Embroidery format

See also

• Embroidery format DST‎
• Embroidery format EXP‎‎
• Embroidery format JEF‎‎
• Embroidery format PEC‎‎
• Embroidery format PES‎
• Embroidery format VP3

• Quality: to finalize

• Difficulty: beginner

Introduction

There are several kinds of Embroidery file formats, and each contains different abilities and features. Some formats have different versions with increased features. Usually these try to preserve backwards compatibility because of the cost of the hardware in question.

This page attempts to provide a short overview on embroidery formats. For technical details, see the specialized articles (menu to the right).

Kinds of Embroidery File Types

A lot of embroidery confusion is because there are diverse sets of hardware. So many different machines will have their own format specifically because the format consists of commands intended only for the particular machine in question. These are specific ways that that particular hardware interacts. So many formats will have oddities like DST headers attached to non-dst encoded stitches likely because the machine uses parts that read the dst header and a different part to one to encode the dst file.

One consequence of this is that because the files skip to specific header locations and encode stitches in specific ways these formats can be used as interchange formats. Embroidery machines do only a few and those need to be easily encode in ways that the hardware can understand and execute. So the ubiquity of .dst files is largely due to the age of the format but also because apparently many formats are derived from them, and the early hardware was from the company that produced them. So .dsz and .dsb formats have DST headers and work with machines by other embroidery manufacturers.

So many different file times can be called Embroidery formats:

• All sorts of 2D bitmap and vector formats for the drawings, i.e. formats that are not specifically made for embroidery
• Embroidery file formats that work on a range of machines and also can be used as exchange formats. These are sometimes called commercial formats.
• Embroidery file formats that are mostly brand or even type specific
• Both so-called commercial file formats and more brand-specific formats come in two forms: Some only have stitching information, others keep information that makes them easily editable. The latter could be called worker files.
• Color file information. These aren't needed for the machine so they sometimes get a seperate file to preserve that information.

    It seems that there are about 30 different formats. It is not clear to me what different formats can do. Also, I don't know how formats are supported by various vendors. Some formats seem to be barely editable since they only contain stitching instructions like "go to x/y" and "add a stitch from x1/1y to x2/y2" or "change thread". Others may include precise information about the shape and kind of a design part and keep stitching information apart, i.e. an area is not just defined in terms of stitches. The latter are more easily editable. Other formats (like JEF) may keep just some information, e.g. colors.

The stitching information is actually less informative than that. It actually means move x, y, and stitch or move x, y and don't stitch (block the needle bar), or stitch then move x, y. The machine is stitching whether you move or not. However whether the stitch hits after the movement or before actually differs by format and machine. Stitch doesn't mean put thread between points a and b. It means go somewhere before the needle hits or go somewhere after the needle hits. Just as jump can be taken as do what stitch does but also block that needle bar.

    It is sometimes difficult to find out what formats a specific machine from various Brands can read. E.g. Bernina's feature their own brand-specific editable *.art formats, but it seems that the high-end machines directly can read *.exp which is a commercial format, if I understood right. When I bought an Elna 8300, no information about formats was included in the documentation (or I couldn't find it) ...

    To make the situation worse, some formats have different subtypes. E.g. the popular .PES comes in eight different versions :( - I once thought that the situation was really bad for video codecs, video containers or 3D vector formats, but embroidery beats anything else I am aware of in terms of obscurity and diversity.

Actually .PES comes in no fewer than 12 versions, but these are mostly settings in the PE-DESIGN that edits them, there's only the 1 type of stitch command information within them, in the PEC block.

    Vendors include conversion software that can translate to their (and other's) machine readable CNC formats from a series of other low-level and also from more high-level formats. The most popular exchange formats seem to be DST and EXP, but these are not necessarily the best. As little as we know of today (after few hours spent on exploration) a good format (e.g. EMB) includes a vector description of each design part and attaches abstract stitching information to that object. This way it can be transformed without deforming stitches. Less powerful formats are directly stitch-based. The most popular rather machine-specific format seems to be *.pes (Brother) since it also includes worker information.

