embroidery: An embellishment of a fabric or garment in which colored threads are sewn on to the fabric to create a design.
digitizing: A process of converting analog information into digital format usable by a computer.

So how do those definitions fit into your business? Well, as technical and factual as they may be, quite simply embroidery digitizing is the process of creating an embroidery design with the ultimate goal of sewing it on an embroidery machine.

There are basically two methods of digitizing, and for the sake of this article we will call them ‘Freehand Digitizing’ and ‘Image Tracing Digitizing’.

Freehand Digitizing

All good quality embroidery packages such as Wilcom ES will allow you to use your free, unbound creative talents to produce an embroidery design without any source artwork or design.
In most cases, embroidery design packages are CAD (Computer Aided Design) based.

Fact: Traditionally CAD is associated with industrial design applications used in architecture, engineering, and manufacturing. However, CAD also covers broader object-based design applications such as Wilcom ES, CorelDRAW® and Adobe Illustrator®.

Being ‘CAD’ or ‘object-based’, the digitizer (person or artist making the design) creates shapes on-screen using the various design tools, stitch settings, and effects available.

Image Tracing Digitizing

The most common form of digitizing involves inserting an image file and tracing the shapes using the embroidery digitizing tools.

The digitizer must interpret the design and decide on the best way to create the design, avoiding costly trims and color changes.

It is also important during this interpretation process, that the digitizer identifies what is and is not possible with embroidery.

Embroidery deals with physical thread that has a thickness limitation which can dramatically affect the fine detail you attempt to produce with embroidery.

Automatically converting an image to embroidery using either a raster graphic such as BMP, JPG, GIF and TIF or vector graphic such EPS, DXF, EM and CDR is becoming more popular, and can potentially save hours of manually digitizing a design.