Embroidery Digitizing is an Art

 The embroidery digitizing takes place when the original artwork - a drawing, design, graphic or picture is scanned in digitizing software to turn it into a digital file that can be used by the automatic sewing machine. Once the original is scanned with the digitizing software, the operator must then manipulate the image in the embroidery digitizing software to tell the embroidery machine how to sew the stitches. The scanned image is now processed through the cap digitizing software to the many stitches necessary to embroider the image.

While using the embroidery digitizing software, the operator decides what colors of thread to use, any special threads like metallic, nylon, cotton, silk, etc and where they are placed in the digitized pattern. They also determine the necessary parameters of the stitches that will go on the cloth. Some may be very dense, or many stitches, or very light, very few stitches to make the designs. The operator can also determine what kinds of stitches are made, like zigzagged or cross-stitched, as examples. Once all the parameters are selected and verified, the operator can save the file to a small compact disc (CD) or a secure digital (SD) or similar solid-state memory card. Once it is scanned, manipulated in the embroidery digitizing software, saved to disk in a file format that the sewing machines can understand, it is then loaded into the sewing machine to produce the embroidered image.

There are many software for embroidery digitizing currently available. Most sewing machines come with some type of digitizing software, but many digitizing operators choose to use some other types of software that offer more flexibility and additional features than the basic programs provided with the particular embroidery machines. There are many embroidery digitizing software applications available for Windows, Linux and MAC machines and many are freeware or shareware that is much less expensive than the commercial applications, but can perform almost everything the "professional" applications offer.

Once the scanned image is processed through the embroidery digitizing software, the processed image must be saved in a file, however, there are some 30 different file types so the proper digitizing file type must be determined. The operator must select the proper file format for the embroidery or digital sewing machine that is used to apply the embroidery. After the embroidery digitizing software manipulates the image, it is very important the operator use the correct format for saving the digitized file, as different machines require different file formats so they can properly reproduce the original artwork.