Stitchitize Embroidery Design Learning Studio

Stitchitize Embroidery Design Learning Studio
LESSON 2 -
Getting Started
Lesson Two covers the process of embroidery creation. From gathering the details of a new project, we gain the knowledge
needed to successfully create an embroidery design. Evaluating the original artwork and making decisions about how to
solve any trouble spots is the first step. In almost all cases, this will lead you to preparing artwork to digitize from. With good
artwork and knowledgable decisions it will be a pleasure to digitize the embroidery design. Once the design is prepared, it is
well worth the extra effort to do one last quick check of the design before you have it sewn. The practice of a good design
plan and final review will save you much time in editing and resewing your designs.
Design Details
Once the idea for an embroidered design is conceived, the first step is to gather the information needed to plan the steps to
create it. The design creation process is two basic steps, artwork preparation and then digitizing, all of which is executed
before a design is sewn on an embroidery machine. The digitizer needs to know exactly what the finished design is intended
to look like before they can start to create the design. A professional digitizer will want to maximize their time, therefore, the
ultimate goal is always to get the design right the first time. If the digitizer starts a
design in a rush, and does not consider all of the available information, the result may
be wasted time in editing, not to mention the additional proofing. Please accept as
fact, that it is much more effecient to spend a bit of time in the beginning to get everything right the first time, than it is to rush into something and have to edit, as needed,
later. The bottom line is to gather all of the facts before you get started. Be sure to
write them down in your handy-dandy notebook.
Customer Information
Be sure to collect all of the information you need about your customer. It is always important to be able to contact your
customer or their contact person. If you only embroider for yourself, this is an easy step, but if you digitize for an in-house
embroidery machine or another company, there are some very important things you will want to know. Here is a list of the
most basic information you will want to know about your customer.
Contact name?
Mailing address?
E-mail address?
Design format?
Completion date needed?
Method of payment?
Business name?
Phone/Fax?
Delivery method?
Equipment used?
Is a quote necessary?
Do you need the customers approval for design changes?
Design Details
The steps taken to create a design are all based on the design details. If there will be a front and a back size of a design, you
may plan it differently than if it is only being sewn on the front of a garment. Receiving and evaluating the customer's artwork
is a big part of the design process. The condition of the initial art provided, and the finished embroidery desired, are two
factors that influence the creation process. It is important to try to envision the art provided as actual embroidery stitches at
this early stage. This helps the digitizer have a clear vision of what they are trying to create. A good digitizer should know the
right questions to ask their customer to help with this clear vision. Here is a list of some of the most important details the
digitizer needs to know.
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Size or sizes of the finished embroidery?
How many colours and what are the colour breaks?
What material is the design going on
(hard denim, soft knit, plush fleece)?
Whether an area is stitched or void?
What special effects are needed?
What is the application (shirt, hat, bag)?
Customer’s Art
Many types of artwork may be provided to work from to create an embroidery design. These types are a reflection of the
variety of mediums we use for printing, communicating and advertising in our world today. Examples are:
Photographs
Menus
Bit map computer images
Faxes
Previously sewn embroidery
Magazines or books
Business cards or letterheads
Vector computer images
Rough hand drawn sketches
On-Screen vs. Digi Board
To create an embroidery design, the artwork is first inported into a computer by a digitizer. Most of the digi systems today work
with both on-screen and/or digi tablet for the input of the embroidery objects. Each method has it's merits and both ways can
create the same beautiful embroidery. Although punching on a board was the norm just 5 years ago, today most digitizers
work on-screen to input their work.
The Great Digi Board
Since the beginning of embroidery, "punching the digi board" has been the
input method. The large, hard boards come in many sizes and offer a
hands-on feel to the design process. To work on a digi board, an enlargement of the design is prepared and it is called the draft. The draft is 3 to 6
times bigger than the actual sewn design. The enlargement provides accuracy, also, the consistent scale of 6 times the actual size provides a base
for the puncher to gauge stitch lengths and density. You can still zoom in
using a digi board - it's called "getting your nose closer"! The draft is also
a convenient place to make notes about the design, as you work. No
matter what type of customer artwork is provided, if you are using a digi
board, then a draft is always necessary. With the consistent scale of the
draft and board method, it is easy to see why a professional digitizer would
choose the digi board.
