Written for trade and business enquiries. Last reviewed October 2026.
Send vector artwork: .ai, .eps, .svg or a vector .pdf. A high resolution .png with a transparent background is usually workable. An embroidery machine cannot read any of those directly, so whatever you send is converted into a stitch file by a process called digitising, which rebuilds your logo as a set of stitch instructions: which areas are filled, in which order, in which direction, with which thread colours. That conversion is skilled work and it is done once per design.
Key takeaways
- Vector artwork is best: .ai, .eps, .svg, or a .pdf that contains vectors rather than a photo.
- No embroidery machine reads a logo file. It reads a stitch file, such as .dst.
- Digitising is the conversion between the two. It is a decision-making job, not a file export.
- A screenshot or a photo of a sign means the logo has to be redrawn before digitising.
- Lettering below roughly 4mm cap height stops being reliably legible in thread.
- Satin stitch columns thinner than about 1mm tend to break up or disappear.
- Gradients, drop shadows and photographic fills do not exist in thread. They get simplified.
- Brand colours are matched to the nearest available thread shade, so expect a small shift.
- Give Pantone or hex references rather than saying blue. Screens disagree about blue.
- Ask who owns the stitch file and whether it is kept. Get the answer in writing.
What file do you need to get a logo embroidered?
In order of preference: a vector file (.ai, .eps, .svg, or a .pdf containing vector artwork), then a high resolution .png with a transparent background, then a large .jpg. If you already have a stitch file from a previous supplier (.dst, .pes, .emb and similar), send that too, because it may save the digitising stage entirely.
The practical test is simple. Open your logo and zoom in hard. If the edges stay crisp at any magnification, it is vector and it is the right thing to send. If the edges turn into visible squares, it is raster, and how usable it is depends entirely on how big the original is.
Most businesses do not know which they have, which is normal. The file your designer delivered as a logo pack almost certainly contains vectors. The file you have been emailing around for three years, pulled out of a presentation, almost certainly does not.
What is digitising in embroidery?
Digitising is the process of converting a logo into a stitch file an embroidery machine can run. A digitiser decides how every part of the design is built in thread: the stitch type for each shape, the direction each area runs, the order the colours are stitched in, how dense each fill is, and how the fabric underneath is stabilised. It is done once per design, per size, and it is the reason custom embroidery has a setup cost at all.
The common misunderstanding is that digitising is a file conversion, something a piece of software does in a second. Automatic conversion does exist, and on a very simple two colour shape it can produce a usable result. On a real logo it produces something that technically stitches and looks wrong: edges that do not quite meet, fills running in a direction that puckers the fabric, outlines that sit a fraction out of register, lettering that fuses into a solid block.
The decisions that make the difference are not visible in the finished piece, which is precisely why it is skilled work. Stitch direction changes how light falls on a shape, so a logo digitised with everything running the same way looks flat. Stitch order determines whether an outline lands cleanly on top of a fill or gets dragged out of place. Underlay, the stitching you never see because it sits beneath the visible layer, is what stops a fill sinking into a soft fabric. Pull compensation, which means deliberately drawing shapes slightly wider than the artwork, is what stops a circle coming out as an oval once the fabric tightens.
One more thing that surprises people: digitising is tied to a size. A design digitised for a 70mm left chest logo is not simply scalable to a 250mm back logo. Scaling a stitch file up or down by more than a modest amount changes the density and the detail behaves differently, so a significantly different size usually means digitising again.
Vector or raster: why does it matter for embroidery?
A vector file describes your logo as shapes and curves, so every edge is an exact instruction a digitiser can follow at any size. A raster file describes it as a grid of coloured pixels, so edges have to be interpreted, and at low resolution they have to be guessed. Digitising is about turning edges into stitch boundaries. Vector gives the digitiser the edges. Raster makes them reconstruct them.
This is why the same logo can be quoted differently by the same supplier depending on what you send. With vector artwork, the digitiser is doing embroidery work. With a 400 pixel wide .png lifted from a website, they are first doing artwork recovery: redrawing your logo by hand so that it has clean edges to work from, then digitising the result. That is a separate job that you are paying for, and it introduces a risk that the redrawn version is subtly not your logo.
| File type | What it is | Usable for embroidery | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| .ai, .eps | Vector, from Illustrator or similar | Best | What a designer should have delivered. Send this if it exists |
| .svg | Vector, web standard | Best | Equally good. Check text has been converted to outlines |
| Either, depending on contents | Good, if it contains vectors | A .pdf of a photograph of your logo is still a photograph | |
| .png | Raster, supports transparency | Usually workable | Needs to be large. A transparent background helps considerably |
| .jpg | Raster, compressed, no transparency | Workable if large | Compression softens edges, which is exactly what matters here |
| .webp, .heic | Raster, modern web and phone formats | Workable if large | Fine as a reference. Convert or resupply if quality is marginal |
| .psd, .tif | Raster, layered or uncompressed | Workable if large | Often high quality, but still pixels, not shapes |
| Screenshot, or a photo of signage | Raster, low resolution, often skewed | Weakest | The logo will need redrawing first. Expect extra artwork work |
| .docx, .pptx, .xlsx | Documents containing an image | Last resort | Send the original image instead if you possibly can |
| .dst, .pes, .exp, .jef, .emb, .pxf | Stitch files, already digitised | Yes, and valuable | Send alongside the artwork. May remove the digitising stage |
What happens to fine detail and small text at stitch scale?
