This is not because the software itself is flawed, but sometimes it needs the help of an expert – you. For those looking to expand their skills and knowledge of digitizing and take your embroidery to the next level, this article is for you. 

We’ll explain auto digitizing vs. manual digitizing, when it is appropriate to use them, and what you can do to improve your use of both. First, let’s cover the basics.

What Is Auto Digitizing with Embroidery Software?

Embroidery auto digitizing software uses computing to capture graphics/design images and translate them into machine embroidery design files. The software will decide on the appropriate layers, stitch counts, colors, and more, based on the algorithms it uses to digitize a logo or graphic.

Auto digitizing is used to save time and effort, but in doing so, it can cause structural problems with your designs. This is especially true when auto digitizing more complex designs (we’ll get to this shortly).

What Is Manual Digitizing with Embroidery Software?

Manual digitizing is when the embroiderer uses embroidery software to manually translate an image or design into embroidery. The embroiderer gets to choose how the design will stitch out, in what order the layers will come together, stitch angles, and which colors to use.

Embroidery auto digitizing software can be great if used correctly and perhaps on simpler graphics, supplemented by manual digitizing skills. Manual digitizing skills always go a long way to help you get the quality results you want.

Does Auto Digitizing Embroidery Software Work?

Yes and no. It depends on the complexity of the logo and graphic used and the operator’s skill. In the hands of a novice who doesn’t know better, embroidery auto digitizing software will seem to work wonders, but in the eyes of an experienced digitizer, the problems with some auto digitizing work couldn’t be more obvious.

Auto digitizing software does what it’s meant to do, but sometimes it doesn’t do things in a logical order or in a way that will translate well to embroidery. The software takes what it sees in the order it was presented, and digitizes it. It’s not capable of distinguishing the best angles or fills for a cleaner design. That’s your job.

Check out our YouTube video below as CEO of Embroidery Legacy John Deer goes further into detail comparing auto digitizing to manual digitizing. Watch as John corrects an auto digitized design:

What if I use High-Quality Images with my Auto Digitizing Embroidery Software?

Good images will usually yield better results when hitting “auto-digitize,” but that’s not always the case. Even if you use a vector file format – a file that contains proper nodes, formatting, and resolution – it’s not always optimized for machine embroidery. 

When an artist creates a design in CorelDraw or Adobe Photoshop, they don’t consider that the design needs to be embroidered in a specific order or sequence that only a machine embroiderer would understand.

Remember, embroidery is a physical medium whereas print is flat and doesn’t need to take into account layering.

The embroidery software will auto-digitize the design based on the layers the artist created in their graphic software, which might cause excessive stitch counts, incorrect push and pull compensation, too many jumps and trims, and image distortion.

Manual digitizing is a great skill to have when working with images you’d like to turn into stitches. It allows you to adjust, improve, and correct your designs. You’ll ultimately create a better piece, with less time spent fixing mistakes.

Should I Learn How To Digitize Embroidery Designs?

The answer is yes. You don’t need to become the best digitizer in the world. You just need enough skills to make your job easier and your work better. You’ll find plenty of ways to use manual digitizing skills to save you time and hassle. 

If hitting “auto-digitize” isn’t getting you the result you want, and most of the time it won’t without tweaking, there’s a good chance that digitizing it yourself or at least knowing how to fix the auto-digitized design with manual digitizing knowledge will help you achieve the results you want. 

However, correcting auto-digitized work can take hours. Complex designs that are auto-digitized will require lots of editing to get a good result with your machine. You’ll have to adjust the image node by node, stitch by stitch, to not make it production friendly. The alternative is to digitize it yourself, using your image as a template. Believe it or not, in most cases, this is a much faster way to generate quality results. 

Which Graphics Software Should I Learn?

There’s no need to learn graphics software to then import the image into a digitizing software and adjust it or re-digitize it all over again. It’ll save you stress from learning good digitizing software and creating your designs at the source, where any other graphic or file would ultimately end up.

Take Your Embroidery Skills To The Next Level

The Digitizers Dream Course

We are offering a course to supplement our excellent free resources. Imagine being able to digitize your own designs in minutes and with confidence. You can take graphics or designs, and instead of settling for “auto-digitize,” you can do it yourself.

it’s taught in the major reputable digitizing brands. Having taught tens of thousands of embroiderers how to digitze, we even have a money-back guarantee!

Conclusion: Auto Digitizing Embroidery Software Works… If You Work It

Although auto-digitizing may seem like a clean solution to getting your designs digitized quick, most of the time, it isn’t. Any software brand does the best it can to digitize the designs automatically, but they all require some human assistance, and in most cases, manual digitization. 

That’s why we wanted to shed light on the situation. Even with high-quality vector files, auto-digitizing might not generate the best results. Having the skills to digitize designs and images manually, to at least edit & optimize the design you auto-digitize, is a must. 

Remember, there is no need to learn to use a graphics software if you’ll be bringing images into a digitizing software anyways. You’d basically be creating the same design twice and wasting your valuable time.

If you decide to add digitizing to your arsenal of machine embroidery skills, we think you’ve made the right choice. It will push you to become a better embroiderer. Get started today with our Free Embroidery Digitizing 101 Cheat Sheet & Video Course. It’ll equip you with the essential with the knowledge and theory to start creating your own beautiful machine embroidery designs.