On-Screen Digitizing
Even with the digi board's many merits, most digitizers are choosing to work on a computer screen. There are a few reasons
to choose on-screen digitizing. One reason is the size and cost of the digi board. The 48" digi board is way too big to make a
welcome addition to the home office space, and the price...ouch!! A second reason is the time and skill needed to prepare a
draft. The need to prepare artwork does not disappear completely ,but rather, is modified to suit the artist/digitizer. On-screen
digitizing sometimes uses digital art as the background to work from. Since many of today's logos and clip art collections are
in digital form already, the time to prepare the artwork is reduced. The third reason that people choose on-screen digitizing
over the digi board, is the ergonomic values of being in front of a monitor, rather than having to look back and forth from the
board to the monitor to see your work. There is a constant focusing of the eyes, from the draft to the monitor, that can become
tiresome to the digitizer. Also the size of the large boards is such that the digitizer is required to stand for portions of large
drafts.
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Digitizer’s Checklist
CUSTOMER INFORMATION:
Customer Name
Business Name
Mailing Address
Phone/Fax
Email Address
Delivery Method
Design Format
Type of Equipment used
Completion Date
Is a quote needed?
Method of payment
Is Art Approval needed
for any Design Changes?
DESIGN DETAILS:
The Size or Sizes
What is Stitched and What is Void?
How Many Colours and Number of Colour Breaks?
What Special Stitching Effects are Needed?
What type of Material is the Embroidery being Sewn on?
What Type of Application, i.e. Shirt, Hat, Bag, etc.?
CUSTOMER ART:
Photographs
Faxes
Printed Material
Hand drawn sketch
Image Files
Previous Embroidery Work
Imagine Artwork as Embroidery
Stitch Estimates
Evaluate Customer’s Art for
Workability
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:
On-screen or Digiboard
Size of Embroidery Budget
Completion Date
Making Decisions
Okay, now you should know everything needed to plan the embroidery creation. You have the customer's art and you know
what it should look like when sewn. This is a good time to make a copy of the customer's artwork at the actual finished size
and use it to help with the decision process. Here are some of the most important decisions to consider:
On-screen Vs digi board
Do you need a draft or a digital file to work from?
Imagine the artwork embroidered
What stitch types will you use, run stitch, satin stitch or fill (tatami) stitch?
Will there be any special effects like appliqué or patterned fill?
Evaluate the customers art
Can you work from it and simply scan it?
Is there enough resolution, do things look clear up close?
Would it be better to work from a line drawing?
Are there any trouble areas? ( i.e. letters that will be too small to look good or too much detail for a small design).
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Budget
Is there a digitizing budget?
How much time should you spend on the design?
Stitch estimate
Is a quote required?
Is there a target stitch count that suits the needs of the project?
Can anything be done to achieve the stitch count desired?
Completion date
Time management helps keep the project on schedule.
Do you need to shuffle your work to get everything done on time?
Stitch and Time Estimates
In most cases, it is a good idea to estimate the number of stitches and time you will spend to create a design. If only for your
own purposes, it is good to know how much time a project will take and to evaluate if and when you will want to start it. If you
digitize in house for an embroidery company, the sales people will want to know the stitch count and the time to set up the
design so that they can work it into the price of the job. If you are digitizing for other peoples embroidery machines, it is very
important to be clear about how much work you plan to invest into each job. They will want to know the price and estimated
stitch count BEFORE you go ahead with the work. The quote is a good time to get all of the details down in writing and have
everything approved by your customer. Be sure to include the price, stitch estimate, delivery date, delivery method, design
format, design description, and provide a quote date. If you number your quotes, they will be easier to find.
Time Estimate
The best way to estimate the time you will spend, is to break it down. Consider the art prep, digi time, and don't forget, it takes
time to proof out the design before it can be sewn onto a garment. If you keep track of the time you spend on each design,
you will develop a good sense of how long different sized jobs will take. If your estimate is not the same as the actual time
you spend, then you can examine why there was a difference. This will improve over time and as you become a more accurate digitizer.
Art Prep time + Digi time + Proof Time = Total time to prepare the design.
Stitch Estimate (Break it down and count it up)
There are different ways to estimate the number of stitches in a design. One way is to count the stitches by considering the
elements that make up the design. i.e.: Fill-2,000sts, border-1,000sts, lettering-1,000sts = Total 4,000sts. Each part of the
design still has to be estimated and this is something that you will get better at with practice. Try to find similar designs in a
catalogue for a reference to the number of stitches in a design. As an example, consider that you need a stitch estimate for
a semi truck at 2" tall. Look for a similar type of semi truck in a design catalogue and use the stitch count for your quote. For
very important quotes that need to be as close as possible, ask a few people around the office to give an estimate. Always
try to estimate the stitches in each design you create. Over time you will improve your skills to a point where every logo you
look at will instantly have stitch value in your head. Soon, a drive to the store will include, Shell hat size-5,000sts, Walmartshirt front-3,000sts, Little Caesar Pizza- Jacket front-15,000sts. Something important to note is that there are parts of the
design process that can be adjusted to achieve a desired stitch count. Density can be opened up, and stitch lengths can
made longer to reduce stitches. The size of a design can be adjusted to change the stitch count. The stitch elements can be
varied to change the stitch count, meaning that a run stitch can be used in place of a satin stitch. The material we are sewing
on and the underlay that we choose will also affect the final stitch count.