What makes a format "good" is highly subjective, as to utility. SVG might be some of the best vector format information on the planet, but it's not every good if you can't make it into stitches. The low level stuff tends to be machine specific and not really intended for people. How you get the stitches made isn't necessarily the job of the hardware manufacturers, just that they are useful in describing commands to issue to a CNC sewing machine.

Most .pes files can contain worker information, the vast majority of them only contain a duplicate copy of the stitch information in segments to be read by PE design.

Machine Encoding

The most significant differences between embroidery files with the intent of running a machine, and those intended to run the programs that make those files. Often the actual controllers within the machines are similar and the encoding scheme for the embroidery files turns out to be quite similar. They are intended to control a stepper or servo motor, and a x-y plotter and a needle head. They don't do much beyond that. A lot of files simply encode for three things: a control command, an dx, and dy. This encoding is also heavily influenced by the actual physical requirement of the machine. The machines must stitch, unless the needle bar is blocked, which is the difference between a stitch and a jump. When enough of these are in a row, machines will often force a trim. It's possible with some machines to block the needle bar and move very far from the last stitch, others will force a trim. There are some cases like fringe where this is needed or puffy applique. Given this requirement, the commands used within the machine code is often similar sometimes identical when you get away from the header and into the actual stitches within the file.

Command Encoding Schemes

1. Triplet, Tajima Punch-Card DST - triplet code generally with the +x and +y and control bits combined in a particular fashion together. With + and - values for the bits. The important control bits being located on the 3rd bit with the lowest two values of the control bit always set.
2. Pairs, Signed X, Y with 0x80 triggered control events. 2 byte stitch, 4 byte controlled. If the X value is set to 0x80 aka -127 this invokes control form. Where the next byte (which would have been "Y") serves as a command usually with 01 being stop, 04 being jump. 0x10 being end. And the next two bytes are often controlled and can have positional characteristics so things like move.
3. Triplet, Unsigned X, Y, Control. The control byte provides the direction for the plotter so it has the sign. The first bit of the command bit is always set. The next two bits control the sign of the x and y values. Usually the last bit controls whether that command is stitched or not (jump vs. stitch), block the needle bar or don't.
4. Pairs (Varies), Signed 7 or 12 + Control Nibble. 2, 3, 4 byte encoding. Each value of the X and Y is read individually. When the highest bit is set (0x80) it triggers long mode. It means that the top 4 bits are control (the first one being used to trigger long mode). And the bottom nibble is appended to the next byte in the stream. So if the highest bit isn't set it's a 7 bit signed number. If the highest bit is set then control bits may come into effect and the number becomes a 12 bit signed number. This allows not only trigger control events but allowing an optional long mode. Only PEC blocks use this.

There are minor variations of these schemes sometimes with different endian methods and order of the bytes. Some like Xxx use 0x7F as as control, and 0x7D as long mode which means the X and Y in that case are 16 bit signed integers and read right after the 0x7D. And KSM uses triplet: x,y,control triggered control but permits non stitching x,y locations until stitching is re-enabled with a different control event.

Vector Files

At the other extreme there are vector files that serve to create embroidery files by having all by storing all the data needed to create an embroidery. This means having the vector shapes and fill types, and offsets and motifs, and which order these are located the start and stop location. And then generating a bunch of line segments through a variety of algorithms. These are then set into the machine readable formats for the machines to read and follow the set commands.

Hybrid Machine/Vector Files

Some files like PES actually have both of these. They contain a pointer to a PEC block that is entirely intended for brother embroidery machines to use. These blocks also exist in PEC files that simply say #PEC0001 and then have the PEC block, or within PES files or PHB and PHC files that equally also contain a PEC block.

