bigger portrait does not automatically require a second suitcase of floss.
These are Mimimetr team calculations reported on 2 November 2026, not a universal shopping rule or measurements of finished embroidery.
| Width in stitches | Colours setting | Portrait legend entries, median | Distinct DMC thread colours, median (range) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 25 | 25 | 35 (31–38) |
| 150 | 25 | 25 | 36 (30–40) |
| 200 | 25 | 25 | 35 (32–41) |
| 300 | 25 | 25 | 35 (29–39) |
| 100 | 80 | 80 | 73 (63–96) |
| 150 | 80 | 80 | 69 (62–95) |
| 200 | 80 | 80 | 75.5 (63–92) |
| 300 | 80 | 80 | 72.5 (61–100) |
How we counted
We used the same 10 colour photographs at each width, with Colours set to 25 and 80, automatic gamut and Portrait smoothing at 60%, with confetti removal and Calm background off, on the 489-colour DMC table. A blended legend entry was split into its two component thread colours; repeated DMC codes were counted once. Figures are software-run medians and ranges. A median of 75.5 describes the sample, not half a colour you must somehow order.
The legend is not the shopping basket
That innocent plus sign matters. A blended entry uses one strand of each of two colours in the needle.[8] Both colours belong on your list, but either may also appear elsewhere. Counting legend rows can therefore miss or double-count threads. Use the distinct component codes, then work out quantities separately. Eighty colours and eighty skeins are not interchangeable promises.
More colours is a choice, not a moral achievement
In our colour-photo sample, setting Colours to 50 at width 100 produced a median of 54.5 distinct threads, with a range of 48–68. The field now goes up to 100, which gave a median of 84 at that width, range 74–114. That does not establish which chart you will enjoy stitching. Before inviting every shade of beige into your home, compare the face and the working chart. The converter lets you inspect the result before downloading.[8] Keep the crop and width unchanged when comparing palettes.
Black-and-white portraits deserve their own row
Our separate sample contained only 3 black-and-white photographs. At width 200 and Colours set to 25, Portrait used a median of 14 distinct threads, range 14–16; at 80, the median was 18, range 17–19. Do not fold that small greyscale sample into a claim about all colour portraits. Nor does increasing the setting guarantee more useful tones: the source photograph and available gamut still matter.
Your browser may disagree slightly
These tables came from the calculation core. In a browser check at the default 300×80 on 14 photos, distinct-thread counts differed from the core by up to 18, most likely because images are resized differently. Screen DMC colours are approximations; no sample was stitched. Portrait supports width 300, but Photo for cross-stitch is limited to 250 in the measured version. Recheck after tool updates rather than treating today's settings as eternal.
Questions
Does a 300-stitch portrait need more colours than a 100-stitch one?
Not automatically. In our fixed-setting sample the median distinct-thread count stayed about the same at those widths.
Do 25 legend entries always mean 25 thread colours?
No. A blended entry holds two threads, so distinct colours often outnumber entries, and component codes can repeat.
Should I buy from this table?
Use your own final chart's component codes and quantities, then subtract threads already in your stash.
Sources
[8] https://mimimetr.com/en/vyshyvka