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TIP
A good rule of thumb is that quality should come first over stitch count.
Examples of objects and their number of sts:
Satin Stitch (1'' wide)
10 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Density.36 mm
No Underlay-131sts
Center Run Underlay-159sts
Zig Zag Underlay-172sts
Edge Run Underlay-183sts
Fill Stitch (1" square)
25 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Density.35mm
3 mm stitch length-1423sts
4 mm stitch length-1116sts
5 mm stitch length-937sts
6 mm stitch length-820sts
Fill Stitch (1" square)
25 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Stitch length 4.5 mm
No Underlay-1015sts
Edge Run Underlay-1060sts
Tatami Underlay-1277sts
Tatami and Edge Run-1326sts
Fill Stitch (1" square)
25 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Stitch length 4.5 mm
density .30 mm-1192sts
density .35 mm-1015sts
density .40 mm-895sts
density .60 mm-592sts
density .80 mm-449sts
Fill Stitch (1" square)
2 mm satin stitch border
25 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Density .35 mm (fill) & .38(border)
Stitch length 4.5 mm
Edge Run and Tatami Underlay
= 1873sts
Fill Stitch (1" round)
25 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Density .35 mm
Stitch Length 4.5 mm
Edge Run and Tatami Underlay
= 920sts
Fill Stitch (1" round)
2 mm Satin stitch border
25 mm tall by 25 mm wide
Density (.35 mm Fill) (.38 Satin)
Stitch Length 4.5 mm
Edge Run and Tatami Underlay
= 1345sts
Each letter at:
5 mm tall - .42 mm D - Center Run Underlay = 90sts
8 mm tall - .40 mm D - Center Run Underlay =139sts
10 mm tall - .38 mm D - Center Run Underlay = 178sts
15 mm tall - .36 mm D - Edge Run Underlay = 306sts
20 mm tall - .34 mm D - with Edge Run and Zig Zag Underlay = 533sts
Each letter at:
10 mm tall - .38 mm D - Center Run Underlay = 286sts
15 mm tall - .36 mm D - Edge Run Underlay = 467sts
20 mm tall - .34 mm D with Edge Run and Zig Zag Underlay = 760sts
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Use a Formula
There is a formula that you can use to estimate the stitches in a design. It works on the principle that there are approximately
1,200sts in a 1" square with normal coverage. The first thing you do is measure the height and width of a design. Once you
know the total square area of it, you estimate the percentage of coverage of the embroidery. This is the tricky part because
you have to consider the area that has no stitching, as well as any area where there is stitching over stitching. (i.e. a fill with
a satin border and lettering on top will have more than 100 percent coverage, however, a circle will have some void spaces
to consider as it fits in the square area). Once you decide the percentage of coverage then you are all set.
Here is the formula:
Square area in inches X 1200sts/inch X the percentage of coverage = Stitch estimate.
The actual stitch file had 7,922sts. So the quote was fairly close. The percentage of coverage was probably closer to 115%.
Guessing the percentage of coverage is the key to success with this formula.
Art Preparation
This is the first real step towards the physical creation of the embroidery design. All of the questions and decisions aside, it's
time to get started. In order to achieve success in embroidery design, a good illustration, from the beginning, is a must. There
is a direct relationship between the art you work from, and the quality of the resulting embroidery. In most cases, the time you
invest in your artwork will easily be time saved in the digitizing stage. It is much easier to digitize with nice clear artwork. If
you try to work from poor artwork, there is a good chance that you will be doing edits later. A large design team like Stitchitize
has a designated artist that prepares artwork for all of the digitizers. The artist will work with the digitizer to make decisions
about how to prepare the art. If you don't work with a large design team - don't worry - you can wear both hats, be the digitizer
and the artist. Art preparation is something that everyone can learn to do. This is not to say that a degree in art and many
years of embroidery draft experience isn't a huge plus, but it's not rocket science either. The question is; what is "good art" to
digitize from for embroidery design? The answer is a line drawing that has nice, clear, thin lines that outline all of the elements
of the design. Colour is not needed on the draft or digital file, but it is good to print the outline file at actual size and colour it
in, to have with you while digitizing. Good art to work from for embroidery design looks similar to pictures in a colouring book,
but with much thinner outlines.
