From digital preview to physical mosaic
How to Use a Dice Art Blueprint
Your blueprint is a numbered matrix for building your mosaic. Each cell shows the dot value to place, and the row and column labels keep every die in the right position.
| black | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
1
What your blueprint shows
Every cell inside the numbered grid represents one physical die. The value in that cell, from 0 to 6, tells you which face should point forward in the finished mosaic.
Open the blueprint in Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, or another spreadsheet app. You can follow it on screen or print it and mark your progress with a pencil.
2
How the blueprint is generated
- Your image becomes a grid. More columns preserve more detail and require more dice.
- Each cell is measured. DiceArt reads the light and dark tones after your crop, brightness, and contrast adjustments.
- Each tone becomes a dot value. The seven levels are assigned values from 0 to 6.
- Your selected dice color is applied. The values are prepared automatically for either black or white dice.
The preview and blueprint always match. If you change the crop, brightness, contrast, grid size, or dice color, generate the blueprint again before you start building.
Read the blueprint
How the blueprint is organized
This small example uses the same structure as a full-size blueprint.
| black | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Top-left cellblack or white identifies the physical dice type.
Top row
Numbers the columns from left to right.
First column
Numbers the image rows from top to bottom.
Blueprint cells
Values 0–6 show the face to place at each coordinate.
3
Calculate the dice you need
DiceArt shows the total when your design is generated. You can also check it yourself: rows × columns = total dice. A 90-row by 120-column design, for example, needs 10,800 dice.
Zero Dots Count tells you how many 0-dot faces need to be prepared by hand. Standard dice do not have a 0 face, so use a 1-dot die and cover its single pip with a color that matches the die.
Black dice
Color the white pip black so the face becomes a solid dark tile.
White dice
Color the black pip white so the face becomes a solid light tile.
Test your paint or marker on a spare die first, then use the same method for every 0 cell.
4
Calculate the inside of your frame
The finished size depends on the edge length of your dice. With 10 mm dice, multiply the number of columns by 10 mm for the width, and the number of rows by 10 mm for the height.
Inside height = rows × die edge length
For example, a 120-column by 90-row design made with 10 mm dice measures 1,200 × 900 mm (120 × 90 cm). When the frame is made, add 3–5 mm to the calculated inside dimensions to allow for small variations in the dice and the way they sit together.
5
Build your mosaic row by row
- Confirm the dice color. The top-left cell says
blackorwhite. - Choose your starting edge. For a bottom-up build, start with the last numbered row and work back toward row 1.
- Place one row at a time. Follow the cells from left to right and use the column labels to check your position.
- Mark each completed section. Cross out cells with a pencil on a printed copy, or highlight them on screen.
- Step back and check. Compare the large shapes with your preview every few rows.
Print the blueprint across multiple pages if the values become too small to read. You can also work in blocks—the row and column labels make it easy to stop and continue later.
Ready for the next step?
Turn the plan into a physical artwork
Generate your blueprint, preview an existing one, or order the physical dice for your build.