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Stitch Toolbox

Automatic digitising

JPG to DST converter

Turn a JPG or JPEG photo or scan into a DST embroidery file for Tajima and other commercial multi-needle machines. The picture is digitised in your browser: real fills, satin columns and underlay, sized in millimetres, with a measured audit.

Drop a logo or picture
or click to choose, or paste from the clipboard
PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, BMP, SVG · the image stays on your device

No artwork at hand? Try a sample: · ·

JPG to DST: what is specific to this pair

A customer sends a JPG and the machine wants a DST. Between the two sit the decisions a digitiser makes: which areas are fills and which are satin columns, which way the stitches run, what goes underneath, what order the colours sew in, and where the thread is trimmed. The preview shows each of those decisions, and the audit measures the outcome.

For a production run the numbers that matter are stitch count, colour changes and trims, because they decide the run time. The summary gives all three with a run-time estimate at the speed suited to the fabric, and the pre-flight density map is one click away for the finished file.

DST carries no colours, so the ZIP includes a colour sheet with the stops in sewing order. Match the colours to Madeira, Isacord or Robison-Anton first and the sheet lists the numbers your operator pulls from the rack.

How a JPG is read

  • JPG has no transparency, so the background is found by colour: the dominant colour along the frame is flooded in from the edges and removed. A logo on a plain white or coloured page works; a logo on a photograph does not.
  • JPEG compression leaves ringing, a faint halo of off-colour pixels around every edge. Left alone it becomes a second, slightly different red around your red. The digitiser detects colours that exist almost only as thin rims next to a near twin and folds them back in, which is why a JPG of a three-colour logo still comes out as three threads.
  • Colours are clustered in CIELAB, the colour space built around what the eye tells apart, and any two clusters closer than about 11 ΔE are merged: closer than that, no thread chart offers two different spools anyway.

What a DST file holds

  • Read by: Tajima, Ricoma, Barudan, Happy, SWF and most commercial machines.
  • Thread colours: none: only stops between colour blocks.
  • Trims: three consecutive jumps.
  • Longest stitch per record: 12.1 mm.
  • DST stores stops, not colours: the operator threads the needles from a colour sheet.

Before you export the JPG

  • Use the largest, least compressed copy you can find; a 300 px thumbnail has about one pixel per 0.3 mm at left-chest size, which is below what a satin column needs.
  • Crop to the logo so the frame colour really is the background.
  • A phone photo of a printed logo works if it is lit evenly and shot square on; shadows become extra colours.

What the digitiser does with it

Shapes under 0.9 mm wide become a triple running stitch, long shapes up to 3.4 mm satin columns that turn with the shape, and everything wider a staggered tatami fill with an edge walk and an underlay sewn across it. Rows are lengthened by the fabric's pull compensation, each colour runs a little under the next, and travel inside a shape is sewn as hidden running stitches rather than jumps. The main tool page has the full method with every number.

Already have a stitch file and only need a different format? That is a conversion, not digitising: use the embroidery file converter, which keeps every stitch to 0.1 mm.

Other inputs and formats

How to use it

  1. 1

    Add the JPG

    Drop, choose or paste it. Use the largest, least compressed copy you can find; a 300 px thumbnail has about one pixel per 0.3 mm at left-chest size, which is below what a satin column needs.

  2. 2

    Set the size and fabric

    Longest side in millimetres, and the fabric it will be sewn on. Both change the stitches.

  3. 3

    Check colours, preview and audit

    Merge or switch off colours, drag the compare slider, play the sew-out and read the audit.

  4. 4

    Download the DST

    DST is pre-selected; add other formats if you need them. The ZIP includes a colour sheet and the audit.

Questions

How many stitches will my logo have?

A 90 mm left-chest logo with solid fills usually lands between 6,000 and 15,000 stitches. The count is shown as soon as the preview appears and changes with size and fabric, because density and underlay depend on both.

Can I edit the DST afterwards?

Yes. It is a normal stitch file: open it in Wilcom, Hatch, Embird, Embrilliance or Ink/Stitch. The free viewer and pre-flight check here open it too.

Is automatic digitising good enough for a customer order?

For bold logos, often yes, after a test sew. For small lettering, fine lines, gradients or a cap front with heavy detail, a human digitiser will still do better, and the audit tells you when the artwork is asking for more than thread can do at that size.

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