Tools that Help
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There are many materials and tools that are fairly inexpensive which will help prepare the artwork.
An xacto knife
Mechanical pencil and medium-hard leads
Coloured pencils
Pencil style drafting eraser
Various oval and circle templates
Large clear plastic 90 degree triangle
Calculator
Drafting velum or tracing paper (light
enough to see through, but strong
enough to draw and erase on).
Computer and scanner
A cutting mat or other durable surface to cut on with an xacto knife
Sandpaper pad
Small and large drafting rulers
Clear french curve
Compass
Scotch tape and masking tape
Magnifying glass
A light table helps, but you can also use a window in daylight
as a light table for tracing
Art projector is needed to create drafts for Digi Boards
Preparation Methods
SCANNING
The scanner has a number of uses for the embroidery artist. For instance, scanning the customers art to digitize from. If the
customers art is not clear or needs changes, a drawing can be prepared and then scanned for digitizing. In order to work from
a photo, try scanning it first then print it out on paper. The printed photo works better for tracing on a light table or window.
Finished embroidery looks good when scanned so that it can be shown to a customer or used on a web site. The scanning
process is fairly straight forward, however, there are a few things to consider. Each scanner is a little different, but most should
only have a couple of adjustments.
Image colour type
This option might include RGB Colour (for computer use), CMYK Colour (for professional printers), black and white, gray
scale and possibly more. We suggest the use of RGB colour for all embroidery applications, even when scanning simple line
drawings as it usually produces the clearest images.
Image resolution
This is controlled by the amount of dpi used (dpi=dots per inch). The idea, is the more dpi, the clearer the image. Images that
are scanned for use on the web call for a lower dpi so that the resulting file will be small. Images that we scan for digitizing
need more dpi so that the resulting file will be nice and clear. However, too much dpi can cause problems as the resulting file
will be too large to work with. Here is a guide that we found works for us:
When scanning images for a web page
Use 72 dpi
Try to create files that are between 5k
and 100k.
When scanning images for Digi art
Use between 100 and 300 dpi
Try for files that are between 100k and
500k. No bigger than 1meg.
Image size
This can be set when scanning. The desired effect is for the finished image to be the actual size of the embroidery. If the
image is re-sized using your digi software, the image may lose clarity. Try to scan the image at actual size and set the scanner
at 100%. If you have to enlarge or decrease the original art to match the desired embroidered size, then use either a larger
or smaller percentage (%) as necessary.
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Image file type
This will effect the image quality. All scanned images are made up of dots of colour and are called "bitmap". There are many
types of bitmap images like: .tif, .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .fpx, .cpt, .pdd and many more. The most common types would be .jpg and
.gif as most images on the Internet are in one of those formats. These formats are compressed to use as few bytes as
possible, without changing the size of the image. Unfortunately, image quality is also affected. Files like .bmp and .tif do not
compress the image size, therefore, the image quality is better than .jpg or .gif. If you scan an image with 100 dpi and save
it as both a .jpg and .bmp you will see that the .jpg file takes fewer bytes, but is the same physical size as the .bmp. The .bmp
file will be almost 10 times more bytes than the .jpg file. The smaller images are great for web pages, but when you digitize
a design, image clarity is very important. For this reason, we suggest that you use .tif or .bmp as the file type for images you
will digitize.
Image contrast and brightness
This setting usually has an auto adjust feature that works well. The settings may not auto adjust until you preview the image
and define the area that is being scanned. Feel free to play with the brightness and contrast to see how they affect the resulting image.
Steps to scanning
Most scanners will follow steps that are similar to these steps.
First, prepare the art for scanning. The artwork should be scanned straight, so that there is no need rotate it with
the digi system.
Draw a horizon line or straight line.
Draw a box around the entire image using a ruler and square.
Use a ruler to make a parallel line outside the box and cut the page allong that line.
Use the line you cut to place against the scanner bed.
Crooked Art
Cut Straight Edge
Draw Horizontal Line
Ready to Scan
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Draw Box
Place on Scanner
Second, place the image on the scanner bed with the image facing the glass. Use the edge of the scanner to help
get the image straight.
Third "preview" is used to make the scanner pass over and show you a picture of what is on the glass. Do a quick
check to see if everything looks straight and not upside down, etc.
Fourth, select the area that will be included in the scan by making a box that surrounds the image.
Fifth, check the settings to be sure that they are as you wish. The contrast and brightness may not auto adjust
unless you do another preview with the image already defined.
