Requirements For A Good Digitizer

How do I find a good  digitizer for my embroidery designs  and what do they charge?

First of all, what is a good digitizer?  A good digitizer is someone that will work with you and help to make you look good to your customer.  A good digitizer will know the embroidery process and know what it takes to make your design look the best that it can on your particular type of fabric.  A good digitizer will ask the following questions:

• 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?
• Can I 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 a good digitizer, look for one that uses the same software that you do and request that you have a copy of the outline 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.

The best place to find a good digitizer is through the sales rep in your area that sold you your embroidery design software.  He or she should be able to direct you to someone that will be the type of digitizer that you are looking for.

Most good digitizers charge from $9.00 to $20.00 per thousand stitches.  Sometimes they charge by how long it takes and sometimes it is by how complicated the design is.  There are even good digitizers that will give you a choice and will create designs based on a scale.  If you want a lot of detail it will cost you more than if you want less detail.  If you want color blending this is an additional charge on top of the stitch count.  If you find someone that is charging less, then you had better try them out on a design that is for a customer that would not complain if it is not the kind of quality that you envision.  If the price is low, I would truly beware.

This brings me to the subject of going over seas for your designs.  Yes, their designs are very inexpensive; but can you communicate with this person or is it a company that employs a lot of digitizers?  You have no control over who you are going to get.  Sometimes the designs are OK and sometimes they are horrible and you cannot specify who you want to digitize your design.

This can also be true in this country if you are dealing with a large company.  They will send your design to the next person that is available. Sometimes they even contract them out to other companies and maybe overseas.   This is even worse.

Digitizer must sew out designs

Make sure that your digitizer sews out the designs before sending them to you.  Many digitizers with such a low fee do not sew out the designs before sending them to you.  Many of this type do not even own an embroidery machine.  If you have a design that you have purchased for a low price and it has a lot of issues in it, it will cost you money in the end.  It will drive up your production time so far that it will cost you money to do the job.

You want to make sure that you are working with someone that will give you a trouble free design and you can make money on their work.  This is truly one area that you do not want to skimp on in your embroidery business!  This is one area where you get what you pay for. Don’t forget you are going to charge the customer for the digitizing fee.  This is not a charge that you absorb in any way shape or form!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Brenda Adams, one of my students, won a “Monogram Wizard” contest for a pillow that she entered.  This pillow is being featured on the back cover of “Designs In Machine Embroidery” magazine.  Brenda stated that she learned a lot from my Underlay class and applied those skills to designing and sewing out this pillow.

Brenda also took my “How To Create Monograms” class and was very creative in putting this monogram design together for this pillow.  She did a beautiful job and I am so proud of Brenda; this is a huge accomplishment.

The picture on the lower right of the dark gold pillow is Brenda’s.  She was in a fabric store shopping and picked up the magazine and saw her pillow on the back and was extremely surprised and excited.  I cannot even imagine the feelings that she went through when she saw her picture on the back cover of that magazine.

If it had been me, I am sure that everyone in the store would have know about it at the time, but Brenda is not like me, she is a bit more quiet!

I just wanted to share this with everyone. What a way to start off the New Year!   Brenda definitely needs to be congratulated on her accomplishment!

Thank you Brenda for sharing your win with all of us!

Joyce Jagger
Your Embroidery Coach

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Part 3,  the final session of our Design Creation webinars using your existing embroidery fonts and shapes, will be next Tuesday night May 26 at 8pm.  During this webinar I will be working on a college logo using a true type font and we will be doing some review from the previous 2 sessions of this same series of webinars.

I started this design during session 2 in April but the lettering is very small and takes a lot editing.  Learning how to edit is extremely important and is a learned skill that does take a little time to master.  Once you have a good concept of editing and have really developed good editing skills, it is easy to transition into actual digitizing.

We are also going to be going over some details about how to create  your settings for this small lettering to make it sew out beautifully on any type of fabric.  Working with small lettering is always tough when you are new to embroidery and creating it to sew out great takes a lot of practice and skill, but it  can be done very successfully when you know how to use the right tools.

There are many times when  you can do your own custom design setups and create those custom logos instead of having it done by your digitizer.  Should you charge what a digitizer would charge.  Yes, of course you should!  You are spending time creating a design and you should be paid for that time!  There are far too many embroiderers that think that their time is not worth what a digitizers time is worth.  You may not have the same skills that  your digitizer has, but you are still creating their design and you have every right to expect payment for this design creation.

All of the Embroidery Club members from Embroidery Tips and More will be receiving a link to sign up for the webinar on Friday May 22.  This webinar Free to all to Embroidery Tips and More Embroidery Club members.  Anyone that is not a member is still invited to join us for the webinar for a nominal fee.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach
Embroidery Webinar of the Month

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Tonight is our Embroidery Webinar of the Month.  I am going to be teaching you “How To Create Beautiful Monograms Using Your True Type Fonts!” 

