Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator
Do all embroidery softwares work with Adobe? I see a lot the work with Corel (Drawings). I have Adobe products and would like to have something that will convert adobe vector images to stiches. Thanks
Re: Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator
OK, Troy. Almost all digitizing software will convert vector images(from any program) to stitches. But you won't get quality designs out of it unless they are simple designs. To do things right, you need to learn to digitize manually and that takes time. Also, digitizing software is not cheap and all have big learning curves. Send the same design to 5 different digitizers and they will all be done differently with varying degrees of competence. Some will sew fast and smooth, some won't. It's an art. Since you are just starting out in embroidery, I'd contract the designs out. Even a lot of pro shops don't want to be bothered with digitizing.
Re: Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator
Tajima/Pulse has a plug in for Adobe Illustrator called Embroidery i2. It works with both PC and Mac. I've never used it nor ever seen a demo. I just remember seeing an ad for it in a magazine.
But if you're pretty good with working with Illustrator and creating/modifing vector, then like Jim said, you don't really need an embroidery software designed around your graphics software.
There's a hell of a learning curve with digitizing and I wouldn't recommend relying on auto digitizing unless you're only really doing very simple designs, which if that's the case, with a little practice, you could probably manually do them yourself.
Just my two cents....
Re: Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator
Quote:
Originally Posted by imeccentric
OK, Troy. Almost all digitizing software will convert vector images(from any program) to stitches. But you won't get quality designs out of it unless they are simple designs. To do things right, you need to learn to digitize manually and that takes time. Also, digitizing software is not cheap and all have big learning curves. Send the same design to 5 different digitizers and they will all be done differently with varying degrees of competence. Some will sew fast and smooth, some won't. It's an art. Since you are just starting out in embroidery, I'd contract the designs out. Even a lot of pro shops don't want to be bothered with digitizing.
Pretty much sums it up.
__________________ Embroidery | Graphic Design | Web Design
Re: Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator
First off, auto-digitizing is a lure for marketing. The value in this function is so limited that the guys demoing it are going to get more out of the function by using it to sell you than you will get out of it by digitizing embroidery. That being said it does have it's uses. If you are a screen printing/embroidery shop and you need to digitize what has already been created in Illustrator, and you have some basic shapes that need to be in the design, auto-digitizers can recreate these shapes with stunning accuracy, you will still have to chose stitch length, underlay, density, etc. More complex shapes or colors that are all over the place will just have to be manually done.
All of the people here are saying to contract the work out, well, if you have to have it done in a certain amount of time and you cannot meet that requirement then ya, send it out. If you think you can meet the requirement, digitize it. You are NEVER going to learn to digitize unless you sit down in your chair and just start doing it. Sure, your first 5-50 designs are going to look like trash, they will sew like crap, you will have 5,000 stitches worth of auto-trims, but this is part of learning how to digitize. There are GREAT digitizing teachers out there that can give you all of the advise in the world, nobody but you can hand out experience. So with that I would just dig in. Get a good teacher or online instruction from someone like Strawberry Stitch Co. Home Page | Award winning digitizing firm they also sell software and digitizing services that are top-notch.
I just thought I would share some personal feeling regarding my 10 years of digitizing and how I feel about the software... a lot of groups sell their software based on what the screen-shots look like, what the features are, auto-digitize, etc. They will make you a bag with a brilliantly colored tiger on it at the show, they will give you a hat with your company name on it... try to ignore all of that because once you become a seasoned digitizer you will want only 2 things. ULTIMATE CONTROL over EVERY aspect of your digitizing, and quality stitch placement that is 2nd to none. There are 10+ digitizing software creators out there, there are a handful of great ones, there is only one who was there from the beginning, they are the innovators that have been mimicked since the beginning. Find them, and avoid being tricked into giving $15,000 for 2nd best software. Every company will offer a lifetime of updates at a similar price to the next so the most important thing you can do it get into the right program from the beginning.
Good Luck! and Have Fun, there is no other way to make it.
Re: Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator
Auto-digitizing has advanced to the point now that it probably has some use in simple design work and/or parts of a design BUT it is by no means a substitute for manual digitizing. Nor does auto-digitizing negate the fact that a digitizer must have a real good understanding of embroidery basics [push/pull effect, densities, stitch length. underlay stitching, etc.].
Contrary to what new digitizers may believe or what some software sales reps are saying ..... there is no "one click" solution to creating quality embroidery designs, and auto-digitizing is not a substitute for manual digitizing. In fact those who will benefit most from auto-digitizing software will be the experienced manual digitizers, not new digitizers. Only those with good manual digitizing skills will recognize when to use or not use auto-digitizing.
Often with auto-digitized designs, densities tend to be too high, pathing is incorrect and design detail is poor.
Embroidery software for Adobe photoshop or illustrator 
