Where it is
After upload in the Perler maker, use Max colors (Simple ↔ Rich). Toward Simple: fewer colors, bigger blocks. Toward Rich: more mid-tones and detail.
Default and maximum
Default about 12, maximum 40. Even a huge brand palette (e.g. MARD) is still capped per pattern — the brand chooses which beads exist; Max colors chooses how many appear in this chart.
Too few colors: easy to build, faces may flatten. Too many: finer detail, but shopping explodes and speckles become their own codes.
Recommended ranges
- Icons/logos/flat cartoons: about 6–12.
- Portraits/pets/landscapes: start 10–15, raise gradually.
- Rich gradients you will hand-edit: 16–24; confirm inventory before nearing the cap.
If the preview is already speckled, lower colors first — raising often turns noise into extra SKUs.
With other settings
- Keep Clean up stray pixels on with a moderate palette (cleanup & dither).
- Smooth gradients (dithering) on top of a high color count often looks noisier to place by hand.
- Isolate subjects with Remove background before locking colors (Remove background).
- Brands: brand palettes.
Checks afterward
- Read Materials for shoppable counts and near-duplicate shades.
- Edit with paint/fill/Replace all to merge close colors.
- Enable Show codes before print or export.