Count dice in a tray from a photo

Dice counter: counting dice, not adding up the pips

This dice counter tells you how many dice are in a photo. It does not read the faces or add up a roll, so it is for stock and inventory: game and hobby shops counting stock, checking a bulk pack against its label, clubs checking equipment after an event, and collectors cataloging a set. A marked image of the tray doubles as the record.

Spread the dice on a felt dice tray or a plain cloth in one layer, apart from each other. Polyhedral sets mix shapes, and a four-sided die, a cube and a twenty-sided die look nothing alike from above: in Similar items, mark one of each shape you need, up to three per count, and read the Found per example rows. For the remaining shapes, clear the examples, mark the next ones and count the same photo again. Translucent, glitter and metal dice reflect and show the background through them, so a dark, matte cloth helps.

Pipped cubes look busy because of their dots, so draw the example box around a whole die, not a single face. Each shape or set then goes into its own tally row after review. Poker chips from the same game night and marbles in bulk packs follow the same tray routine.

Dice tray checks

• Dice apart from each other in one layer
• Up to three shapes per count, one example each
• A dark matte cloth under translucent or metal dice
• One tally row per shape or set