Menu

Embroidery digitizing: what a vectorizer can and cannot do

Updated October 25, 2026 · Rasterklar

Short answer

No vectorizer, this one included, turns an image into a machine embroidery file such as PES, DST or EXP. It gives you clean outlines separated by thread colour, which is where digitizing starts; stitch types, density, underlay and pull compensation are still set in a digitizing program, for example Ink/Stitch, a free Inkscape extension (inkstitch.org).

People search for “image to embroidery file” hoping for one click. Here is the honest version: a vectorizer, this one included, gives you clean shapes separated by colour. Turning shapes into stitches is digitizing, and that is a different job.

Mode
Inks or threads, plus one for the background.
Lower keeps sharp corners; higher rounds them.
Higher merges curves: fewer nodes, softer outline.
Shapes smaller than this many pixels are dropped.

2 free images a day without one. Lost your code?

What the vectorizer does for an embroiderer

  • Separates the artwork into a few flat colours (the “Embroidery outlines” preset uses 4), one layer each, which become your thread colours.
  • Draws smooth closed outlines with few nodes, which digitizing software turns into satin columns or fill areas more cleanly than a pixel trace.
  • Drops specks under the despeckle size: tiny islands that would become unsewable stitches.
  • Sizes the design in millimetres, so the hoop size is right from the start.

What it cannot do

Anyone selling “automatic digitizing” makes these choices with defaults; the result can be fine for simple badges and poor on fabric that stretches. A vector file is still worth having first, because it is the part that is the same for every fabric.

  • Choose stitch types: satin for narrow columns and lettering, fill for areas, running stitch for details.
  • Set density, underlay and pull compensation for the fabric; the same design sews differently on a towel and on a T-shirt.
  • Plan the sewing order and jumps so the machine does not trim every few stitches.
  • Write the machine file (PES, DST, EXP…).

A workflow that works

Trace with the Embroidery preset (colour, 4 colours, smoother corners, despeckle 8). Open the SVG in Inkscape: each colour is a layer. Install Ink/Stitch, assign stitch types per layer, adjust density for your fabric, and export the machine format. Or send the SVG to a digitizer: a clean vector is quicker, and so cheaper, to digitize than a JPG.

Questions

Can you add PES or DST export?

Not as an automatic conversion: without the fabric and stitch decisions it would produce files that sew badly. The SVG is the honest hand-off to a digitizing tool.

How many colours should I trace?

As many as the thread colours you plan, plus the background. Fewer colours mean fewer colour changes and cleaner shapes.

Read next

Sources

  1. Ink/Stitch — open-source machine embroidery design platform (Inkscape extension) (dated October 24, 2026)
  2. Potrace — Peter Selinger, "Potrace: a polygon-based tracing algorithm" (the algorithm; GPL-2.0) (dated September 20, 2003)