Sixth, press "scan" and the scanner will make the final pass and capture the image.
Finally, the image will appear in your graphics software. This is where you can save it to a disk or hard drive. Choose
a file type that suits the needs of the image, i.e. .jpg for Internet or .bmp for digi art.
This is an example of a Scanner Interface. Here you can adjust the settings to affect the properties of the images you scan.
ION
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Be sure to keep the glass clean in the scanner so that your images will be smudge free.
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DRAWING
Quite often, the customer's art is not suitable to digitize from. Any drawing can be prepared and scanned to make it easier to
work with. The easiest way to make a drawing of a logo is to trace the image onto tracing paper. A light table works great for
tracing as it lets you easily see the image under the tracing paper. Tape your image under the tracing paper so that it will not
move while you work. If you don't have a light table, try to trace the image using a bright window as the light table. Make the
tracing lines very light so that they can easily be erased and redrawn more clearly. Start with the general shapes and then
add the detail as needed to suit the embroidery. Remove one piece of tape and lift the tracing paper to see if you have missed
any details before you remove all of the tape. Be sure to add a box around the drawing to show a straight edge and where
the image should be placed for scanning. Tip: A mechanical pencil has a nice fine lead that will make sharp lines and does
not ever need to be sharpened.
COMPUTER GRAPHICS
There are different types of graphics programs and they perform different functions. What program you need will be dictated
by what you plan to use it for. Most scanners will come with some type of graphics program that will allow you to do some
basic image editing. This type of program will suit the needs of most digitizers, but more powerful graphics software is also
available to the embroidery artist.
The types of graphics software can be grouped into three main types:
1. Page Publishing
Examples of this type of program are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher,
Adobe Acrobat and many more. They are designed to make a page type document. Images and text can be combined on the page to create this document.
If you receive artwork in .doc or .pub format then what you have is a page that
has an image on it. The trouble with receiving these types of files as artwork, is
that they would require you to have the same program that the document was
created with in order to open and view it. Generally, it is better to ask your
customer for a bitmap or vector artwork rather than document files if possible.
2. Photo Editor
Some examples of this type of program are Adobe Photo Shop, Corel Photo
Paint, Mgi Photo Suite, but there are many more. This type of program is
designed to work on an individual image. These types of programs will usually
come with a scanner and are fairly easy to use. They will have functions like
scanning, reissuing, rotating, cropping, adding text, and image enhancements.
Most of these programs will have their own format like .cpt-corel or .pdd-Adobe.
They will also have options to save to other, more universal formats like .tif,
.bmp, .jpg and .gif.
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3. Drawing Program
Examples of this type of program are Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks. These are more powerful graphics programs with tools for
everything you can imagine. Most of the features of these systems are not
necessary for the embroidery artist, but there are some that can make it easier
to prepare art to digitize from. These programs are designed to create illustrations on a page that can be printed or saved as images. The drawing tools in
these programs create vector images. The vector image is made up of objects
that are combined to create the complete image, unlike the bitmap image
where the image is nothing more than a series of dots. Some digi programs can
use vector art to digitize from. If so, a vector image can save time when digitizing. If your digi program does not use vector images, the artwork can be exported to any of the standard bitmap types.
In addition to creating vector images, the drawing tools can make it very fast and easy to add a box around your
scanned artwork or combine several images to make one finished graphic. Expect these types of programs to be costly,
with a lot to learn, before you can do much with them. Unless you are a full time graphic artist, they may be overkill for
most embroidery designers.
DRAFTING
If you use a digi board to input your embroidery design, then you will either work from a photo copy or a draft. Either way, the
idea is to work from an enlargement of the image. A scale of 6X (times) was standard with the older systems, but today most
systems can work with any scale and it is up to the artist/digitizer. If the same scale is used for most works, the digitizer will
soon be able to gauge stitch lengths and density just by looking at the draft. To prepare the draft, an art projector is needed.
The artwork is placed in the projector and then is enlarged to a calculated size (i.e. If the design is going to be 50 mm tall and
a scale of 6X is used then the draft needs to be 300 mm tall). We project our artwork onto our light table and trace the image
onto drafting velum. The traced image is then taken to the drafting table and cleaned up. Detail is added or taken out as
needed to suit the embroidery size. A box with straight lines is also needed on a draft, just around the limits of the image.
TIP
Tape the draft to your board well to avoid any movement while you digitize it. Start at one side
and put a piece of tape every few inches for large drafts. Use your hand and smooth the draft
out as you put the tape down to avoid any bubbles in the draft that may cause movement as
you work.
