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Stitch Toolbox

Automatic digitising

SVG to DST converter

Turn a SVG vector file into a DST embroidery file for Tajima and other commercial 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: · ·

SVG to DST: what is specific to this pair

If the customer can send a vector, ask for it. An SVG gives the digitiser exact edges and exact colours, which removes the two biggest sources of error in automatic digitising: blurry boundaries and invented colours.

From there the file is built for the machine: fills with an edge walk and a tatami underlay sewn across the top stitching, satin columns with a centre-run underlay, rows lengthened by the pull compensation of the chosen fabric, earlier colours extended under later ones so no gap opens, and travel between the parts of a shape routed as hidden running stitches instead of jumps.

The DST holds needle positions and stops only, so the colour sheet in the ZIP is the operator's guide to the sequence.

How a SVG is read

  • An SVG is rendered at the full working resolution for the size you ask for, so edges are as sharp at 250 mm as at 60 mm. There is no tracing of a blurry bitmap and no pixel staircase to clean up.
  • Whatever the browser draws is what gets digitised: fills, strokes, text set in a font, transforms, clip paths and groups. Strokes become shapes of their stroke width, so a 1 mm outline is read as a 1 mm band and stitched as a satin column.
  • Gradients and filters are flattened to the nearest flat colours, the same as in a photo. Text does not need to be converted to outlines first, but the font has to be installed or embedded, or the browser substitutes another.

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 SVG

  • Set the stroke widths you actually want stitched: under about 0.9 mm a line becomes a triple running stitch, from there to 3.4 mm a satin column.
  • Remove a full-page background rectangle unless you want it stitched; the digitiser will remove it if it touches the whole frame, but deleting it is cleaner.
  • Exports from Canva, Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma and Affinity all work; choose plain SVG without embedded raster images.

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 SVG

    Drop, choose or paste it. Set the stroke widths you actually want stitched: under about 0.9 mm a line becomes a triple running stitch, from there to 3.4 mm a satin column.

  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

What is the smallest text that will stitch?

About 5 mm cap height in a plain bold font. Strokes under 0.9 mm become a running stitch, and anything under the minimum detail size is left out and reported in the audit.

Does the DST include trims?

Yes. Wherever the thread moves more than 1.5 mm between shapes a trim is written in the form Tajima-family controllers recognise. Inside a shape the travel is sewn as running stitches under the fill, so there is nothing to trim.

Which is better for this, SVG or PNG?

SVG, when you have it. A high-resolution transparent PNG is close behind. A small JPG is the hardest input.

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