The post Auto Digitizing Embroidery Software: How to Get Best Results first appeared on Embroidery Legacy.]]>

When tackling this type of fabric, you’ll need good embroidery and digitizing techniques. Let’s discuss how to machine embroider on knit fabrics.

Stabilizer For Embroidering Knitwear

Using the right stabilizer when embroidering on knitwear makes a big difference.

There are many stabilizer products that can aid embroidering on knits. One of my favorites is a “no-show mesh” that gives excellent stability and looks invisible when used.

The loose weave of knitted fabrics means that you must be careful of how the embroidery will distort. Because of distortion, it causes many embroiderers to use a thick cut away stabilizer to compensate.

Using a thick cut-away stabilizer is often a mistake. The outline of the stabilizer is as noticeable as the embroidery.

For designs with many fills, I also suggest using a ‘fusible no-show mesh’ ironed onto the garment before hooping. Mesh backings are helpful and offer support because they have the same kind of surface as the material.

Using a water-soluble topping when embroidering small detail or lettering will also improve quality.

Digitizing Knitwear Stitch Lengths

Adjusting the stitch length for running stitches to 1.5mm to 2.5mm will cause the stitches to sink into the fabric’s weave. Doing this does nothing other than adding unnecessary stitches.

Adjusting your stitch length longer, say 3mm-5mm, will cause the stitch to ‘loft’ on top of the fabric. This will provide support to the design. This principle for running stitches also applies to the underlay (we’ll talk more about that below).

Designs with fewer stitches run and look better on knitted fabrics than those with more because of the longer stitch lengths.

The biggest complaint I usually hear concerning embroidery on knits is that small lettering doesn’t embroider well. It will look jagged or saw-toothed in appearance. It helps if you look at how the fabric is milled. It is usually vertical and lose enough that you can see the ribs in the fabric.

Applying embroidery to knitting can cause a column to appear to have ‘moved.’ It happens when the column falls on either side of the ribs. This can be highly frustrating for a digitizer because what you see on-screen looks perfectly straight compared to the finished appearance once stitched.

Digitizing Underlay for Knitwear

On regular fabrics, an edge run underlay is the standard; but I suggest using a double zig-zag with knitwear. Even if your software has zig-zag underlay as an option, you should put the stitches down manually.

Manually lay zig-zag stitches in the corners of the columns. This will cover the ribs of the fabric. This will also prevent them from sinking.

If the column stitch is thicker, the cover stitch can be stabilized with the right underlay in the right order.

If the column is wider, you secure it using a double zig-zag. You can then hold it all in place by using an edge run underlay.

Knitted fabrics have stretch, and the topstitching will easily distort if the underlay foundations aren’t placed down correctly. Underlay types and stitch lengths should also be altered. Too many digitizers never experiment with these settings and keep their software on the default settings.

Digitizing Knitwear Topstitches

The main thing to look at regarding the topstitching is the direction of the stitches.

Because most knitted fabrics are milled vertically, you’ll want to avoid using the same stitch direction whenever possible. Fill stitches and satin stitches will sink into the material and cause it to distort horizontally.

Standard densities will look sparse as the stitches sink into the fabric. This is when digitizers tend to increase the density of the fill stitch instead of changing the stitch direction.

I have used a trick to avoid the “ditches” on knitted fabrics. This involves laying down a loose density fill. The fill provides a base for embroidered text, but it must be laid horizontally and have no underlay. You might see the underlay through the top stitching if the fill is loose.

Running the fill in the same color as the garment will make it unnoticeable. Unless you look very closely, it will be seen (as seen above).

Conclusion: Machine Embroider Knitwear With Great Results

Always consider minimum letting rights and column widths for embroidered designs on knitted fabrics. It’s also important to experiment and learn how to realistically reduce detail within a design.

Working with knitted fabrics requires careful consideration. It is better to have a clean-looking design with less detail than a detailed design that stitches terribly.

Let me know if you enjoyed this article or if you have any questions by commenting below. Happy digitizing!

P.S. Freel free to check out our Digitizers Dream Course to excel in your digitizing journey today.

You might as well be psychic as you have to constantly adjust yourself to the type of customer you’re currently doing the job for. Some want quality, rich in appearance, and on the higher end of the density scale, while others are only price conscious because that’s how they operate their business. Then you can get either end of the scale getting overly cutthroat because many companies may be bidding for the same job.

The best way to keep a happy customer is to get to know their specific needs. This can get confusing when your customer base grows into the hundreds, so start documenting or categorizing your customers right at the beginning. I’ll leave it to your discretion as to what names you wish to give them. 

At the beginning stages of getting to know your customer, let them know that “special requests” must be addressed when the order is placed. If they do not identify the “special request,” then be sure to charge them for any edits that need to be done after the fact; time is money, after all! “Special request” can fall into many categories; terrycloth, polar fleece, foam embroidery, leather, and the list goes on.

How To Lower Embroidery Design Stitch Count With Digitizing

There are many ways to cut down the stitch count of a design depending on the customer’s flexibility of graphic options, stitch types, densities, application, and how much they are willing to bend to achieve their objective. 

