What is a DST file?

Getting it onto the machine

USB stick, root folder.

How the file is built

Three bytes per stitch. The move in x and y is written as balanced ternary, so one stitch can move at most 12.1 mm. Anything longer becomes two stitches – and that is why a long jump in a badly built file shows up as a visible line.

Colours

DST carries no colours at all, only the order to change. The thread numbers come from the machine, so the operator sets them at the head.

What goes wrong with a DST file

• A stitch cannot move more than 12.1 mm. The move is written as balanced ternary, and the weights only reach 121 units. A longer move becomes two stitches – and in a badly built file that shows up as a line drawn across the mark.
• If the thread order set at the head is wrong, the whole mark comes out in the wrong colours – and the file is not at fault. It only says when to change, never to what, so the fix is at the machine, not in the file.
• Every stitch is exactly 3 bytes, so the size of the file tells you the stitch count and nothing else. A DST that is suddenly much smaller has lost stitches, not compressed them.

If your machine is not listed

Use DST. Every commercial machine reads it, and most home machines will too – it is the format the trade falls back on. The stitches are identical in all seven; only the wrapper differs, so «which format?» is a question about your machine and never about quality.

Why make it here

• You see the whole mark before you pay – every stitch, at the size you asked for. If it is not right, do not buy it.
• Nobody touches the file afterwards. What is on screen is what the machine gets, and it is worked out in seconds, not in a day.
• The same stitches come out in all seven formats. Change your machine and you do not start over – you pick another format.
• From $0.40 a file on a yearly plan. Studio’s first month is $9 for 20 files, then $29 a month – cancel any time.

Drop a logo, look at it closely, and take the DST only if it is right.

What you can send in