Do’s and Don’ts of Embroidery Digitizing

Custom embroidery is a highly effective way to make company t-shirts, workwear, and apparel stand out. Before any logo or design can be embroidered by an embroidery machine, however, it must first be prepared by a digitizer. Digitizing is a complex process that can make or break an embroidered image, and understanding its do’s and don’ts is essential to ensuring your embroidery is of the highest possible quality.

The Digital Stitch: A Beginner’s Guide to Embroidery Digitizing

Digitizing is a process of converting raster graphics into embroidery stitch files. This may be done manually by drawing outlines to be filled in with stitches, or automatically by tracing objects in a raster image using a magic wand program (sometimes called auto-digitizing). Embroidery digitizing also involves adjusting stitch density, the number of stitches per inch. Density is crucial to embroidery quality because it affects how long the embroidery will take to stitch and how much thread will be used. Too little density can result in a dull, lifeless design, while too much can cause broken needles, thread breaks, and fabric tears.

Whether you choose to learn to digitize embroidery yourself or outsource it, it’s important to understand the do’s and don’ts of the process so that you can communicate with your digitizer effectively and ensure that your designs are digitized properly. This article will help you do just that.