We have all had that customer who gives you a design that, if you digitize it properly, would have 10,000 stitches. However, they are insistent that it only has 5,000 stitches. You see, that’s all they’ve budgeted for, but they still want top-notch quality! Sound familiar? In that situation, I’ll tell the customer, “Let me digitize it properly so you know how it should look, then I’ll give you a second file processed by the software at your desired stitch count. When your customer says it looks like crap, use the first file I sent you.” The point is we need to be realistic!

If you take away too many stitches, it will inevitably affect the appearance of your design. Here are a few suggestions that can help keep the stitch count down in those awkward situations.

Reduce Embroidery Design Stitch Count By Edit Digitizing

Our first option is to play with underlay and running stitches’ stitch lengths and values. You can then adjust the density values of column stitches and densities and stitch lengths of fill areas. The trick is to play with values enough to make a difference in the stitch count without dramatically affecting the visual integrity of the design. 

Here is a before and after example of how this can affect the stitch count without drastically affecting the design’s run ability and visual appeal.

If you are a contract embroiderer with 200 pieces to embroider, it equates to over 781400 stitches of saved running time. Well worth spending 15 minutes editing and a couple of sew-outs! 

You can further reduce the stitch counts in some situations by converting some of your fill-stitched objects into satin stitches. Sometimes this can be a little misleading because if the stitch length of the column is too long, the machine’s speed will automatically slow down, and you won’t really save much time at the production level.

Reduce Embroidery Design Stitch Count By Editing Artwork

Secondly, you can work on altering the customer’s artwork somewhat to try and meet the desired stitch count. However, these changes usually affect the quality of what one might consider good embroidery. 

Some of these changes might include not putting borders around fill areas, using walking stitches instead of column borders around objects, and simplifying or deleting details of the customers’ art. These changes don’t usually go over as well, so get any changes approved and in writing. The above is one of those you get what you pay for.

Reduce Embroidery Design Stitch Count By Adding Applique

This suggestion directly involves production more than it does the digitizer. Usually, you get an immediate cold response when you’re on the floor and bring up the word appliqué. And rightly so, the traditional appliqué process has a lot of cutting out, lining up, and excessive downtime on the machine.

Being lucky enough to have run production and be a digitizer at the same time, I was able to play around with using unorthodox appliqué methods when I felt I could get away with it. 

What we did was pretty simple; we would use certain materials (colored plastics, tear-away pelons) as a base on which we would digitize and stitch a very loose fill. 

This isn’t a difficult process and can be executed quickly at the production level. There are a few criteria in determining whether the job in question is a good candidate for this technique; is there a large enough filled area to make it worthwhile? Does the quantity of the order merit the specific programming, and are the goods being embroidered friendly for the type of application given the appliqué materials being used?

We used this technique often on goods that you wouldn’t be washed after every use, such as jackets and caps. If you spend the time and source the appropriate materials, it can also be successful with your washable items. It’s just a matter of taking the time to experiment.

Conclusion: Lower Your Embroidery Stitch Count With These Techniques

If you need to reduce your design stitch count, be sure to use one of our suggestions below to ensure your embroidery design is still of great quality!

• Edit your digitizing by adjusting underlay, density, and other essential theories
• Edit the artwork (such as removing borders, and using simpler stitches)
• Add applique and use a very loose fill

Let us know which technique you’ve tried; happy stitching!   

P.S. Don’t forget to check out our Digitizers Dream Course by clicking here to learn the fundamental embroidery knowledge to create the perfect design at any time. 

An embroiderer needs to follow a few basics if they expect to produce quality goods on this type of fabric. We’re here to help clarify these basics!

I’ll have you know I tried hard to think of some way to make this article a little light-hearted and not just a technical manual, so I might as well apologize in advance as it’s best suited for all us embroidery geeks. But on the plus side, after reading this article, you’ll leave with a better understanding of proper pull compensation, the suitable underlay, and a few suggestions to create the perfect design for embroidering on terry cloth.

Basics For Digitizing On Terry Cloth

There are a couple of basic rules to follow for those who have not yet experimented with terry cloth at the production level.

1. Most will agree that using Rayon thread over Polyester is preferred for embroidering on terry cloth regarding both run ability and the lifespan of the embroidery itself.
2. Using solvy, a water-soluble plastic film, allows much more detail to be seen on designs and is a must at the production level.
3. For the most part, a tear-away backing is advisable to provide needed stability for your design. Still, cut-away and solvy can also be used as backings in certain circumstances.

How to Digitize Designs for Towels and Terry Cloth

Over the last few years, as the popularity of both single-head and home embroidery machines have hit the market, individual personalization of products using monogramming and keyboard lettering name drops has quickly become a popular and profitable market.

Tips When Digitizing Terry Cloth

Purchasing lettering and editing software have become an industry standard, and terry cloth requires specific values that won’t apply to most other fabric types. These values include:

1. Density on your column and fill stitches will need to be increased by about 10% to 20% from standard goods.
2. Increasing pull compensation values is needed to counteract the thickness and pile of the fabric. The amount of pull compensation should increase incrementally as the thickness of the columns does.
3.  

