What Is Machine Embroidery Digitizing?

Machine embroidery digitizing is a form of art... Using digitizing software, a knowledgeable embroidery digitizer transforms an image or text to stitches, creating the image in a format an embroidery machine can utilize.

That's a simple definition but in reality it is much more involved.

Just as typing words into a word processor does not make one an author, being able to open digitizing software on a computer does not make the operator an embroidery digitizer. Embroidery digitizing is not a point and click the mouse process.

Digitizing an image for embroidery requires an artist's ability to see the entire picture and the smallest details. Experienced embroidery digitizers mentally analyze each image, breaking it into sections and layers, noting how each section relates to the others, how the colors blend and merge and how the shadows play with the light to create the mood or atmosphere the image evokes.

Then the digitizer utilizes the software's tools to create each section for stitching, using underlay and overlay threads, assigning stitching sequences, using thread to apply shading, and colorizing. The design is reassembled to replicate the original feel of the image, as much as possible, in thread and it is ready to sew out.

Sometimes digitizing an image to thread is often not possible or feasible. Thread is three dimensional; it is not oil paint or digital pixels. An embroidery digitizer must have an artist's creativity and problem-solving skills. A digitizer's canvas is the computer monitor, the keyboard and mouse are the brushes and the embroidery digitizer's pallet is the embroidery software.

But the embroiderer's canvas is the fabric, their brushes are the machine, needles and thread and their pallet is the file produced by the digitizer. The machine is only a robot awaiting instructions and then doing specifically what it is told to do in the order it was told to do it. Ruling out mechanical problems and operator error, if a pattern does not sew out correctly it is not the machine or embroiderer's fault.

So the digitizer's work is not limited to a computer screen. Knowledge of fabric types and the push-pull factor is also required. The embroidery digitizer also needs to know about needles, thread, and stabilizers and, perhaps most importantly, must artistically expand the ‘limitations’ of machine embroidery.

A professional embroidery digitizer's attitude must be: "Nothing is impossible!"

And that is what makes machine embroidery digitizing so unique and challenging!