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Customer Art - A Closer Look
1. Photograph
You might think a photo would be good to work from, but in almost all cases a photo will need to be drawn. It is easy and fast
to make a line drawing from a photo and the better art will save you time in the digitizing stage. First, photo copy or scan and
print the photo on paper. Then use the paper copy to trace from on a light table or up against a window.
2. Magazines and Books
Magazines and books usually have clean images that can be scanned, however, if the image in a book is a photo, then the
image will need to be drawn. Be careful how you treat artwork that came from a book or magazine, as it will surely be
protected by copyright law. More about copyright law later in a Special Unit we are working on.
3. Menus
Same as books, the images are usually clear and may be able to scan or photocopy to trace and draw.
4. Business Cards or Letterheads
Many times, these images are small and when scanned and enlarged, may not produce a clear image. If the image is too
jagged, the resulting embroidery may turn out poorly. If the card does not have enough sharpness to provide clear lines so
that one letter at full screen size has crisp edges, then a drawing should be prepared. Trace the image as you would with a
photo.
5. Bitmap Computer Images
Bitmap images are made up of dots of colour and need to have enough dpi to look clear when zoomed in. If a customer
provides you with bitmap artwork, you will need to take a close look to see how clear the lines are when magnified. If a single
letter at full computer screen does not look clear, then the image is not good enough to work from, and a drawing should be
made. If you are scanning in artwork, and the bitmap artwork does not look clear, try using more dpi. If the image you are
scanning is not clear in the first place, then your scan will be jagged, no matter how much dpi you add. Examples of bitmap
images are .tif, .bmp, .jpg, .gif.
6. Vector Computer Images
Vector images are made up of wire frame objects that have colour filled in and text added. If your digi program uses vector
images they can save time in digitizing. Most customer art is not available in vector form and preparing a vector image can
be time consuming. If your customer sends you a vector image and you have a program that can use them, they are great.
If you don't have a drawing program you may not be able to open the file and save it as a bitmap. Request that your customer
send you a bitmap copy to work from. Tell them to save the image at actual size and use between 100 and 300 dpi.
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7. Faxes
Most faxes are not good artwork to work from. In almost all cases, the artwork will need to be traced and drawn. Back in the
days when almost all of our artwork was drafted for the digi board, the fax was OK. With the technology available today, a
scanned image that is sent e-mail, is usually much better than a fax. If you have a thermal paper fax it is a good idea to make
a regular photocopy of the art for a hard copy as the thermal paper is light sensitive and the image will fade over time.
8. Rough Hand Drawn Sketches
If the sketch is clean enough, it can be scanned for digitizing, otherwise, most hand drawn artwork needs to be cleaned up.
Use the same tracing method as described earlier in this Unit.
Rough Sketch
Prepared Artwork
9. Previous Embroidery as Art
Often we are asked to work from other people's embroidery, and it can sometimes be a challenge. Not seeing the original
artwork but working from other embroidery can be misleading, as we are left to the judgement of the previous digitizer. In
many cases, the previous embroidery is the reason that the design is being created again in the first place. In all cases, a
drawing should be prepared to digitize from. Start by making a paper copy of the embroidery, either by using a photocopier
or scan and print. Trace the artwork from the paper copy and clean it up. Usually, if previous embroidery is supplied as art,
you can find a better copy in the phone book or on a web site. The effort to look for better art may be worthwhile in the long
run as sometimes you'll find the artwork is not quite as it looked embroidered.
Previous Embroidery
Prepared Artwork
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Finished Embroidery
TROUBLE AREAS
Now it is time to consider what the limitations of embroidery are. Basically, our limitations are about size and space. One
limiting factor dealing with size is the embroidery thread. It has a width and no detail in a design can be made thinner than
that width. The embroidery needle is also a consideration, as the needle has a width and no two stitches can be placed closer
than 1 mm or the needle will sew into the same hole as the previous stitch. There are various sizes of needles, but most are
between .6 mm and .8 mm wide. Thread also comes in various weights, but most embroidery thread is 40's weight thread.
The 30's weight thread is heavier, however, it is not as common as the 40's thread. Unless otherwise stated, it is safe to
assume that a design will be sewn in 40's weight thread. Based on the limiting factors of embroidery, we suggest the 1 mm
rule.
TIP
Make all stitches 1 mm (minimum) long and and keep spaces to no closer than 1 mm.
Basic block letters need to be at least 5 mm tall and not too compressed to look good embroidered.
If two columns are sewn closer than 1 mm apart, the space between may be so small that there
is no material showing and the embroidery will look poor.
