Prepare logos for embroidery digitising
Turn customer logos into clean vector artwork with few colours and simple shapes, ready to import into your digitising software. PathSnapper doesn't make stitch files.
PathSnapper doesn't make stitch files (DST, PES, EXP and the like). It makes the clean vector artwork that digitising goes faster from. Import its SVG, AI, EPS or PDF into your digitising software (most can import at least one of these; Ink/Stitch, for example, works on SVG in Inkscape) and digitise from clean shapes instead of a blurry JPG.
Customers rarely send artwork that is ready for embroidery: too many colours, soft edges, tiny details. Digitising from a clean vector is faster and more accurate, because every colour is already a separate, well-defined shape.
Prepare a logo for digitising
- Open the logo and, if it is blurry or blocky, use Clean up with AI first.
- Reduce the colours to your thread count. Set Number of colours, and merge shades that should be one thread.
- Simplify small details. Raise Speck size to remove areas too small to stitch, and move Curve complexity towards fewer points for smoother shapes.
- Choose Cut-outs or Stacked layers. Cut-outs give shapes that never overlap. With stacked layers, a shape that sits completely inside another colour is drawn on top of it, with the colour around it whole underneath; colours that meet side by side share their edge either way.
- Export SVG, AI, EPS or PDF and import it into your digitising software.
Why the vector helps
- One shape per colour, ready to assign a stitch type and thread.
- Matching edges. Neighbouring colours share one boundary while you edit, so adjusting a border never leaves a gap or overlap between them. The exported shapes are independent, with edges that match.
- True geometry. Circles, straight lines and corners are made exact, which keeps satin columns and borders even.
- Fewer, better-placed points. Points sit at the extremes of each curve, as a designer would draw them, and are easy to adjust.
The same trace also gives you print and cut files for the same design: PDF with CMYK or spot colours for printed garments, DXF for vinyl transfers.
One boundary. Two shapes. Perfectly in sync.
PathSnapper traces every boundary once and shares it between the shapes on either side. Move a point and both colours move with it: no hairline gaps, no overlaps to repair.
When you export, each colour becomes its own independent, closed shape, and the edges where colours meet still match exactly.
Questions
Does PathSnapper make DST or PES files?
No. PathSnapper doesn't make stitch files. It makes clean vector artwork (SVG, AI, EPS or PDF) to import into your digitising software, which assigns stitch types and writes the machine file.
How many colours should I keep?
As many as threads in the design. Set Number of colours, and merge shades that anti-aliasing or blur split into extra colours.
Try it on a real job
Drop in a customer's logo and see every path and point free, with no account. Pay only when you want the file.
Try it free