Filet Crochet vs. Cross-Stitch vs. Graphgan: What's the Difference?
Written by the Filet Crochet Chart Builder team · Updated
A grid of coloured squares can come from three different crafts that get mistaken for one another: filet crochet, cross-stitch, and graphgan (corner-to-corner) crochet. Every one of them charts a design one square at a time, but the tools, the technique, and the fabric that comes off them are not interchangeable.
Filet crochet: one colour, blocks and open mesh
Filet crochet is made with a hook and a single colour of yarn or thread. The picture comes entirely from the structure of the fabric — a filled block versus an open square of mesh — not from changing colours. Every cell on a filet chart is strictly on or off, which is why the technique reads so cleanly as a grid and why this editor models it as a true two-state matrix.
Cross-stitch: embroidery on woven fabric
Cross-stitch is hand embroidery, not crochet. An X-shaped stitch is worked with a needle and thread through the holes of a purpose-woven fabric such as Aida or evenweave, and a cross-stitch chart uses a full palette of thread colours rather than a single on-or-off state. There is no hook, no yarn, and no mesh involved at all.
Graphgan and corner-to-corner: solid colour blocks, no mesh
Graphgan and corner-to-corner (C2C) crochet build a picture from solid blocks of single or double crochet, usually worked diagonally, in whatever colours the design calls for. Every square is filled — there is no open mesh contrast the way there is in filet — so a graphgan chart is really a multi-colour pixel grid rather than a block-or-space grid.
Which one matches what you want to make
If you want a solid-colour openwork fabric where the picture is carried by filled blocks against open mesh, that is filet crochet, and this editor is built specifically for it. If you are picturing a full-colour pixel image with no open squares, you are likely thinking of graphgan or C2C crochet, which this tool does not chart. If you want embroidery on woven fabric rather than a crocheted piece at all, you want cross-stitch charting software instead.
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