Digitizing


The embroidery process begins with an idea or a piece of artwork. That artwork then has to be "digitized" which is the specialized process of converting 2 dimensional artwork into stitches or thread. Contrary to popular opinion, you cannot take a particular format of art such as a jpeg, tif, eps, bmp, and convert it to an embroidery tape. Digitizing is much more than that. The digitizer has to actually recreate the artwork using stitches...in a sense...the digitizer is programming the sewing machine to sew a specific design, in a specific color, with a specific type of stitch. This is the process known as digitizing. Also, because embroidery is in a sense 3 dimensional, some exciting effects can be included to "spruce up" a normally flat piece of artwork.  We have over 10 years of experience in what will produce the best look for your design.
We use Wilcom ES 2006 software for digitizing, which we feel is the best digitizing software on the market available today. We test sew every design that we digitize and provide a "sewout" for every design we create.
 
Information We need to quote/digitize your logo
You can use this list as a checklist when discussing embroidery with your customer.
1. Camera ready artwork, high quality artwork produces high quality digitizing.
2. Size of the finished logo or location on the finished garment.
3. Colors for the logo, either PMS colors or actual thread colors, this can be supplied in the artwork or separately but we need to know what colors the design is supposed to sew. Especially important if your order has different colored garments, you may need two or more different sets of colors for the logo depending on the garment colors.
4. How to handle small elements in the logo. This can apply to small borders or small text in a design. If the finished logo size has text less than 1/4 inch tall, you should discuss options with your customer on how to handle the small text either by increasing the text or deleting some of the text, etc. The same applies to borders, most graphic designers are not familiar with the limitations with embroidery and therefore they design extravagant and intricate details in the design that can not be reproduced with thread. You should be familiar with what can and cannot be reproduced effectively with embroidery and discuss other options with your customer before you submit the design for digitizing. If you are unsure about a logo it is best to email us the design beforehand and we can give you options on what can and cannot be accomplished.
5. Stitch count quotes. We generally get most logo quotes within 1000 stitches from the final count, however, keep in mind that quotes are just quotes and your finished stitch count could be as much as 25% off especially for an intricate design. We will honor pricing on all quotes for the job it is quoted but future orders for that design will be billed as finished stitch count.
When we are happy with the quality of the design, we email you a "virtual" proof of the design letting you know that the sewout is ready for your inspection. We can then mail the sewout to you or your customer for approval. Sewouts are not shipped out automatically, you must provide us with that information upon receipt of the approval form.
 
3rd Party Designs:
We will gladly accept 3rd party designs to sew your order, but we in no way accept responsibility of poor sewing quality of these designs. Often with digitizing companies, they do not test sew their designs or send you a sewout. If you have a question on the quality of a 3rd party design, it is often best to let us repunch the design rather than spending money replacing garments that sew badly. Also we suggest getting a pre-production proof of any 3rd party designs prior to completing your order so you know exactly what you are getting before decorating the entire order.
 
We sending 3rd party designs to us via email, please also send the thread colors and sewing sequence so that the design may be inputted into our system correctly.