3. Zig-zag underlay, even for smaller lettering with thin columns, is advisable to help mat down the terry cloth and not allow the underlay to fall outside the column stitches. Thicker columns over 3mm can use both edge run and zig-zag underlay types. The edge run will help maintain clean edges on your columns.

Underlay When Digitizing Terry Cloth

Another way to add an extra dimension to your monograms, embellishments, or elements of your corporate designs is to build up the underlay to create a bit of a three-dimensional effect on your column stitches. It is a very visually effective technique. 

However, creating this three-dimensional effect is also more time-consuming as all of your underlay needs to be built up manually. The general idea is to use it on thicker columns that are at least 4mm wide. You start by building up multiple runs on underlay towards the center of your column areas. Be fairly excessive as this is your “cording” so to speak that is going to push up your column stitches. Next, you will manually place zig-zag stitches that run slanted on a 45-degree angle on the first pass and opposite in direction on the second pass creating a webbed effect that holds in all of the centers runs underlay that you placed down first.

Now when you place your satin column stitch over the top, you’ve created a convex ridge of underlay that forms more depth. When using this technique, try not to get too far ahead of yourself before following up from your underlay with your columns. There might be some movement in the design if you do, and the underlay could start popping out. 

Getting creative with this technique within corporate designs can have dramatic effects if you choose your design elements correctly.

Digitizing for terry cloth does pose a few challenges. The same values that apply to settings regarding density, pull compensation, and underlay needs to be followed when custom digitizing. 

Also, fill stitches will need more stability within the underlay by using cross-stitched underlay instead of the standard opposite direction underlay. 

Fixing Embroidery Designs for Terry Cloth

Corporate designs already digitized are many times embroidered on terry cloth as an afterthought. Luckily, software being as it is today, we can easily and quickly modify the values of these designs without having to re-digitize them. We seem to run into some real difficulty when the design elements consist of much fine detail and small text.

Here are a couple of “easy fixes” when you find yourself in this situation.

Fill Behind Your Design

The first thing we usually try is incorporating a 1/3 fill the same color thread as the fabric. 

Place this fill either behind the entire design or just behind the details or text that embroiders directly onto the fabric. This fill is to be digitized with no underlay values and should only include a tie-in and tie-out function. Because it is simply a loose fill it won’t add many stitches to your design and will assist in matting down the pile of the terry cloth for your lettering to sit on top.

Create Applique Background

The second option we used when embroidering designs was creating generic appliqués shapes in various sizes and running the designs on top of the appliqués. 

Cataloging circles, ovals, squares, and rectangles in various sizes can translate into quick edits that will work for most logos. This solution is a little more time-consuming and costly for your customers, but the results are embroidery quality that resembles work done on standard materials.

One thing to watch for is that you make sure your material blends are fairly consistent. If your terry cloth is 100% cotton, follow suit with your appliqué fabric to try and minimize varying shrinkage with the differing materials. 

Appliqués on terry cloth also work well and are more cost-effective when embroidering decorative projects are geared more towards the retail market. Stitch counts remain lower while resulting in more coverage area, especially since more density and underlay is needed when embroidering fills directly on terry.

Now for a tip that fringes on the creative side and can still be used within the corporate market. We used this technique while running single-color designs, mainly on beach towels. However, it can be done on anything terry cloth, including golf towels. 

First, you need to hoop solvy within your frame instead of pelon and then wind your bobbins with the same thread color as the front. Obviously, it works best with embellishment designs and symmetrical logos that are reversible, but even when a design doesn’t hold these attributes, it still gives the embroidery a finished look on the reverse side.

Creating loose-fill designs specifically for this technique generally works best because of the lack of stability by not using the typical backings. On the other hand, once the solvy dissolves away, it tends to lend itself well to the intended purpose of being functional and absorbent.

Conclusion

Digitizing for terry cloth is easier than you thought with the use of these proper techniques and tools. Remember to increase your density, increase your pull and push compensation, and adjust your underlay. 

If you need to adjust your design for embroidering on terry cloth, remember our three simple tips:

• Use a fill behind your design
• Create an applique background

Mastering your skills with this seemingly difficult medium and becoming more creative and experimenting with different techniques will quickly expand your involvement in creating your personalized embroidery for terry cloth and towels.

Follow our suggestions and tips above for the best results. If you enjoyed this article or have a question, don’t forget to leave a comment below.

Happy stitching! 

It seems over the last decade, corporate logos have become more and more graphically intense. Corporate logos are created to promote the visual appearance of printed matter and signage. Our problem begins with the fact that when you’re dealing with needle and thread compared to all other graphics-related industries, we need to deal with limitations that don’t apply to anybody else. You can put as much ink as you want on a piece of paper, but you can’t say the same for stitches on clothing.

Logos have especially become more graphically intense with the use of color blending and variegation. When dealing with large oversized designs, the success of interpreting this technique is much easier to deal with; the tricky part starts when we are asked to use these applications on designs that are smaller or need to be placed on the front of a baseball cap.

Color Blending Levels in Machine Embroidery

Blending and variegation can be broken down into many different levels depending not only on the artwork but also on the applications and the software functions you may or may not have.