MAKE ADJUSTMENTS
Once the trouble areas are identified, a solution is needed. In most cases, the artwork can be modified to solve the problems
and produce a nice looking embroidered design. Unit three has many examples of fixing trouble areas, but here are a few
examples:
1. Spaces can be made closer or further apart as needed.
2. Borders can be made fatter as needed.
3. Letters can be made larger or fonts can be changed to suit the design.
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4. Spaces can be made closer or further apart as needed.
TIP
Material plays a role in defining the trouble areas. (i.e.: For leather - a larger minimum of
2 mm should be used and letters no smaller than 8 mm tall to look good).
Finding Art and Creating New Art
If you are looking for artwork to use to create new designs, there are many places where you can find it. There are many clip
art collections available that allow you to create embroidery designs from the images and use them for corporate use. You
should check the copyright statement before you use a clip art image to be sure of the copyright uses. Images from books
and magazines are usually copyrighted and are not a good place to look. Greeting cards are also protected by copyright law
and are not a good source of artwork. Other than clip art, photographs are usually good sources for art to work from. If you
want to create designs that you own full copyright to, then you need to create your own artwork to work from.
Art Today is an example of an on-line clip art collection. View this clip art collection at the web site: www.clipart.com.
Digitizing
Now that we have gathered all of the design details and prepared the artwork to work from, we are ready to digitize the
design. A good digitizer will follow the same steps for each new design they create.
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Quick Review
Now is a good time to look over all of the details that have been collected so far. Familiarize yourself with the design and try
to imagine the customer's art as an embroidered design. Open or import the prepared art to be dreview the size and resolution of the art. Know the type of material and what the application is, as it will affect your settings.
Design Plan
A good design plan is the trademark of a good digitizer. Before you make your first object, you should know how the entire
design will sew in your head. Plan the sequence of the colour changes and the design elements before starting.
A List of things to consider should include:
The stitch type of each object you will need to create.
The underlay and density setting for each object.
The Push and Pull Compensation of each object.
The path of each object and how to connect to the next object.
The sequence of the entire design.
Create the Objects
TIP
Save your design before you create your first object. This way all you need to do is press the
save button on a regular basis as you digitize your design to protect your work. Any digitizer
will tell you it is not fun to re-digitize even part of a design as it will be time lost.
Most embroidery digi systems today are based on objects. This means, we create an object that our digi system will use to
create the actual stitches for the embroidery machine. Each object has a stitch type and various settings or properties that
will affect how the stitching sews out. You create the objects in the order or sequence that you want them to sew. How you
create the objects will depend on the type of software you have. Each system will have different tools or types of input methods, but from one system to the next, they are usually very similar.
INPUT METHODS:
1. Two Point Method
Sets of two points are combined to create the object shape. Each set of points represents the stitch angle. Connect point 1
to point 3 and you have side one and point 2 connects to point 4 for side two. You can continue on with sets of points using
both straight or round points. The object can sew as either a satin or fill stitch.
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2. Two-sided Method
One side is digitized then the other side. The stitch angle can be set at one angle or in some systems stitch angle lines can
be added to create a turning stitch angle. The object can sew as either a satin or fill stitch.
3. Object Outline Method
The outline of the object is created, a start and end point are chosen and the stitch angle is set at one angle. Some systems
will also allow you to create an object with holes and irregular shapes.
4. Center Line Method
A single line is digitized as a center line and a column is created based on width points. Some systems have settings to allow
offset for the line i.e. 80%-20%.
5. Run Stitch Method
A single line is digitized and the length is set. Travel A to B for a single ply or A to B and back to A for a double run stitch.
6. Variations of the Run Stitch
This is a run stitch method that creates a pattern or special effect.
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7. Manual Stitch Method
Just like it sounds, you digitize each stitch, one at a time. Just like like the old "punching" systems, no computer generated
stitches here. There is a lot of freedom to be found with this tool, once mastered. There are no limits to what can be done, be
creative. Practice will make perfect.
OBJECT PROPERTIES
The types of settings or properties you have will also vary with digi systems. The basic
settings like density and stitch length are standard for all systems. Pull compensation
and auto underlay are common for most systems. Special effects like accordion stitch
or patterned fill are more advanced options. Each basic stitch type will have different
settings. Set your properties as you create the objects so that you don't forget to do it
later.
