Click the grid to add or remove stitches —
Type a word. Watch it become lace.
Meshwork is a free generative type experiment that turns any text into filet crochet. Your words are sampled onto a stitch grid: letterforms become solid mesh, the ground becomes open net, finished with chain knots and a scalloped picot edge — lace, drawn by an algorithm. Flip to pixel mode and the same grid renders as clean bitmap type.
It was made by Abby Merz, a designer and artist exploring the place where craft and digital design share a skeleton: the grid. Filet crochet, cross-stitch, lace, and pixels are all the same idea — an image built one unit at a time. Meshwork is the second experiment in that series, following Gridlace, a lace-inspired pixel serif font family.
Type anything in 01 – Text (line breaks welcome). Choose the sans or serif, or upload your own OTF, TTF, or WOFF — fonts are processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded anywhere. Tune the stitch resolution and ink pickup in 02 – Grid, choose a thread-and-ground palette in 03 – Thread, and toggle the scalloped edge, handmade wobble, and chain knots in 04 – Finish. Click or drag on the mesh to add and remove stitches by hand, exactly like correcting a filet chart. Export gives you a print-quality PNG.
Pixel mode doubles as a filet crochet chart maker: filled cells are solid mesh (double crochet blocks), empty cells are open mesh. Chart a name, a phrase, a monogram — then work it in thread. The same grid reads just as well as a cross-stitch pattern or a knitting colorwork chart, because every grid craft speaks pixel.
Meshwork is free. Exports are yours for personal and creative projects — a credit or link back is always appreciated. Fonts you upload stay on your device, and the words you type aren't stored anywhere.
Made by Abby Merz — portfolio · posters at MERZ Print Co