Manual Blending in Digitizing

The first of these would be the technique of manual blending. This is the use of placing manual stitches randomly to replicate your artwork. This is notably more time-consuming, and it helps if you have a bit of an artistic flair.

Blending is typically used in conjunction with regular fill stitches of different colors, using first a regular fill density for your base color and a looser density running on top of the first in the same direction. Ensuring that all your stitches run in the same direction is the main thing to look for; the fills will sink into each other, giving a softer blending of both colors. This technique can be used very quickly to give the illusion of depth and light reflection while using the regular fill tools available on all systems. 

You can also take it a step further by increasing and decreasing the density values while using the same colors in your design. For example, this was the case while digitizing this flower design.

Color Blending within Digitizing Software

Achieving a realistic variegated effect can be as easy as clicking a button if these functions are available in your software. Within some systems, you can purchase these functions independently or upgrade to a level that does provide this utility. If I were to choose to purchase any of the “bells and whistles” available within some of the higher levels of today’s software, this one would probably be one of the most practical. 

Here are some examples of some common variegated effects that are created at the click of a button.

How to Replicate Color Blending in Digitizing

There are always ways to cheat the system, so don’t fear if you don’t have the variegated effects tools within your software. It is very easy to replicate this function by using your drawing tools and running stitches. 

The first thing you need to do is digitize your base color with a standard value fill. Then digitize your second color using the same values to the point that the two colors meet. This is where your drawing tools come in; if your fill density value is at, say, .35mm, you’ll need to start your variegation at about .45mm and span to about 2.00 mm. 

Depending on the area that needs to be variegated, you will draw your lines fanning out between the two density values. 

After your lines have been drawn, use your running stitch tool and set your stitch length to the same length as your fill stitch. Then follow the path of your drawn lines. 

Problems with Color Blending in Machine Embroidery

The biggest problem we’ve encountered with trying to achieve variegation and blending on smaller left chest and hat designs is making these areas look as clean as possible. 

If you’ve already digitized small areas with these effects, you might have noticed that it always ends up having an unfinished and jagged look to it no matter how hard you try. (Shown in the image above). 

If you’re blending multiple colors on top of each other, the change of densities as they are applied can easily make what is supposed to be a straight or curved line lose its shape and appear jagged.

Our solution to this problem has proven itself successful in rectifying both these situations. We will add a column stitch around the outside of the object, in the same color as the fabric it’s being applied to (demonstrated in the image above). This gives you a place to hide those rough-looking stitches and keeps the desired shape intact no matter how busy things get. So that perfect circle that the customer was expecting won’t end up looking like an egg! 

How to Successfully Color Blend when Digitizing

What sets one digitizer apart from the rest is their ability to map a design to its completion while always keeping in mind its run ability in production. Someone can digitize the most beautiful design in the world, but if it doesn’t run well then, it’s worthless. 

This “Empire Theatres” logo is an example that encases both variegation and blending. But also has a lot of elements that look difficult if you’re trying to path a design properly, keep registration of the colors intact, or not distort the shape of the oval. Here is a point-by-point rundown of the sequence of colors digitized. 

1. Gold fill for film digitized vertically.
2. White and Blue variegation digitized traveling without any jumps.
3. Purple film tracks digitized, walking into fill direction to avoid jumps.
4. Royal Blue oval digitized horizontally.
5. Purple blending to show the reflection of light and column around oval.
6. White highlight and thin columns around film.

The sample is the result of the first sew-off, and no further editing was required. With proper mapping and thinking of creative ways to hide those messy stitches, the proper use of blending and variegation will set you apart from your competition.

Color Blending Digitizing Lesson

Are you interested in learning more about the age-old digitizing rules and theory? How about how to properly layer different thread colors, how using opposing stitch angles can change your eye perception or how you can use a combination of stitch types to create dimension?

Our Advanced Digitizing Lesson Artistic Merit and Color Blending Techniques will teach you everything you need to know using our proven hands-on approach to learning how to digitize alongside John Deer, the world’s most awarded digitizer.

Throughout this lesson, John teaches you how to blend thread colors like paint with digitizing. He walks you through digitizing the detailed sunflower design as seen above, from start to finish while incorporating the different techniques. The best part? It’s 3.5 hours of interactive video where you can start and stop as you please. So really, the speed you learn is at your own pace. It also remains in your classroom indefinitely, so you can refer back to the lesson whenever you need! 

Conclusion: Blending Colours In Digitizing Takes Practice

Learning to blend colors within your embroidery designs has become highly sought after within the digitizing world. As I mentioned at the start of this article, nothing brings a design to life and draws the eye like professional color blending.

The way your stitches run, the colors you use, and the techniques you use to create illusions will greatly impact how well your color blending techniques work. 

If you want to learn how to layer your thread colors using proper stitch angles and use different combinations of stitch types to create dimension past what was covered in this article, don’t forget to check out our Artistic Merit Color Blending Lesson. This lesson will go into more depth than this article and help you take your embroidery digitizing to the next level. Click here to learn more now.

