What is a DST file?
DST is the stitch format of Tajima embroidery machines, saved with the .dst extension. Because so many commercial machines accept it alongside their own brand format, it became the file that shops, digitizers and decorators send each other when they do not know, or do not want to guess, what machine will sew the job. Even home and small-business machines often read it: Brother, for example, lists .dst next to its own .pes and .phc files for its PR1055X multi-needle machine.
A DST is a machine file, not a design file. It is the final output of digitizing, written after every stitch type, angle, density and underlay setting has been decided. Think of it as a PDF of the embroidery: good for sewing and sharing, poor for editing. The editable master behind it is a working file such as a Wilcom EMB file or a Pulse PXF file.
For which machine brands prefer DST and which prefer their own format, see embroidery machines and their formats.
What does a DST file store, and what does it leave out?
The format is simple. After a short header, the file is a run of 3-byte records, each one a move of the needle in 0.1 mm steps, flagged as a normal stitch, a jump, a color change or the end of the design. The EduTech wiki DST reference sums it up as a file holding only stitch commands for the machine.
| Stored in a DST | Not stored in a DST |
|---|---|
| Every needle position, as relative moves | Thread colors (only the points where the color changes) |
| Jump moves between areas | Objects or outlines: shapes, lettering and their settings |
| Color-change stops | Stitch type, density, underlay and pull compensation as editable values |
| A header with the label, counts and design extents | A thumbnail image |
Two gaps cause most of the trouble people have with DST files:
- No colors. The machine or software fills in default colors, so the thread sequence has to come from the digitizer. Brother support notes that its machines show DST data with a default thread color sequence and that you change the colors yourself.
- No dedicated trim command. Trims are signaled by a sequence of jumps, and machines read those sequences in slightly different ways. A DST that trims perfectly on one machine can leave the odd jump thread on another.
What is in the DST header?
Every DST starts with a 512-byte text header. You rarely need to read it, but it explains what viewers and machines show before a single stitch is drawn. According to the EduTech wiki, it holds:
- LA: the design label, a short name the machine can display.
- ST: the total stitch count.
- CO: the number of color changes.
- +X, -X, +Y, -Y: the design extents, which is how software reports width and height without reading every stitch.
- AX, AY, MX, MY: position fields used when designs are linked or placed together.
The same reference gives the largest move one record can make as 121 units, which is 12.1 mm. Longer travel is written as several jumps in a row. That limit is also why a converter splits an over-long stitch into shorter ones along the same line when it writes a DST.
How do you open a DST file?
Windows and macOS do not open DST files on their own. Your options:
- In your browser: the free DST file viewer draws the design, reads the size, stitch count and color stops, and plays the stitch-out. The file is read on your computer and not uploaded.
- In embroidery software: commercial digitizing programs read DST, and so does the free, open-source Ink/Stitch extension for Inkscape.
- On the machine: copy the file to the machine. Some home machines list a DST by file name only and show it in default colors until you set them.
Before sewing a file from someone else, check it on screen first. Our guide to checking an embroidery file before sewing lists what to look for.
How do you convert a DST file?
To use a DST on a Brother or Baby Lock machine, convert it to a PES file. The free embroidery file converter does this in your browser, and our DST to PES conversion guide walks through the steps, including setting the thread colors a DST never had.
Conversion copies stitches from one wrapper to another. It does not change size, density or underlay, and it cannot fix a file that sews badly. Converting in the other direction, from DST back to an editable EMB in Wilcom EmbroideryStudio, is a reconstruction: Wilcom says the software does its best to recreate objects from the stitches, and that the colors cannot be recreated because the DST never held them.
Why is resizing a DST file risky?
Because a DST is only a list of coordinates, scaling it moves the stitches apart or together without adding or removing any. Wilcom explains that when a DST is enlarged, the stitch spacing grows with no change to the stitch count. Enlarge it and fills open up and show fabric; shrink it and the same number of stitches is packed into less space, so lettering fills in, the design stiffens and thread breaks rise.
A working file behaves differently: scale an EMB or PXF and the software recalculates the stitches to keep the spacing. So a small nudge to fit a hoop is usually fine on a DST, but a real size change should go back to the working file, or be re-digitized. If you only have the DST, our embroidery file repair service checks the file for free and quotes to resize or rebuild it by hand.
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Sources
- EduTech wiki: Embroidery format DST (header, records, 121-unit limit, colors)
- Brother Support: types of embroidery data that can be used (PR1055X)
- Wilcom: Compare .EMB and .DST (resizing, converting DST to EMB)
- Ink/Stitch: file formats (DST read and write)
Sources checked 19 September 2026.