Finding the Right Digitizing System for Your Shop

Quality and efficiency are two major points to consider when shopping for digitizing software.
Oct 10, 2008

By Steven Batts, Contributing Writer

As we continue to explore the differences between hobbyists and commercial embroiderers, I would like to focus on digitizing systems. When comparing consumer-grade vs. commercial-grade machinery, there is a huge difference in capability and functionality. The same is true when it comes to digitizing software, but not necessarily the way you might think.

In the software world, be it embroidery or otherwise, you pay for control. If you want a program to do everything automatically, you can find software to do it rather inexpensively. However, the more elements that you want to control or do manually, the more you will pay more for it.

I know this concept sounds backwards, but it is the truth. Software companies tried it the other way, but they couldn’t sell higher-end programs. This is especially true of embroidery programs. The master digitizers want control down to individual stitches. Some old-school digitizers would be happy with a low-end feature program with only manual digitizing.

Quality and Efficiency
Digitizing has changed a lot over the years. There are many functions that software can do automatically with no major difference in design quality over manual digitizing.  There are, however, still many things that require the human element to interpret.

This is a major drawback of many consumer-grade or home embroidery programs; they rely too much on automatic digitizing features. You give it a piece of artwork and it spits out a design. There are two issues with this approach: artwork quality and design efficiency.

Artwork quality is obvious. If you give the software a blurry design that you can hardly tell what it is, how will the software figure it out? Sometimes, even with clear artwork, there is necessary interpretation and elements that the software leaves out or modifies that make the design work for embroidery.

The bigger issue is efficiency. Automatic digitizing cannot lay out a design in the most efficient manner. It often creates sections that are too small to sew and cause thread breaks. It also can cause excessive trims from jumping from section to section. A talented human digitizer will lay out each section in an efficient manner and often hide connecting stitches underneath a different section or even another color.

As we have discussed, production is vital to profitability. Design efficiency is vital to productivity. An efficient design saves minutes per run that add up to hours over the course of a day.

While many home embroidery programs rely on automatic features, interestingly, they also contain conventional manual digitizing tools. This has been a real plus for the embroidery industry. The features contained in consumer programs have forced commercial software distributors to adjust their features and pricing. So the gap between a high-end home embroidery program and a low-end commercial program is narrow. The pricing can make high-end home software attractive even to veteran embroidery shops.

The difference in higher-end commercial digitizing programs isn’t capabilities per se. The difference is how quickly and easily you can create complicated shapes and designs, with features such as color blending, branching (where you can create several satin columns at once without worrying about routing) and numerous stitch types and effects. You can create the same designs without these built in features, but it would take you much longer.

Functionally, a commercial embroiderer can operate effectively with a home embroidery software program. I know several who do. But if it’s efficiency, quality and control you’re looking for, start researching higher-end systems.

Steven Batts, a 14-year veteran of the embroidery industry, is a regular speaker at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. He owns Righteous Threads Embroidery, Greensboro, N.C., which offers digitizing, embroidery, machine maintenance and repair, and consulting. Call him at (336) 379-9380 or e-mail righteousthreads@gmail.com.