Digitizing Logos is Different than Digitizing Regular Embroidery Designs

Things aren’t always as simple as they seem. Take, for example, a corporate logo: a mere design with letters around it, right? Maybe so, but digitizing corporate logos is more challenging than working animals or floral designs. If I’m digitizing a wolf, the sew out is based on my interpretation of it, but corporate designs must be exact – the customer’s logo reflects their identity and is therefore sacred. So sacred that I’ve had customers measure designs to the millimeter and look at stitches under a magnifying glass. 

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s I ran & owned one of North America’s largest commercial digitizing houses. We did work for dozens of fortune 500 companies like Disney, the NFL, Coca-Cola, John Deere, and many more. During this timeframe, because most of my orders required digitizing corporate designs, I learned to educate my customers about how their logos translate into stitches to stave off potential problems before they happen. Here are 3 time-tested tips that’ll help save you, and your customers, hours of frustration:

1. Altering Logos to Make them Digitizing / Embroidery Design Friendly

Before you begin digitizing the design, the first challenge is figuring out what to do with the artwork you receive from your customers. Sadly, most business owners don’t have embroidery in mind when creating a corporate logo. Designers create striking graphics that look great on letterhead but don’t translate well into stitches on a golf shirt.

• The design is relatively embroidery friendly; any modifications will be slight and won’t affect the design’s integrity. In this case, I don’t contact the customer.

• Lettering needs to be enlarged to meet embroidery minimums or kerned to avoid trims and jumps. Multiple borders may need to be minimized. Here, I’ll verbally let the client know about these small alterations.

• Layout changes are necessary, or the designs details are too intricate for embroidery and are therefore being simplified. In this scenario, I contact the customer and show him the changes.

When I send revisions to customers, I include a form for them to sign with their approval.

If you settle for a verbal OK, odds are your contact didn’t show the changes to the end customer. And if the end customer complains after the order’s complete, you’ll end up in a your-word-against-his battle, which you’ll probably lose to keep your customer.

Decisions, Decisions

Some customers resist alterations you make in preparing their designs for embroidery. In this case, show them the difference between embroidering the logo their way vs. your way instead of telling them that they must accept your version. I create a page showing the original logo as the customer sent it, a ludicrous option that I know he won’t go for, and a third version I’ve edited to accommodate embroidery. My customer is happy that he has options, and I know he’ll end up choosing the one I intended him to pick. Make sure you don’t give the customer more than two options; otherwise, you’ll waste time explaining each one’s pros and cons.

2. Taming Logo Text when Digitizing

The text makes or breaks corporate logos. If the logos graphic element is perfectly digitized, but the text is sloppy, the customer will notice the shoddy letters. When letters are placed directly on a garment (meaning they won’t be sitting on any fill stitches), I use all uppercase block letters at 5mm high. When you digitize upper and lower case 5mm lettering on knitted fabrics, stitches close up, make text illegible. 

Sure, smaller lettering is possible, but you can’t guarantee the results on every application. Suppose a customer tells you a design is only going on nylon jackets, and you digitize the logo to go only on nylon. In that case, it never fails that the client calls back, saying he decided to use the design on golf shirts instead, and the embroidery looks terrible. The point is you must tell customers that designs react differently depending on the fabric type.

3. The Larger the Embroidery Design, the More Detail You Can Digitize Into the Logo

How much detail stays in a logo depends on the final size: the larger the design, the more detail. Look closely at the images in the “Stayner” design, a single-color logo digitized for the full-front on a sweatshirt.

When you compare the original art to the finished stitched sample, you’ll notice that we didn’t digitize many of the lines. 

It’s all in the details

Understanding how much detail to include in a design comes only with experience. After dealing with thread properties and seeing how its mass interacts with fabrics, you get a feel for it. In the meantime, learn more about the main fabric categories used in machine embroidery by clicking here.

We use three basic stitch types when digitizing: running, satin, and fill stitches. A running stitch has about a 1mm mass in itself, satin stitches should have at least a 2mm throw, and fill stitches are generally used to cover areas larger than 8mm (if you want to learn more about stitch settings for the 3 primary stitch types, click here to gain access to our Free Embroidery Digitizing 101: Cheat Sheet PDF & video course). Learning when to use each stitch and knowing how to tweak their relative values to create dimensional embroidery is important, as is understanding that embroidery reflects light depending on the direction of the stitches. 

An example of digitizing corporate logos:

Now to show you first hand how I would digitize a corporate logo, and some age-old digitizing theory in action here’s a video I filmed showing you how I went about digitizing a more complex logo:

Conclusion: Use These 3 Key Steps to Excel From Practice to Perfection

Alter customer logos to ensure it’s digitizing and embroidery design-friendly: 

Although many logos look great on letterhead, it doesn’t mean it will translate well into stitches. Depending on how the logo turns out once stitched, it’ll give you an idea of how to confront your customer regarding alterations. If you need to inform the customer of any changes necessary, always get the customer’s approval in writing to avoid any confrontations.

Depending on what the customer wants to be embroidered, small text is not always possible

Embroidery reacts differently depending on what fabric the design is being embroidered on. Although your customer may want a smaller text, it may not work with particular fabrics; therefore, you need to improvise so text can be legible.

The larger the embroidery design, the more detail you can include in the logo.

The only way to know how much detail to have, or not to have, comes from knowing the age-old theory and rules behind creating soft machine-friendly embroidery designs.

