Printable paint by numbers, from your own photo
Upload a photo and get a pattern you can print at home. Sized for the paper, not scaled down afterwards — so the areas stay big enough to actually paint.
Try a free print sample
Download the dog example to check the lines and numbers on your printer. This sample is free; a PDF from your own photo is the paid product.
What you get
- Page 1 — the finished image, to keep next to you while painting
- Page 2 — the numbered outlines, sized for your paper
- Page 3 — a colour swatch and hex code for every number
€ 8,95
Instant download after payment. Generating and looking is free.
About printing
A pattern made for canvas does not survive being printed on A4
Scale a 40 by 50 centimetre pattern down to A4 and every area gets two and a half times smaller. What was comfortable becomes unpaintable, and the numbers shrink with it.
So we calculate the pattern for the sheet you are going to print on. The floor of two and a half millimetres is measured on the paper in your hand, not on the screen.
One setting ruins more prints than all the others together: turn off "Fit to page" and print at 100%.
The paper is the canvas
This is the part that goes wrong with most printable patterns: they are made for a canvas of 40 by 50 centimetres and then printed on A4. Every area ends up two and a half times smaller than intended, and the numbers with them. What was comfortable becomes unpaintable.
Paper size affects the amount of detail. Inspect the numbered outlines at full size, and print the free sample to check your printer before ordering.
Print settings that matter
One setting ruins more prints than all the others together: turn off "Fit to page" or "Scale to fit". Set the printer to 100% or "Actual size". Fit-to-page shrinks the whole pattern by a few percent to make room for the printer margins, and then the sizes we calculated no longer hold.
- Paper: 160 gram or heavier if you paint with acrylics. Normal printer paper is fine for coloured pencils.
- Print the pattern page in black and white, and the colour legend in colour.
- Normal print quality is enough — the lines are thin but not fine.
Paint or pencils?
On paper, coloured pencils are the easier medium: no buckling, no drying time, and you can correct. Acrylic works if the paper is heavy enough, but you get one attempt per area. If you are printing for pencils, use the colour-by-numbers version instead — same engine, but the legend gives you swatches to hold your own pencils against.
Go to the colour by numbers generator
When printing is the better choice
- You want to start tonight — no shipping.
- You want to try the subject small before ordering a canvas of it.
- Several people, same pattern: print it as often as you like.
- You already have paints or pencils and only need the pattern.
If the goal is something to hang on the wall, a printed A4 will disappoint you next to a stretched canvas — not because the pattern is worse, but because paper on a wall looks like paper on a wall.
Where the free templates come from, and what they are called
The craft goes by a different name in every language — paint by numbers, malen nach Zahlen, peinture par numéro, schilderen op nummer, mal efter tal — and it all means the same thing: a printed outline where each closed area carries a number that points at one colour.
The free templates you find are ready-made drawings: a butterfly, a lighthouse, a bowl of fruit, usually six to ten colours and aimed at children. They are genuinely free and there are thousands of them, and if that is what you want, a search for the term in your own language will find them faster than we can list them.
Generating and looking is free, without an account and without a limit on tries. You only pay if you order the kit or the printable pattern.
Printable paint by numbers for adults
Nearly every free printable you find is drawn for a child: eight or ten large shapes, six colours, done in twenty minutes. Made from your own photo it becomes something else entirely. A 40 by 50 centimetre pattern at 36 colours has six hundred to a thousand areas, and that is a few evenings of work — the kind of thing you keep coming back to.
Paper size affects the amount of detail. Inspect the numbered outlines at full size, and print the free sample to check your printer before ordering.
Choose 24, 36 or 48 colours. For a simpler pattern, start with 24 colours and a photo with one clear subject. Inspect the numbered preview before buying: small areas can still be difficult for a child.
Printable paint by numbers — frequently asked questions
- Can I download the pattern as a PDF?
- Yes. The printable version is a PDF with three pages: the numbered outlines, the finished image to work towards, and the colour legend. You download it straight after paying, so you can start the same evening.
- Is the printable paint by numbers free?
- Generating the pattern and looking at it costs nothing, and there is no account. The PDF that is laid out for printing is the paid part, because that is where the work is: sizing the areas for paper and keeping the numbers readable.
- Which paper size should I print on?
- A4 is fine for a simple subject with 24 colours. Take A3 for a portrait or anything with 36 colours or more, otherwise the smallest areas end up narrower than your brush.
- Is there a printable paint by numbers for adults?
- Yes. Use a clear portrait, pet photo or landscape. Choose A3 for more room, and inspect the numbered preview before buying the PDF.
- Can I print paint by numbers myself?
- The PDF has three pages: the colour image, numbered outlines and colour legend. Choose A4 for an A4 printer. A3 requires an A3 printer or a print shop.
- Is a printed pattern suitable for children?
- Choose 24, 36 or 48 colours. For a simpler pattern, start with 24 colours and a photo with one clear subject. Inspect the numbered preview before buying: small areas can still be difficult for a child.
- Can I use acrylic paint on a printed sheet?
- Thin paper will buckle under acrylics. Print on 160 grams or heavier if you want to paint rather than colour, or use pencils and markers, which is what most people do with the printed version.