How to Shop for Embroidery Designer Software

Embroidery or needlework is a handcraft that is part of the fabric of nearly every culture around the world. In the hands of today's technology-driven age, expert embroidery can now be executed by machine. With embroidery designer software, you can do more with your embroidery machine, as well as make original hand-embroidery designs to complete in the traditional manner.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Embroidery machine
• Printer
• Heat transfer paper

Choose Embroidery Designer Software

1. Shop for embroidery software that allows you to flow easily from vector or line drawing to a stitch preview mode and back again as you create your original embroidery designs. In this mode, you should be able to make changes to line quality and stitch width on the fly.

2. Look for customization ability when you shop for any embroidery design software. Features such as custom fills should be included, allowing you to alter the fill of any design based on the addition of one or a repeat of patterns or stitch types.

3. Find more versatility in your embroidery designer software by selecting an application that also allows you to design appliqué designs. This feature should allow you to utilize existing designs and convert them to applied decorations, as well as create original appliqué designs from scratch.

4. Make sure that the software you select makes storing and accessing your designs easy. It should be outfitted with a database for storage of your library of original designs, as well as any other design elements you may choose to import into the program.

5. Turn your embroidery machine into a moneymaker by choosing embroidery designer software that includes business functions such as stitch calculators and price estimation for completion of the design.

6. Spell out your needs when you shop for design software by looking for programs that allow you to create, edit and save embroidery alphabets.

7. Review the software's stitch dictionary before buying. Not only should basic needlework stitches such as satin stitch and French knots be included but additional embroidery designs such as cross-stitch should be in the dictionary as well.

8. Take it to the next level by selecting embroidery designer software that allows you to import images from your digital camera and convert them into embroidered designs.

Tips & Warnings

• Read your embroidery machine's manual to determine what, if any, recommendations the manufacturer has made regarding design software for your machine. Compatibility between your machine and your software is of the utmost importance if you are to make the most of this technology.