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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