Satin Stitch
Density
Underlay type
Pull Compensation
Short Stitches
Smart Corners
Accordion stitch
Fill Stitch
Density
Stitch Length
Fill Pattern
Underlay type
Pull Compensation
Short Stitches
Smart Corners
Accordion stitch
Pattern fill or user defined pattern fill
Run Stitch
Stitch Length
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CUT, COPY, AND PASTE
As always, this will vary depending on your digi system, but most digi systems allow the use of the windows clip board. If so,
it can be used to make copies of objects that can be used again in the design. This is if you have several objects to digitize
and need them to look the same. You can also use in with lettering objects where you will change the text but want to have
the same size and properties. We also use the clip board to merge designs together by opening a design and copying it onto
another. Another use for the windows clip board is to cut an object out of a design and then paste it back in the design, but at
a different place in the object sequence.
OBJECT SEQUENCE
The objects in a design are created in the order that you want them to sew. This is called the sewing sequence. You can add
or resequence objects to change the way a design sews. The sequence of a design should take into consideration its' colour
breaks and various elements. Start from the center and work out. Finish one part of a design before you move on. ( i.e. do
the logo, then do the lettering even if it adds an extra colour stop).
START STOP
Each design should have its origin set or the start and end points for the design. In most cases, we would use the center of
the design as the start and end point. Two good reasons to use the centre of the design as the start/stop are: 1) you'll hit less
hoops and 2) it's easier to hoop for center. Use a special start and stop point if you are adding a word to an existing embroidered garment. In the image on the left we have the start/stop points set for center/center. In the image below on the right we
set the start stop at the bottom of a letter. This may sound silly, but if you happen to pop a garment out out of a hoop before
you realize that the bobin had run out and the last two letters are missing. At that point we would edit the design and cut the
two letters out and make a new design of just the two letters. We set the Start point for the design at the bottom/left of the first
missing letter. You hoop the Garment with the needle right at the point where the missing letter should go. Now you can run
your small program of the missing letters. Ta da, mistake fixed. If this happens but there is a partial letter embroidered, we
find it is easiest to pick out the partial letter and re sew that letter in the fix.
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Centre/Centre
Bottom/Left
TIE IN AND TIE OFF & THREAD TRIMS
It is very important to remember to "lock and fix" or tie in and tie off your embroidery. We need to add these stitches as a way
of making a knot so that the finished embroidery will not unravel. The "fix" or "tie in" is used at the beginning of a new colour
or after a long jump stitch. The "lock" or "tie off" is used at the end of a colour or before a long jump. There is no need to fix
and lock between objects that are connected. The only time this technique may need to be used is between two objects with
a long jump that will be trimmed out. The lock stitch will ensure that the trimmed threads will not unravel.
ION
T
CAU
Be sure that there is tie off any time that the thread will be trimed. Ie at the end of a colour or
in between two words. This will ensure that the embroidery does not unravel or come apart.
RESHAPE OBJECTS
Once an object has been created, you can reshape the object at any time. This is very helpfull when you need to edit your
design to compensate for "pull" during sewing, i.e two colours have a gap between them. You move the points of the base
colour to have more overlap with the top colour and eliminate the gap. You can add, delete or move points to reshape an
object. Points also known as nodes can be either a strait or round. The box in the illustration below has strait nodes and we
added a round node to make the new shape.
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Final Check
Before you have your design proofed on an embroidery machine, review it on-screen first. If your digi system has a slow
redraw feature, you can watch the design sew out to look for mistakes. If you can catch any mistakes at this point, valuable
machine time is saved.
Keeping Record
It is very important to keep your hard work organized, so that you can easily find it later. There are many ways to organize
your work, they will vary with the number of files you plan to create and your personal choices. A paper copy or file folder
should be kept for each design. The folder should have a design name and possibly a file number. If you have a large number
of file folders it is easier to keep them organized if you use a file number system. All of the files are numbered and a catalogue
is kept to find the file number of a design. You just look up the name to find the file number. If you plan to make only a handful
of designs, or at least not hundreds of them, then it's probably not necessary to number all of your files. It is still very important
to have a system of how you will save your designs and where you will keep them. If you are digitizing for yourself only, you
could have one computer folder where you keep all of your work, or make a new folder for each project , keeping all of the
files for each job in a separate folders.
Another approach could be to make a new folder for each customer and then under each customer's folder make a new folder
for each new job. For large numbers of files use file numbers. (i.e. St001.dst. If you make a new size you can call it
St001a.dst. You can also name your digi art St001.bmp and even call your customer art St001customer_art.jpg). What ever
works for you will be just fine and the more effort you put into keeping your work organized, the happier you will be.
TION
CAU
Please don't trust files to just one copy. Make a back-up and take it "off site". It is most imperative to make a back-up of your hard work in case the unthinkable were to happen. You can
back-up each file on a disk or back-up your work in bulk with a CD burner or tape drive. If you
digitize full-time then a backup should be made at least once a week.
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