You may be wondering, What is a true type font?  There are two types of files that have been installed on your computer that are available to you when you do your word processing.  One is a True Type font and the other one is an Open Type Font.  The true type fonts will always work for embroidery, but sometimes the open type font will work also.  In many embroidery software programs they are interchangeable.

Sometimes the open type font will work in one version of the embroidery program and yet will not not work in another version.  Some of the open type fonts that are available will work great in Version 11 of the Tajima by Pulse DGML software but Version 12 of the same software will not recognize them at all.  In Version 2009 of the Tajima by Pulse DGML software they work great!

There are also a lot more fonts that are available that you can purchase at your office supply store and you will also find them in your artwork programs.

You have many choices of true type fonts and they make excellent and very beautiful monograms.  Many times we are of the mind set that we have to have a monogram font that that has been digitized for our embroidery program  in order to be able to create beautiful monograms, but this is not the case.  You  have a totally unlimited variety of fonts that are available and I will be teaching you how to create these monograms using some of the true type fonts.

This is the completion of a 2 part series.  I presented the first part
last month, “How To Create Beautiful Large And Small Monograms Using
Your Existing Embroidery Fonts“!  This “How To Create Beautiful Large And Small Monograms” video program series will be available on DVD after the webinar tonight.

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What is Embroidery Push and Pull Compensation? When the  needle penetrates the fabric and the top embroidery thread connects and wraps around the bobbin embroidery thread it locks and creates a pulling in effect.  Most fabrics require that Pull Compensation be added in order to compensate for this push and pull effect brought about when you stitch a design into the fabric.

Do all stitch types require that Pull Compensation be added? All types of stitches create the push-pull effect, but it is most prominent when you are using Satin Path or Complex fill stitches. This push-pull effect is more prominent in large areas of your design such as your complex or tatami fill areas.
You do not add push or pull compensation to the run stitches that you are using for a border.  If your borders do not stay in registration with your fill area, it is best to make your adjustments to the fill area of your design.

Why do my designs look good on the screen but when I sew them out they have gaps?
Your design is created on a flat surface and if you do not compensate for the push and pull effect of your fabric as your design is being stitched out, it will most likely leave gaps where to areas are supposed to come together.  There is a constant tug of war going on between your fabric, machine and thread and you must learn to understand why this tug of war is taking place and how to create the necessary adjustments to your design in order for it to sew out so that it looks good on the fabric after it is sewn.  After you make your necessary adjustments your design may look very distorted on the screen.

Understanding Push and Pull Compensation and how to apply it to your embroidery designs is not hard. I have created a embroidery video training program on a CD with the same information that I taught during my “Embroidery Webinar of the Month,” “Would You Like To Know How To Apply Pull Compensation To Your Embroidery Designs?” During my webinar I taught the basic Push and Pull Compensation settings to apply to knit fabrics, woven fabrics and terry cloth.

I teach you how to take these basic Pull Comp settings and apply them to your other fabrics and different situations. My simple method of teaching will make it easier for you to learn how to make your adjustments as you are creating or digitizing your embroidery designs and daily embroidery lettering setups.

During my webinar I used the Tajima by Pulse DGML embroidery software but you can take these same settings and apply them to your own embroidery software no matter what brand or level you have. Learning how to apply Push and Pull Compensation to your embroidery designs is critical if you want the type of embroidery designs that will make your embroidery business stand out above the crowd.

This embroidery training video program“Learn The Secrets Of How To Create And Apply Pull Comp To Your Embroidery Designs!“ is now available to you on a CD.

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This past weekend, I had the the priviledge of participating in a conference on Learning How To Market Your Business.  This conference was called IM Success Workshop and was held in a beautiful Bed and Breakfast setting, The Wayside Inn in Ellicott City, Maryland.  I picked up many good tips, met some fantastic people and had the priviledge of meeting my business coach in person. 

My business coach, Bob Jenkins was the Host and presenter of the conference and a wonderful teacher.  I have been working with Bob, The Teacher, for the past several months and have learned a lot from him.  He is very young, but really knows how to teach and how to market a business.  

Each month I hold an Embroidery Webinar on a specific topic and in January I am going to be starting a series of Embroidery Webinars on How To Market Your Business and I am very excited that I have some new information to share with my students.  Marketing your Business really is not hard, but you must pay attention to detail and be consistant with your efforts.  I will be teaching the Basics of Marking your Business in January and in February we will be going into some specific methods.

Next Tuesday night, August 26th I will be holding a webinar teaching you all about using Underlay Stitching in your embroidery designs.  Anyone that is into embroidery whether it is an embroiderer with a home business, or a large commerical business should attend this webinar.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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