What is digitising?
Digitising converts your artwork into a stitch file — the instructions an embroidery machine follows for every stitch: its position, direction, length and thread. It is skilled work; the same logo digitised well or badly looks completely different in thread.
Why it matters
It is the one-off cost of embroidery — a little more for 3D puff — and the reason a reorder is cheaper than a first order. A file digitised for flat embroidery does not work for puff; it has to be redone.
On our floor
Done in-house, confirmed on a stitch-out, and kept on file. Pull compensation, underlay and stitch direction are what separate a good digitiser from software.
Common questions
- What does digitising cost?
- A one-off per design, a little more for 3D puff, and stated on the quote. Once.
- Can I supply my own stitch file?
- Yes — DST or similar. We test it on a stitch-out before bulk.
- Why can't you embroider from a JPEG directly?
- Machines need stitch instructions, not pixels. Digitising is the translation.
- Is digitising kept for reorders?
- Yes — reorders carry no digitising cost.
Related terms
embroidery
Embroidery stitches your artwork into the garment with thread, from a digitised file that tells the machine where every stitch goes. Priced…
stitch count
Stitch count is the number of stitches the machine makes to embroider a design — set by the design's size, its density, and how much of it…
stitch-out
A stitch-out is a test embroidery of your digitised logo on the actual garment fabric, made before bulk so you can approve the thread…
3D puff embroidery
3D puff embroidery lays a sheet of foam under the stitching so the thread wraps over it and the design stands two to three millimetres off…
Where this applies
Book a call
Twenty minutes with the people who make it — the garment, the quantity, the date.
Put it to work
Send us what you have — a garment, a logo, a rough quantity — for a quote within a working day, or book a call and we will talk it through.
Get a quote