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Stitch Toolbox

Automatic digitising

PNG to DST converter

Turn a PNG image into a DST embroidery file for Tajima, Barudan, SWF, Happy, Ricoma, ZSK, Melco and most 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: · ·

PNG to DST: what is specific to this pair

DST is what commercial shops ask for, and it is the barest format there is: needle positions in 0.1 mm steps, jumps, colour stops and an end. It stores no thread colours at all. The machine stops where a colour ends and the operator changes to whatever the run sheet says, which is why every download here includes a colour sheet listing the stops in order with the artwork colour and, if you chose a chart, the thread number.

A single DST stitch or jump cannot move more than 12.1 mm. The digitiser never gets near that: satin columns are limited by width, anything wider is filled with 3.6 mm stitches, and the audit shows the count of over-long stitches as zero. Trims are written as the jump sequences a Tajima controller recognises as a trim.

A transparent PNG at 1000 px or more is the most predictable input for a production file, because nothing about the background has to be inferred.

How a PNG is read

  • A transparent PNG is the easiest input there is: every transparent pixel is background, so nothing has to be guessed about where the design ends.
  • PNG is lossless, so flat colours stay flat. The only noise is anti-aliasing: the one-pixel rim of blended colour that smooths every edge. Those rims are under 0.3 mm at stitch size and are absorbed into the shapes on either side, so they never become their own thread colour.
  • An opaque PNG (white page behind the logo) is treated like a JPG: the border colour is flooded in from the edges and removed, and enclosed areas of that same colour, the holes of letters, are left open.

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 PNG

  • Export at 1000 px or more on the long side; the digitiser works at 0.1 mm per pixel, so a 90 mm design uses about 900 px.
  • Keep the transparency if your editor offers it.
  • Flatten drop shadows and glows first: thread has no soft edges, and a shadow turns into a band of grey stitches.

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 PNG

    Drop, choose or paste it. Export at 1000 px or more on the long side; the digitiser works at 0.1 mm per pixel, so a 90 mm design uses about 900 px.

  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

Why does my DST open with the wrong colours?

A DST file contains no colours, only stops between them. Every program that opens it invents a palette. Use the colour sheet in the ZIP, or download PES as well if you want a file that carries the thread colours.

Will the DST run on my Ricoma, SWF or Barudan?

Yes. DST is the common language of commercial machines: Tajima, Barudan, SWF, Happy, Ricoma, ZSK, Melco and Brother PR models all read it. Barudan machines also read their own U01, which is in the format list too.

What size should a left-chest logo be?

About 90 mm wide, which is the default here. Text should stay above roughly 5 mm cap height; the audit lists any detail that was too small to stitch at the size you chose.

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