Type and Structure of Embroidery Files

Embroidery file formats

extension	Manufacturer(s)	Target	Structure	Content/Other
.10o	Toyota	Hardware	unsigned(x,y,control) encoded stitch	A separate .00o contain color
.100	Toyota	Hardware	4 byte encoding. 2 bytes of control bytes, x,y with 3rd, 4th signed x, y locations.
.art	Bernina	Software	Compound File Binary Format, of a series of files. Different files within the format contain the summary information, the Design Information, contents (the compressed stitch data, zlib 4 bytes in), the Design Icon, a bitmap of the what the design should look like.
.bro	Bits & Volts	Hardware	256 byte header. x == 0x80 control encoding, 2 stop, 3 jump
.csd	Singer, POEM	?	brand-specific
.dat	Barudan	Hardware	256 byte header, unsigned(x,y,control)
.dsb	Tajima for Barudan	Hardware	512 byte DST header but stitches are unsigned(x,y,control) style
.dsg	Sierra	Stitch Era software	?	worker + stitch
.dst	Tajima	Hardware	(See detailed article) 512 byte header, DST encoded direct commands.
.dsz	Tajima for ZSK USA	Hardware	512 byte DST header, big-endian unsigned(x,y,control) style encoding, with specified 4 bit needle
.edr	Embird	Software	this is full fledged vector encoding data for Embird software.
.emb	Wilcom	Software	vectors, icon, colors, stitch. this is a full fledged vector format stored very similarly to .ART and clearly share a code base. Several elements stored via a byte replacement cypher in a zlib compressed stream of data after a file size.
.emd	Elna	Hardware	48 (0x30) byte header, x == 0x80 controlled encoding: 0x2A stop/color_change, 0x80 Jump, end 0xFD.
.exp	Melco, Bernina (high-end models)	Hardware	Expanded Melco (See detailed article) X == 0x80 controlled encoding. Color change, 0x01 is followed directly by 0x00 0x00 and a jump 0x80 0x04 uses the following the X, Y position instructed, but must be repeated each new command.
.exy	Eltac	Hardware	256 bytes of header, Triplet coded in DST encoding.
.fdr	Barudan	?	?	?
.fxy	Forton	Hardware	256 byte header, unsigned(x,y,control) style encoding
.gt	Golden Thread	Hardware	512 bytes of header, unsigned(x,y,control) style encoding
.hus	Husqvarna Viking	Hardware	Compressed bytes. Using a small table arc compression.
.inb	Inbro	Hardware	(unverified) 8192 byte header, unsigned(x,y,control) style encoding
.jef	Janome	Hardware	(See specific article) stitch + color, Header information, magic-number thread lookup, and 0x80 triggered control events.
.ksm	Pfaff	Hardware	512 byte header. unsigned(x,y,control) triplets. However, it doesn't force that encoding on all jumps. Rather after triggering a color change to a specific needle, it simply gives normal encoded x, y location (indistinguishable from stitches) until control bits of 0x19 triggers sewing again.
.max	Pfaff	Hardware
.mit	Mitsubishi	Hardware
.new	Ameco	Hardware
.ofm	Melco	?	Compound Binary format with some stitches in there.
.pcd	Pfaff	?	these actually have a weird encoding scheme. Using absolute positioning rather than relative positioning.
.pcm	Pfaff	?	stitch
.pcq	Pfaff	?	stitch
.pcs	Pfaff	?	stitch
.pec	Brother, Babylock	Hardware	(see detailed article) colors, stitch, 1 bit graphics, header of #PEC0001, pec block, magic number colors, graphics which are displayed on the machines, contain high-bit long-form + control triggering.
.pes	Brother, Babylock	Software + Hardware	(see detailed article), vectors, colors, (PEC File), contains several different layers of information.
.phb,	Brother	Software + Hardware	Header, bunch of info and a PEC block.
.phc,	Brother	Software + Hardware	Header, bunch of info and a PEC block.
.sew	Janome, Elna, Kenmore	Hardware	magic number thread lookups. Signed x, y with 0x80 triggered control events.
.shv	Husqvarna Viking	Hardware	stitch, Big old giant 1 bit graphic, of varying size. Magic number colors, x==0x80 controlled events. Predefined length for stitching events before color switching.
.sst	Sunstar	?
.stx	Data Stitch	?	Full thread data, lotta other stuff.
.t01	Pfaff	Hardware	contains DST stitches with no header.
.t09	Pfaff	Hardware
.tap	Happy	Hardware	contains DST stitches with no header.
.thr	ThreadWorks	Software	full vector embroidery format for threadworks software.
.vip	Pfaff (older), Husqvarna	Hardware	stitch, Compressed stitches. Like Hus it uses Arc table compression.
.vp3	Pfaff (newer)	?	(See detailed article) unlike most encoding schemes Pfaff files are stored in designs, blocks, stitch blocks allowing multiple blocks and designs within the file structure (see article on specifics) stitches are encoded in several places with seek values to the next relevant set of data and x==0x80 triggered encoding with few commands, namely 0x02 which means long form (it may just mean trim, and jump, as Pfaff's software seems to do that) and 0x01 which ends long form. And 0x03 that is seen at the end of the final block.
.u?? aka .u00, .u01	Barudan	Hardware	512 byte header. big-endian unsigned(x,y,control) encoded stitches in control. Can be made to do sequins. Likely any form that can specify needles can be made to do sequins.
.xxx	Singer, Compucon	Hardware	stitch
.zsk	ZSK USA	Hardware

