Custom logo digitising

Bad source files are normal

Most of what arrives is a low-resolution JPEG pulled off a website, a photo of a business card, or a PDF where the logo is a flattened image. That is fine, it is most of the work. We rebuild the shapes rather than trace the pixels, because a traced edge carries the compression artefacts straight into the stitching and you can see it in the satin.

Turning shading into thread

Gradients and photographic shading have to become discrete colours, and how many colours is a business decision as much as an artistic one. Every extra one is another thread change on every garment in the run. So we usually propose two versions: a faithful one with more colours, and a leaner one that keeps the character with fewer. You pick.

For genuine photo work we use graduated fill densities rather than dithering, which reads far better on fabric than the auto-generated results you get out of a one-click photo-stitch tool.

We will tell you if it should not be embroidered

Some logos do not belong in thread at three inches. Thin script, drop shadows, 4pt taglines, six-colour gradients. Rather than take the money and hand you something that sews badly, we send a note back saying what to simplify and what it would look like. Most clients end up with a dedicated embroidery version of their mark, which is what they needed anyway.

What lands in your inbox

The stitch file in whichever formats you asked for, a printable worksheet with the colour sequence and stitch count, and a flat preview image you can forward to your client. Ask for the editable source and you get that too, at no extra cost — it is your design.

• EMB
• DST
• PES
• JEF
• EXP
• VP3
• HUS
• XXX
• CND