Thread has a real thickness, so there is a size below which detail cannot survive. As working rules of thumb across the trade: lettering below roughly 4mm cap height stops being reliably legible, 5mm is a safer floor on textured fabrics, and satin stitch columns thinner than about 1mm tend to break up or vanish. Two adjacent fine lines closer together than about 1mm will tend to merge into one.
This is the single most useful thing a trade buyer can understand before sending artwork, because it explains most of the disappointment in embroidered logos. A typical left chest logo is somewhere around 60 to 90mm wide. If your full logo includes a strapline, a registered trademark symbol, a founding date and a web address, all of that has to fit inside that width. At that scale, a strapline set in a light weight typeface is not small text, it is an unreadable grey smudge, and no amount of skill at the digitising stage changes the physics.
These are general trade limits rather than our own published tolerances, and a good digitiser will tell you where your specific logo sits against them. The useful question to ask any embroiderer is not whether they can do it, but what they would drop.
What tends to fail at small sizes
- Straplines and taglines in light or condensed typefaces
- Registered trademark and copyright symbols
- Web addresses and phone numbers set below the main logo
- Hairline rules, thin keylines and single-pixel borders
- Serifs on small capitals, which thicken and fill in
- Counters, the enclosed gaps inside letters like a, e and o, which close up
- Fine internal detail in an emblem, such as rigging, foliage or brickwork
- Drop shadows, outer glows and soft edges, which have no thread equivalent
Why might a logo that works in print need simplifying for thread?
Because print can place ink anywhere at any size and thread cannot. Printing reproduces gradients, photographic fills, soft shadows and text a millimetre high without difficulty. Thread is a physical material laid in lines, so every one of those has to be translated into something solid: a gradient becomes flat colour or a blend of two shades, a shadow becomes an outline or is dropped, tiny text is enlarged or removed.
The right way to think about this is not that your logo is being compromised, but that it is being given an embroidery version, the same way a brand has a one colour version for a fax and a reversed version for dark backgrounds. Good brand guidelines often already contain a simplified or monogram mark, and that is usually the right thing to stitch.
What simplification normally means in practice:
- Fewer colours. Each colour is a separate thread, so twelve shades of blue in a gradient become two or three deliberate shades.
- Effects removed. Drop shadows, glows, bevels and transparency have no thread equivalent and are either reinterpreted as a solid element or dropped.
- Detail consolidated. Three fine parallel lines that would merge anyway become one slightly heavier line, drawn on purpose rather than by accident.
- Text enlarged or cut. The strapline either comes up to a legible size, which may mean a wider logo, or comes off the chest and lives somewhere else.
- Weights thickened. Thin strokes are drawn up to a width thread can actually hold.
If your logo is heavily photographic or gradient based, simplification may not be the answer and printing may be. We set out where each decoration genuinely wins in embroidery or printing for a logo.
How are thread colours matched to brand colours?
By choosing the closest shade in a physical thread range to your reference colour. Thread comes in a fixed set of shades, so unlike ink it cannot be mixed to an exact value. Expect a close match rather than an identical one. Send Pantone references or hex codes from your brand guidelines, because a colour name is not a specification and screens disagree with each other.
Two further points that matter more than people expect. First, the same thread shade reads differently on different base colours and different fabrics, because the fabric shows through the gaps and influences what your eye sees, and a matt fleece and a smooth woven cotton reflect light differently. Second, shade matching is a judgement made against physical thread under light, not a number lookup, which is why asking to see a stitched sample on your actual item is worth doing when the colour is critical to your brand.
If your brand has a tightly policed colour, say so explicitly at enquiry stage and ask what the nearest available shade is before anything is run. That is a reasonable question and any embroiderer should be able to answer it.
Who owns the stitch file once the logo is digitised?
You own your logo. The stitch file is a separate thing: a new work created from it, and who owns and holds that file varies by supplier and is usually governed by their terms rather than by any industry standard. Two questions to ask before you commit: will you keep my digitised file for reorders, and will you release a copy of it to me if I ask.
This matters commercially rather than legally for most buyers. If a supplier keeps your file and reuses it, your repeat orders skip the digitising stage. If they keep it but will not release it, moving supplier means paying to digitise again and risking a slightly different stitched result. If nobody keeps it, every order is a fresh setup. None of those positions is dishonest, but they have very different costs over three years, and they are rarely volunteered.
It is also worth asking what happens to the file if you change the logo, and whether the supplier holds a version per size. A business with a chest logo, a cap logo and a back logo has three digitised files, not one.