Misc Other Embroidery Data

• .INF, contains only color information like a thread chart.

Embroidery files are used both for stitching and editing. They need to be read by the machine doing the embroidery to process the series of commands. Since most machine embroidery is rendered from shapes and fills applied to those shapes, saving only data needed to stitch would be lossy. So many formats have a hybrid of this and store easy to read stitch data and higher level objects sometimes protected with encryption and compressed (.hus, .art, .emb). With the higher level the embroidery program can reproduce the lower level stitch commands. For most programs that read this data, they often have their own higher level objects and can read only the stitch data from other formats. When they also write these formats, they very often produce the minimum acceptable version of the file that will not crash the program reading the file. So converting from Wilcom's emb to PES will produce a PES with only stitches even if the Wilcom had access to the higher level objects and the saved version of .pes also those forms available.

Information that may be found

1. Stitch Information.
   1. Direct commands go dx/dy, add stitch, go dx/dy, trim, change threads, stop.
   2. Explicit location of the points for the segment list.
   3. Stitchblocks unbroken lists of stitches in a particular color.
2. Vector Information
   1. Shape Data, Rectangle, Circle, Path etc.
   2. How these shapes should be filled. For example:
      1. Type of fill being used
      2. Angle of the fill
      3. Angle-path of the fill
      4. Start and stop location within the shape.
      5. Pattern for the needle impacts.
      6. Randomization of edge.
3. Font Information
   1. Text and font, how it should be applied.
4. Design information.
   1. Design name.
   2. Design author.
   3. Design comments.
   4. Design keywords.
   5. Design copyright.
   6. Design category.
   7. Number of Stitches.
   8. Number of jumps.
   9. Size of embroidery.
   10. Start Location.
5. Hoop Information.
   1. Specific custom hoop information.
   2. Distance design is from edge of hoop.
6. Thread Information.
   1. Color data from a preselected list.
   2. Custom color data for thread.
   3. Thread metadata, manufacturer, pantone approximate, etc.
   4. Thread weight
7. 2D Bitmap information, simulated view of the sewout.
   1. Bitmap representation for project. EMB contain a full color icon.
   2. Bitmap representation for each color. PEC contains 1 bit graphics.
8. Control information for the typical editor of that format.
   1. Color of background.
   2. Scaling information.

Other lists:

• Embroidery File Formats supported in Embird
• Formats Supported at embroideryarts.com
• Need other embroidery format? Good list about popular embroidery formats (from Russia).

Acknowledgements

Due to reorganization - i.e. the breakup of the Computerized embroidery page - names of original contributors, in particular Tatarize, do not appear in the history of this page.