Digitizing is a process of converting a visual image into instructions for the embroidery machine in order to reproduce the closest likeness of it on the cloth material with colored threads.



How close the embroidered image will look compared to the original logo or artwork depends almost entirely on how well the digitizing is done. This is why many of the embroidery shops will not do the digitizing themselves, but rather outsource it to a digitizing specialist. And this is the main reason why digitizing is a) neccessary and b) somewhat expensive.

Digitizer's job is not only to correctly reproduce colors and outlines of the design, but also figure out how to correctly lay the underbase stitches (the stitches that hold garment's fabric to the underbase fabric), what stitch to use to fill the design, how to lay out different shapes within the design, etc. Digitizer needs to know, out of his or her experience, how stitches will pull the fabric, in which direction, and how to minimize this effect so the end result will not look distorted.

If you happen to have a previously digitized file, and you don't need to do any alterations to it (like, re-sizing) - we won't have to do any digitizing, therefore we will not charge you for it. Here are the digitized files that we can open:

• .EMB (Wilcom outline file v9.0, v8.0, v7.2, v7.1, v7.0, v6.0, v5.5, v5.2)
• .EMT (Wilcom Template file)
• .EMX (Wilcom Cross Stitch file)
• .ESD (Old Wilcom format)
• .EXP (Melco stitch file)
• .CND (Melco outline file)
• .DST (Tajima stitch file)
• .DSB (Barudan)
• .DSZ (ZSK)
• .10O (Toyota)
• .U?? (Barudan)
• .KSM (Pfaff)
• .PCH (Gunold APS)
• .STC (Gunold APS)
• .STX (Datastitch)
• .PMU (Proel)
• .PUM (Proel DOS)
• .BRO (Bits & Volts)
• .JEF (Janome/Elna/Kenmore)
• .SEW (Janome/Elna/Kenmore)
• .HUS (Viking)
• .PES (Deco, Brother, Babylock)
• .PEC (Deco, Brother, Babylock)
• .PCS (Pfaff)
• .PCD (Pfaff)
• .PCQ (Pfaff)
• .CSD (Poem, Huskygram, Singer EU)
• .XXX (Compucon)
• .DSZ (ZSK)
• .Z?? (ZSK TC)
• .ART (Artista Designs)
• .ARX (Artista Cross Stitch)
• .AMT (Artista Template)

Digitized files are basically a programming language (NOT a visual image) that contains instruction for the embroidery machine where to start and end the design, how to move the head and the needle, and where to change the thread. Your regular graphic files (either pixel or vector) do not contain such instruction, and therefore cannot be used for embroidery.