What if your logo only exists as a low resolution image?
This is extremely common and it is not a disaster. Plenty of long-established businesses have no vector logo at all, because the original was drawn before anyone kept files, or the designer who had them has long since gone. The honest position is that the logo will have to be redrawn before it can be digitised properly, and that is additional work with a cost attached.
Before you accept that, three things are worth trying:
- Check your supplier chain. Whoever made your signage, your vehicle livery or your business cards almost certainly holds a vector version. Printers keep artwork.
- Check old files. A logo pack from a rebrand, a .pdf of letterhead, or an old brand guidelines document will often contain live vectors even if you have forgotten it exists.
- Send the largest version you have. Not the one you usually email. Search your files for the biggest copy and send that, even if it is an awkward format.
If none of those work, say so at enquiry stage rather than sending the small file and hoping. A redraw done knowingly, with you checking it against your real logo, is far better than a redraw improvised quietly at the digitising stage. And if you want one piece stitched as a test before committing to a run, that is covered in custom embroidery with no minimum order.
Send your logo in whatever form you have it, tell us the item and the position, and we will tell you what it needs. There is no minimum order, so a single sample is a normal request.
Logo embroidery for businessFrequently asked questions
What file format do you need for embroidery?
Vector artwork is best: .ai, .eps, .svg, or a .pdf that contains vector shapes rather than a photograph. A high resolution .png with a transparent background is usually workable, and a large .jpg can be. If you already hold a stitch file from a previous supplier, such as a .dst, send that as well, because it may remove the digitising stage altogether.
What is digitising in embroidery?
Digitising is converting a logo into a stitch file that an embroidery machine can run. A digitiser decides the stitch type for every shape, the direction each area runs, the order the colours are stitched, how dense each fill is, and what underlay stabilises the fabric beneath. It is done once per design and per size, and it is the reason custom embroidery has a setup cost at all. It is a decision-making job, not a file export.
Can you embroider from a JPEG or a PNG?
Usually, if it is large. Both are raster formats, meaning a grid of pixels rather than shapes, so the digitiser has to interpret where the edges of your logo are. At high resolution that is straightforward. At 400 pixels wide, taken from a website, the logo effectively has to be redrawn first, which is extra artwork work with a cost and a risk that the redrawn version is subtly not your logo. A transparent background on a .png helps considerably.
What is a DST file?
A .dst is a stitch file: the machine-readable output of digitising, containing the actual needle instructions rather than a picture of your logo. It is the most widely interchangeable embroidery format. Other common ones are .pes, .exp, .jef and .emb, some of which are specific to particular machine makes or software. If a previous supplier digitised your logo, the .dst is the asset worth asking them for.
How small can text be in embroidery?
As a working rule across the trade, lettering below roughly 4mm cap height stops being reliably legible, and 5mm is a safer floor on textured fabrics like fleece. Satin stitch columns thinner than about 1mm tend to break up or disappear, and two fine lines closer together than about 1mm will tend to merge. These are physical limits set by the thickness of thread, so skilled digitising cannot work around them. It can only decide what to drop.
Why does my logo need changing for embroidery?
Because print can place ink anywhere at any size and thread cannot. Gradients, drop shadows, soft edges and very small text have no direct equivalent in thread, so each has to be translated into something solid: fewer deliberate colours, effects dropped or reinterpreted, fine parallel detail consolidated, thin strokes thickened, straplines enlarged or moved. Think of it as an embroidery version of your mark, in the same way a brand has a one colour version.
Can embroidery match my exact brand Pantone colour?
It can get close, not exact. Thread comes in a fixed range of physical shades and cannot be mixed to a value the way ink can, so colour matching means choosing the nearest available shade to your reference. The same shade also reads differently on different base colours and fabrics, because the fabric influences what your eye sees. Send Pantone references or hex codes rather than colour names, and if the colour is critical, ask to see it stitched on your actual item first.
Who owns the embroidery stitch file, me or the embroiderer?
You own your logo. The stitch file is a separate work created from it, and who owns and holds it varies by supplier and is normally set by their terms rather than by any industry standard. Ask two questions before committing: will you keep my digitised file for reorders, and will you release a copy to me on request. The answers have very different costs over several years, and they are rarely volunteered.
Do I have to pay to digitise my logo more than once?
Potentially, for two reasons. A stitch file is tied to a size, so a 70mm chest logo and a 250mm back logo are usually two digitised files rather than one scaled file. And if a supplier does not retain or release your file, a later order or a change of supplier starts the process again. Ask your embroiderer directly whether digitising is charged per design, per size, or once, and whether a repeat of the same design reuses the file.
Can automatic software digitise my logo instead?
It can produce something that stitches, and on a very simple two colour shape the result can be usable. On a real logo it typically gets the decisions wrong in ways that only show up in thread: edges that do not meet, fills running in a direction that puckers the fabric, outlines a fraction out of register, lettering fusing into a solid block. The failures are invisible on screen, which is why automatic conversion is rarely a saving.
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