These pointers will serve you well with corporate work, but nothing helps as much as experience and learning the theory behind digitizing. Although embroidery software has changed over the years, the principles of how thread reacts with different fabric types to create smooth-running embroidery have not. Of course, that theory cannot be cover in a short article such as this one (which I’m sure doesn’t surprise you). If you’re new to digitizing, I would highly suggest you check out our free Embroidery Digitizing 101: Cheat Sheet video course. You’ll learn more about embroidery digitizing, and it will give you a foundation of embroidery digitizing theory that’ll help you understand designs and what’s happening underneath your needle. Or if you know digitizing is something you’d like to pursue, I would advise you to check out our fan-favorite Digitizer’s Dream Course. With thousands of students successfully completing this course to learn how to digitize and proven results, I’ll help get you past the learning curve quickly and on your way towards digitizing corporate logos you can be proud of.

So get punching and remember, every corporate design you digitize makes you a better digitizer.

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Happy stitching!

Like anything within embroidery production, the first and most important step is within the digitizing process. A proper understanding of how it will relate to in-house production is the key. If you are presently immersed in the corporate mindset when digitizing designs, you’re probably producing embroidery files that are programmed for left chest and cap applications. It’s funny but smaller corporate logos are for the most part more critically scrutinized and need appropriate densities, details and outlines to be considered quality work.

If you digitize athletic uniform designs with the same techniques as your corporate work you’ll find that your designs might be visually appealing but not cost effective for this market, as stitch counts get quickly out of control. When I digitize for this medium the standard logo is usually 14 inches in width and I find myself switching gears when this type of work comes in-house. You need to first look at your artwork and discern how you can keep quality while keeping the final stitch count as low as possible.

Some of you may not like the sound of this, but in this market using appliques is your best friend for staying competitive. Our first step is to assess the artwork for large coverage areas that can be replaced with multiple appliques as opposed to using fill stitches.

The major things to consider when digitizing is that you don’t need as much underlay for these large designs within your fill and column stitches, if you digitize these logos with the same values as you do left chest designs you’ll find that you can add thousand of unnecessary stitches. You can also slightly decrease your densities within your stitch types as well, because these designs are so large and the applique fabric is very stable you’ll find that using too much density will actually work against you by promoting movement. With corporate logos I’m always looking to outline my fill areas with column stitches to promote clean edges, this can also at times be overlooked to help keep the stitches down.

Probably the most cost-effective way is to use the tackle twill or zig-zag stitch method whenever possible. This can enable you to do a 14-inch full front design while keeping the stitch count extremely low, the Densmore design has under 7000 stitches.

Even multi-color appliques tend to usually fall under the 15000-stitch mark, making it an easy sell to the customer. Digitizing tackle twill is pretty unforgiving, with little margin for error; extra care needs to be taken while laying down your points. The only other bits of advice that I have for effectively using tackle twill is that you should use your column tool with a low density as opposed to the zig-zag tool within your software. The reason being is that the zig-zag function doesn’t always properly assess your corners or places that meet to a point, it has a tendency to miss crucial stitches. While using your loose column stitch you will also need to make sure that you also double up your stitches at any points with straight edges, this will ensure the long-term wear-ability of the design.

It all comes down to how much the customer is willing pay for the work being done. Using a column stitch applique looks cleaner and is easier to program for, but the stitch count will increase.

Multiple applique column stitch designs can often be done as a one step process directly on your garment making them more production friendly.

In other situations more detailed designs with multiple appliques and higher stitch counts may need to be done in two steps, these designs may need to be run in their entirety as a patch that will later be stitched onto the garment. If you are embroidering through three or four layers of applique material you have a greater tendency for hard stitches while embroidering it as one process directly on the garment can run the risk of damaging goods. Running these designs on a piece of Pelon first and then creating an applique file to apply them to the garment afterward is much safer.

Now for the part everyone’s been waiting for, the dreaded split front. If any of you have had to start from scratch I’m sure you might have spent a couple hours and a lot of machine time playing with formulas that work consistently. When I start dealing with embroiderers just getting involved with doing split fronts, I try and get them in the mindset of a 14 inch rule whenever possible. Having consistency with setting up and digitizing for split fronts will save you time, especially when setting up the artwork. This method has worked consistently over the years and is easy for the machine operators to adapt to.

The most important step as always is properly prepping your artwork; a 14-inch design will always end up being 15 ¾ inches for digitizing and production purposes. First you need to set your split line on your artwork, which tells the machine operator where to lay down both sides of the garment. The right side of the garment is what you will digitize first, digitizing 7 ¾ to allow for ¾ overlap when the garment is buttoned up.

When you split the artwork leave 1 of space to allow for the buttoned seam area of the left side of the garment, then finish digitizing the left side, which is a 7-inch area. The extra ¾ inch area that you digitized first on the right side will end up covering the same distance on the left side when its buttoned up and you’ll have a perfect split front. I’ve included detailed images of the art setup measurements and a captured jpeg of the stitch file to further explain the process.

The only part of the process that you’ll need to do after the garment comes off the machine is to fold over the applique material at edge of the right seam and manually stitch it with a zig-zag machine.

This can be attempted while on the embroidery machine but it’s generally more trouble than it’s worth.

