Finding a good local digitizer is not so easy in today's market.  The embroidery digitizing world has changed in the past few years and trying to find a good digitizer that is located here in the US is not really easy.  With all of the competition from outside of the US, a digitizer from here cannot make a good living.  What to expect from a digitizer for your embroidery designs is a very important question?

First of all, we all expect that the design that we have had digitized will come back to us perfect and the sew out will look just exactly what we had envisioned, but what happens when it does not?  First we blame  the digitizer for not coming through for us in exactly what we wanted, but did you give the digitizer all of the correct information to make this happen? What is the information that is necessary for the digitizer to give us that great design?

  • What fabric is this design going to be sewn on?
  • Will you be using this design for any other type of application?
  • What format do you want the design to be finished in?
  • Will you want to increase or decrease the size of the design from the original size?
  • Does he have the liberty to make some modifications to the design to make it sew better such as increase the letter size or choose a different font style?

There can be many other questions, depending on the design and the information that you have given them. When you are looking for that perfect digitizer, look for one that uses the same software that you do and request that you have a copy of the outline or native file. This will allow you to make changes such as resizing or removing lettering from the digitized file. You may have to pay a little more for this privilege, but it is well worth it.

Digitizer must know embroidery production

Make sure that your digitizer knows production so that you have as few trims and color changes as possible. Make sure that he or she sews out the designs before sending them to you. This is a problem with a lot of digitizers, especially with Graphic Artists.. They get their software and think that since they can create any type of graphic art, they can digitize. This is far from the truth. They don‚’t usually know anything about the sewing process and have no idea about push and pull comps, underlay or density.

If you can find a digitizer that digitizes their designs using the same type of embroidery software that you are using, this is the best of both worlds. This makes it easier for you if there is need for a size change or some fabric setting changes. Instead of expecting that your designs are going to be perfect, it would be to your benefit to learn how to edit your designs so that you can get the perfect design that you are looking for.

Every embroiderer should take the time and make the investment in learning how to edit your designs that you receive back from the digitizer.  If you have that skill lever, it is going to save you a lot of time and you will be able to make all of your embroidery designs production friendly!   Your idea as to what you expect from a digitizer will change.  You will not expect all of your designs to be perfect from the digitizer, and you will be more educated and be able to communicate better with your digitizer. This is going to give you a leg up from your competition!