# digitizing.app

> Turns a logo into a machine embroidery file. You drop a PNG, JPG or SVG in the
> browser, pick a size and a technique, and download a stitch file your machine
> reads. The stitching is decided by an engine called Sting – no human punches
> the file, and the file is deleted the moment it is stitched.

digitizing.app is a reference page on embroidery digitizing and a workshop that
does the work. It is available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

## What the tool does

- Reads a logo (PNG, JPG, SVG) and traces it into shapes.
- Chooses the seam from the shape – a band gets satin across it, a field gets
  rows, an emblem radiates from one centre – rather than from a fixed rule.
- Writes DST (Tajima), PES (Brother, Babylock), JEF (Janome, Elna),
  VP3 (Husqvarna, Pfaff), EXP (Melco, Bernina) and XXX (Singer), and SVG –
  the drawing itself, which neither Ember nor SewFlow can export.
- Four techniques: flat, 3D puff (satin over foam), patch, and appliqué.
- Lettering: type a name or a word, pick one of eleven typefaces, and get a
  stitch file for it.

## What nobody does afterwards

No human corrects the file. The whole mark is worked out on screen before you
pay – every stitch, at the size you asked for – and what you look at is what
the machine gets. It takes seconds, and it is measured in milliseconds under
the mark in the workshop. This is the difference from tools that sell a
correction on top: SewFlow, in their own window, offers a professional
digitizer to hand-build the file for $19.99 and return it in 24 hours.

## The numbers that matter in embroidery digitizing

- A satin stitch holds from about 1.0 mm wide and up to about 4.5 mm. Below
  1.0 mm it is a run stitch, not a satin; above 4.5 mm it snags.
- Lettering breaks up when the stroke falls under 1 mm. The fix is the size,
  not a thinner typeface.
- A DST stitch cannot be longer than 12.1 mm.
- 3D puff needs a stroke of at least 2 mm – thinner lines are flattened when
  the foam is torn away.

## What it costs

- One embroidery file: $9, paid once, with no account and no subscription.
- Lettering (a name, a word, a date): $5 a file.
- Studio: $29 a month, or $20 a month paid yearly – 20 files a month, 2 vector files.
- Shop: $79 a month, or $55 a month paid yearly – 100 files a month, 8 vector files.
- Factory: $149 a month, or $100 a month paid yearly – 500 files a month, 20 vector files.
- Lowest price per file: $0.20 – Factory paid yearly, 500 files a month.
- A human digitizer charges roughly $10–85 per logo and takes a day or two.
- Desktop software that can digitize an illustration starts around $3,995.

## Pages

- [The reference page](https://digitizing.app/): what digitizing is, how small a logo can go,
  which file each machine reads, when embroidery is the wrong choice, and what
  a good stitch file looks like.
- [The workshop](https://digitizing.app/tool): drop a logo, get a file.
- [Pricing](https://digitizing.app/pricing): one file for $9, a lettering for $5, or Studio at $29 a month for 20 files.
- [Stitch file checker](https://digitizing.app/stitch-file-checker): drop a DST and see what is in it – free, no account.
- [Three tools compared](https://digitizing.app/compare): digitizing.app, Ember and
  SewFlow, measured inside each one, with the two places we are not the cheapest.
- [Deutsch](https://digitizing.app/de) ·
  [Français](https://digitizing.app/fr) ·
  [Italiano](https://digitizing.app/it) ·
  [Español](https://digitizing.app/es)

### One page per file format

- [.dst](https://digitizing.app/format/dst): Tajima.
- [.pes](https://digitizing.app/format/pes): Brother · Babylock.
- [.jef](https://digitizing.app/format/jef): Janome · Elna.
- [.vp3](https://digitizing.app/format/vp3): Husqvarna Viking · Pfaff.
- [.exp](https://digitizing.app/format/exp): Melco · Bernina.
- [.xxx](https://digitizing.app/format/xxx): Singer.
- [.svg](https://digitizing.app/format/svg): Illustrator · Figma · Inkscape.

### One page per file you can send in

- [PNG → stitch file](https://digitizing.app/convert/png)
- [JPG → stitch file](https://digitizing.app/convert/jpg)
- [SVG → stitch file](https://digitizing.app/convert/svg)
- [PDF → stitch file](https://digitizing.app/convert/pdf)
- [AI → stitch file](https://digitizing.app/convert/ai)

### The three questions people ask first

- [What others charge for embroidery digitizing](https://digitizing.app/embroidery-digitizing-cost)
- [How to digitize a logo for embroidery](https://digitizing.app/how-to-digitize-a-logo)
- [Embroidery lettering – a name, a word, a date](https://digitizing.app/embroidery-lettering)
- [How small can embroidery go?](https://digitizing.app/minimum-embroidery-size)
- [When printing beats embroidery](https://digitizing.app/embroidery-vs-print)
- [How to tell a good stitch file from a bad one](https://digitizing.app/embroidery-file-quality)
- [Which embroidery file does your machine read?](https://digitizing.app/embroidery-file-formats)
- [Why embroidery goes wrong – and where the fault sits](https://digitizing.app/embroidery-digitizing-problems)

## Honest limits

- A logo with lines thinner than the thread cannot be sewn at every size. The
  page says so, and the workshop says which size it holds from.
- Embroidery is the wrong choice for photographs, fine gradients and very small
  type. The reference page has a section on it.
- SewFlow is cheaper than us at a hundred files a month: $19 against our $55.
  Ember writes four machine formats we do not – u01, pec, sew and tbf.
- Every number here was measured on 2026-09-17, and the pages carry the date they
  were measured on.