Many new embroiderers might feel intimidated to get into this market because of the size of the designs and the seemingly complicated process. But if you take the time to learn to properly digitize for the medium and how to apply it to production, it’s yet another great way to tap into a lucrative niche market.

Want more free digitizing education? Check out my free Embroidery Digitizing 101: Cheat Sheet video course now.

I hope this article helped you! If you enjoyed it or have a question please comment below now.

(fig.1) or creating effective water scenes. If you do want to pursue using this stitch effect in your corporate work I would suggest digitizing a fictitious logo that you can use to try and sell the technique. A finished sample is worth a thousand words. Like any process in digitizing that takes longer to produce than your standard corporate work, you’ll probably want to adjust your pricing for the service.

Vermicelli stitches (more commonly know as stipple stitches today) are traditionally used to fill in larger areas with a single pass running stitch and can be created with rounded edges or sharp edges. Historically this stitch was used in the schiffli industry to create patterned yard goods mostly for the fashion and lingerie industry. The interesting thing about using this stitch effect is that even though it resembles a random loose effect, you really need to map and precisely place stitches to ensure a smooth running design without being trapped and having numerous unwanted jump stitches and trims. You’ll generally find that planning your artwork properly will far outweigh your actual digitizing time. Your art should start and stop in a continuous path to promote efficiency in production.

A couple years ago we created a very elaborate catalog that spoofed the National Enquirer. Within the front cover of this piece was an open area approximately 4×5 inches in which we wanted to place an actual embroidered piece to show our workmanship. Obviously producing something like this is not going to be cheap, but historically we have found it to be very effective. Sending out creatively embroidered materials to promote your business is always well worth the effort, they don’t end up in the trash as quickly as the plain printed materials do. With cost being the big factor in producing 10,000 of these catalogs we wanted to create something unique but with a relatively low stitch count.

We decided to do an alien design to go along with the whole theme and decided to use not only different colors but to also tighten and loosen the vermicelli stitch itself to show depth and simulate the reflection of light and the depth of shadows.

Right away we were very happy with the finished effect, as it almost resembled a chenille effect to the embroidery. The stitch count of a bearable 16487 stitches and five color changes wasn’t too bad considering the coverage of space. I actually liked the effect so much we embroidered it on a kid’s jacket and entered it in a trade competition; much to our surprise it took a first place!

With the success of what I considered a fairly simple design we immediately got to work on something a just little more challenging. The finished result of this momentary insanity was a “bridge scene” design that was geared to resemble an impressionist style.

Although a finished stitch count of 136731 sounds high, given the fact that the dimensions of the design are 10×14 ¾ inches and had twenty-two colors, it’s not too bad. I can honestly say that anyone that knows how to enter a manual stitch could have physically digitized this design; each of the 136731 stitches was manually imputed one at a time. The only tricky part was trying not to lose your bearings in the sea of stitches. It took about 10 hours in the digitizing process, which included numerous breaks to compensate for eyestrain.

The real feat was in prepping the artwork. As some of you might have guessed punching something of this size and complexity is more easily done on a digitizing tablet as opposed to on-screen, I personally would have gotten lost about a thousand stitches into it if I tried it on-screen. Taking that into account we hand drafted the design at a 2/1 scale. The first step was blowing up the original photograph to the desired scale and affixing it to a light table. Because there is so much going on we then decided to further break the design down into four separate stages that would mold together as each section was done. Using a very thin tracing paper we were able to place on the light table each completed component of the draft on top of the next; allowing you to view the previous drafts and make sure everything would align upon completion with no gaps. This process took 5 painful days to complete and every stitch in the design was manually drawn with, of all things, a pencil; like most things, most of our old manual drafting utensils have fallen by the wayside with the use of computers to generate our artwork.

As with its’ predecessor the “alien” we tightened and loosened clusters of stitches, but this time we also tried to blend segments of colors to create more tones and depth in the image.

As always the real thing to be proud of in a design of this nature is what people don’t see in the finished product. That being the fluent flow of the design and the limitation of using trims and jumps.

Lastly was the task of choosing the proper colors in which to run the design. Artistic designs are made or broken by using your thread colors in the same way an artist blends colors on his palette. We ended up running it four times with different combinations before finally being content with the results. This is something I see happen frequently in our industry, usually when embroidering animals. You know the scenario; when customer calls saying, “the sample you sent me looks great, but when I stitch it off it looks like crap!” Whenever we do design work that falls into the “artistic” category we always provide the thread type and numbers for them to match up to whatever they carry in stock.

When this framed piece is on display most people don’t event realize that it is embroidered, they usually step forward and back a few times before they believe it. Once I tell them every stitch was hand drawn and manually stitched they ask if I’m a little daft, which I guess I must be!

Here’s a quick video I filmed on the bridge scene design:

Like most of you who share a passion for what you do, this type of thing needs to be done simply for the love of your trade and wanting to do something that falls outside of the corporate curse. So, if you have some extra time on your hands start playing with some of these long forgotten stitch types. And if you want to make it a career, then be prepared to starve to death! Who knows, maybe when we’re long dead and gone our grandchildren might actually be able to get a buck or two for this stuff. Until then we just have to do it because we can!