"Ready to sew" is a measurement, not a promise.
Most auto-digitizers tell you to check the file yourself. We check it first. Every design is measured from its finished stitches; the badge on the simulation is the result, and each note points at the spot on the design.
The checks
| Check | What we measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage match | How much of the artwork's shape the stitches cover, with real 0.4 mm thread. 85% or more is the goal. | Below that, fine detail is lost or edges look ragged. |
| Short stitches | The share of stitches under 0.3 mm. The tie-in stitch where the needle first lands after a jump or trim is not counted; it sits on the jump's own end point by design. | Very short stitches break thread and make bird's nests. |
| Dense spots | Places where thread piles more layers deep than fabric takes. | They sew stiff, pucker the fabric or break needles. |
| Holes | Areas inside the design that get no thread at all. | The fabric shows through where you expect colour. |
| Small text | Letters under about 6 mm tall. | Small lettering closes up and stops reading on fabric. |
| Hairlines | Lines thinner than a satin column can sew. | They sew as a running stitch and look thinner than on screen. |
| Colour count | Thread colours against what a 6-needle machine holds. | Each extra colour is a stop on a home machine. |
| Background and stray marks | A sewn background sheet, or specks near the image edge. | A badly cropped upload can sew a whole rectangle. |
If every check passes, the badge says Ready to sew. Otherwise it says Review and lists what to look at, most with a one-click fix: make it bigger, thicken hairlines, merge colours, remove stray marks.
How we keep it honest
- A fixed benchmark of test logos (lettering, badges, thin lines, multi-colour art) runs on every change to the engine. A change ships only if every logo still passes: coverage 85% or more, under 2% short stitches, all five formats re-readable, and each file sewing exactly the same after it is read back.
- The thresholds never move to make a logo pass. When one fails, the engine is fixed.
- We sweep fonts and sizes (30 to 120 mm) looking for pile-ups and gaps, and look at the needle paths ourselves before a fix ships.
Check any file, not just ours
The same pile-up and short-stitch checks run in the free file viewer on any PES, DST, JEF or EXP file, from us or anyone else, right in your browser. Open a file from a digitizer before you sew it.
See your own logo stitched
Free preview, real needle path, no signup. Download PES, DST, JEF, EXP or VP3.
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