Service
Embroidery digitising, done by hand.
Digitising is not converting a file. It is deciding, for every shape in your logo, how thread should behave on the fabric you are running — and then building the file so the machine does that reliably, on garment number one and garment number four hundred.
The craft
Six decisions that decide whether a file is any good.
None of these are settings you can leave on default. This is what an experienced digitiser is actually being paid to judge — and what an auto-digitiser guesses at.
Underlay
The stitches nobody sees. They anchor the fabric, stop the top layer sinking into a knit, and stabilise the shape before the fill goes on. Wrong underlay is why a design looks fine on a woven and terrible on fleece.
Density
How tightly the stitches pack. Too loose and the garment shows through, too tight and you get a stiff plate that puckers and breaks needles. It changes with fabric, with element size, and with thread weight.
Pull compensation
Thread pulls fabric inward as it sews, so shapes come out narrower than you drew them. We widen elements per-direction to cancel it. Skip this and your outlines end up sitting inside your fills.
Stitch type and angle
Satin for columns, fill for areas, run for fine detail — and an angle chosen so light catches the design the way you want. Angle changes are also how you stop a large fill looking like a flat sheet of plastic.
Sequence
What sews first. Good sequencing anchors the fabric progressively, keeps registration tight, and cuts thread changes down so your operator is not stopping every ninety seconds.
Trims and jumps
Every unnecessary trim is a stop, and every unclipped jump is a thread somebody has to cut off by hand on every garment. We tidy these deliberately, and it is one of the first things you will notice about a hand-punched file.
Positions we punch
Pick the position — the rules are on each page.
Left chest
The bread-and-butter job. Polos, oxfords, fleece, softshells.
Cap logo
Structured fronts, six-panel seams, cap-driver ready.
Jacket back
Big panels, big stitch counts, and pull you have to plan for.
3D puff
Foam-backed caps and letters with a clean, sealed edge.
Sleeve
Narrow, curved, and hooped on an awkward frame.
Towels
Terry pile, knockdown stitch, and edges that hold.
Applique
Placement, tack, trim, cover. Properly sequenced.
Patches
Twill, felt and full-coverage patches with a clean border.
Custom logos
Crests, mascots, gradients and the jobs nobody else wanted.
A fair comparison
Auto-digitising is not useless. It is just not this.
One-click digitising in modern software is genuinely decent at large, flat, single-colour shapes. Give it a two-inch wordmark with 4pt text, a knit polo and a client who will count the garments, and it falls apart in predictable ways: even density everywhere, underlay it guessed, no compensation, and a sequence that trims constantly.
If a job is genuinely simple we will tell you it is simple. We just will not charge you hand-punch prices for a button press.
Delivery
Formats, worksheet, preview.
Tell us your machine and we send the right file. Not sure? Say the brand and model and we will work it out — the list below covers almost every commercial head in use.
Next step
Send the logo. Get a price and a time back.
No form-filling marathon and no sales call. Attach whatever artwork you have, tell us the size and the machine, and you will get a number and a delivery time in the reply.
Or email orders@zbpunch.com — orders taken 24/7 — someone is on chat almost all day.