Have you heard of, or tried, Beadographer bead design software?
Beadographer is a web-based bead weaving pattern design tool. If you currently draw your beadwork patterns by hand on bead graph paper and are looking to do this on your computer or I-Pad instead, beadographer is the tool that can help you do that.
There are several advantages to using bead design applications over designing on paper. I like that bead programs give a more realistic representation of my project. Most create the bead grids based on the size and type of beads you specify and provide the approximate finished size of the project. They also have libraries of the different bead colors for different manufacturers, so you're not limited to marker or pencil colors - and you can even get an idea of how different bead finishes will look. Of course, you don't need to worry about erasing and changing colors. Doing those is super easy.
Prior to Beadographer, I used BeadTool 4, but there are a few features of Beadographer that I think really make it stand out, so I'll make sure to tell you those. Before I get there, I'll start with the basic info.