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Stitch Toolbox

Automatic digitising

SVG to PES converter

Turn a SVG vector file into a PES embroidery file for Brother and Baby Lock 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 PES: what is specific to this pair

The usual free route from SVG to PES is Inkscape with the Ink/Stitch extension: powerful, and a real piece of software to learn, because every object needs its stitch type and parameters set by hand. This page is the short version: drop the SVG, choose a size and fabric, and the stitch types are chosen from the measured width of every shape.

Because the source is a vector, it is rendered at 0.1 mm per pixel for exactly the size you ask for. A 60 mm cap logo and a 250 mm jacket back both start from clean edges, and strokes are read at their true width, so a 1.2 mm outline becomes a satin column and a 0.5 mm hairline a triple running stitch.

The PES carries each colour to the machine. SVG colours are exact, so a thread chart match is as good as the chart allows.

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 PES file holds

  • Read by: Brother, Baby Lock and older Bernina machines.
  • Thread colours: an index into the machine maker's thread chart.
  • Trims: implicit (jump flags).
  • Longest stitch per record: 12.7 mm.
  • Written as version 1 with an embedded PEC block, which every Brother machine since the 1990s reads.

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 PES

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

Questions

Do I need to convert text to outlines first?

No, as long as the font is installed on your device or embedded in the SVG. If it is not, the browser substitutes a font and the letters change, so outlining text before export is the safe habit.

Is this the same as Ink/Stitch?

No. Ink/Stitch gives you full manual control inside Inkscape. This tool makes the decisions for you from the geometry and lets you override the stitch type per colour. For detailed hand-tuned work Ink/Stitch is excellent; for getting a logo onto a shirt today, this is quicker.

Will a Cricut or Canva SVG work?

Yes. Any SVG the browser can draw will work, including exports from Canva, Cricut Design Space, Illustrator, Figma and Affinity.

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