Learn embroidery digitizing

Digitizing is deciding how a design will be stitched: where the needle goes, in what order, at what angle and how densely. These pages cover the decisions that matter, with the numbers we use ourselves.

• Getting started with embroidery digitizing
  Turn a picture or an idea into a stitch file: set up a design, trace your artwork, pick stitch types, and save something your machine can sew.
• From artwork to a finished stitchout: the whole journey
  The whole path from a picture to thread on fabric: prepare the artwork, digitize it, check it, export your machine's format, load it, hoop it and test sew.
• The digitizing tools, and when to use each
  Run, satin, fill, appliqué, lettering, pen, shapes, reshape, stitch angle, knife and measure: what each tool is for and the settings that matter.
• Drawing smooth curves with the pen tool
  Corner nodes, smooth nodes and manual handles, and how to fix a curve after you have drawn it, so outlines follow your artwork instead of fighting it.
• How to digitize a logo for embroidery, step by step
  A worked order of operations for turning a logo into a stitch file: sizing, tracing, choosing stitch types, sewing order, and the test sew that catches the rest.
• Fill settings explained: type, angle, spacing and stagger
  What every setting on a fill actually changes, from the fill pattern and its angle to row spacing, maximum stitch length, stagger and pull compensation.
• Embroidery stitch density: what to set, by fabric
  Row spacing in millimetres for fills and satins on cotton, fleece, knits, silk, towelling and caps, and what happens when density is too tight or too loose.
• Embroidery underlay explained, and when to use each type
  Edge walk, zigzag and tatami underlay: what each one does under the visible stitches, and which to use for fills, satins, knits and pile fabrics.
• Satin or fill: which to use, and where the changeover is
  Satin gives a raised, glossy line; a fill covers area. The practical rule is width: past about 12 mm a satin stitch is too long to be safe, and the area should be filled.
• Pull compensation: why stitching comes out narrower than you drew it
  Every stitch pulls the fabric in as it forms, so shapes sew narrower than drawn. What pull compensation does, how much to use, and when it is not the answer.
• Embroidery lettering: size, stitch type and spacing
  How to set text that actually reads once sewn: choosing a size, picking run, satin or fill, and the spacing and underlay that keep letters clean.
• The smallest text you can embroider
  Minimum letter heights for satin and run-stitch text, why small letters fill in or disappear, and what to change when a name has to fit a small space.
• Stitch angle and direction: making a fill follow the shape
  Why the direction of a fill matters as much as its density, and how to steer it with angle guides so petals, leaves and lettering read the way they should.
• How to make an appliqué design
  The three phases of an appliqué (placement line, tackdown, cover stitch), what happens at the machine between them, and the settings that make the border clean.
• Choosing embroidery stabiliser by fabric
  Cut-away, tear-away, wash-away and topping: which stabiliser holds which fabric, and why the wrong one shows up as puckering or drifting stitches.
• Why embroidery puckers, and how to stop it
  Puckering is fabric pulled in by the stitching. The causes in order of likelihood, and the fixes: density, underlay, stabiliser, hooping and design size.
• Why embroidery thread keeps breaking
  The digitizing causes of thread breaks, short stitches, over-tight density and long unsupported jumps, plus the machine-side checks worth doing first.
• Machine safety checks before you export
  The checks that stop a design breaking thread or a needle: short stitches, long stitches, density stacking, jump length and what the status indicator is telling you.
• StitchConsole keyboard shortcuts
  Every keyboard shortcut in the editor: tools, editing, view, selection and the modifier keys that change what a drag does.
• Importing artwork and exporting to your machine
  Bring in SVG artwork or an existing stitch file, and send a finished design out in the format your machine reads, without losing your editing.
• Auto-digitize: turning an image into stitches
  What automatic digitizing does well, what it cannot do, and how to prepare artwork so the result is worth editing rather than worth redrawing.
• Embroidery file formats: DST, PES, JEF, EXP, VP3 and more
  Which machine reads which format, what each one stores and throws away, and why you should keep an editable copy alongside the file you sew from.
• Embroidery digitizing questions, answered
  Short answers to the questions people ask most often about digitizing, stitch settings, file formats and getting a design onto a machine.