Embroidery digitising guides
Plain-English guides for UK businesses, schools, clubs and embroiderers ordering or making embroidery files: what digitising is, what it costs, who owns the file, which format your machine needs and how to get school crests right. Written by the PlixaLabs digitising team, with free tools to check your own files.
Start here
New to embroidery files? Begin with the basics.
Costs and buying
What to pay, what you own, and how to pick a digitiser.
How much does embroidery digitising cost?
Flat fee vs per 1,000 stitches, local setup fees and the hidden cost of a bad file.
7 min readDigitising fees and file ownership
Why embroiderers charge a setup fee, who owns the stitch file, and what to ask.
5 min readHow to choose an embroidery digitising service
Ten checks and a scorecard before you trust a digitiser with production.
5 min readFiles and techniques
Formats, caps and schoolwear.
Embroidery file formats explained
DST, PES, JEF, EXP and VP3, with a brand-by-brand table of which format your machine needs.
5 min readSchool crest embroidery digitising
Keeping crests crisp on blazers, jumpers and PE kit through years of washing.
4 min readCap embroidery digitising
Centre-out sequencing, the centre seam, curve compensation and 3D puff.
5 min readAI and software
When automatic tools are enough, and when they aren’t.
Free tools
Check your own files and artwork
Browser-based tools. No signup.
DST file viewer
Open a DST file in your browser: size, stitch count, colour stops and playback.
Open tool →Image-to-embroidery checker
Check whether a logo image is ready for embroidery before you order.
Open tool →Thread colour matcher
Find the closest Madeira Polyneon, Isacord and Pantone shades for your logo.
Open tool →Stitch count estimator
A rough stitch count from the design size, complexity and coverage.
Open tool →Embroidery run time calculator
Estimate how long a design takes to sew on your machine.
Open tool →EPS and AI file viewer
Preview EPS and AI artwork files without design software.
Open tool →Get your first design digitised free
One free design per new registered business: Simple or Medium complexity, standard turnaround, embroidery digitising or vector conversion. After that, each design has one flat price set by its complexity.