Embroidery pattern from an image

Embroidery works coarsely. A stitch is several millimetres long, so anything smaller than a few millimetres disappears in the yarn. A good template therefore consists of few clearly separated areas with calm edges.

Vectorizing is the intermediate step here: it turns the image into an unambiguous shape that a digitizer or a piece of software can read as an area. The cleaner the contour, the less has to be reworked while punching.

Suitable source material

• Motifs that still read at 60 millimetres of width
• Shapes with a minimum weight of roughly one millimetre
• Few separated areas instead of many fine lines
• Type in a strong, well filled shape

The route is the same for every source. Only the slider values differ.

1. Load the image and start in the result viewDrag your PNG, JPG or WEBP into the drop area. The result view shows right away what the source turns into.
2. Split black from whiteSet black level, contrast and brightness until every line you want is there and the rest disappears.
3. Remove leftovers with the lassoCircle whatever has to go. Hold Alt and the lasso flips around, so only the selection stays.
4. Check the contour in the vector viewInspect counters, gaps and the thinnest parts. Outlines shows the same shape as a bare line.
5. Smooth and simplify with restraintRaise both shape sliders in small steps until the pixel staircase is gone and the shape still holds.
6. Export the format you needDownload the result as PDF, SVG, EPS, DXF or a cleaned PNG. The download starts immediately.

Hand SVG to the digitizing step when the software imports vectors, otherwise PDF. A high resolution PNG with a transparent background is the simplest handover when the other side only expects an image.