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Image to DST

Turn any image into a DST file for Tajima and most industrial multi-needle machines — free, in the browser, nothing to install.

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How to convert Image to DST

  1. Upload your image. PNG, JPG and SVG all work; a PNG or SVG will give you cleaner edges than a JPEG of the same artwork.
  2. Set the finished size. Work in millimetres and set it before you judge anything else — every decision about detail depends on how big the design will be. Detail that survives at 150mm disappears at 60mm.
  3. Reduce the colours. Each colour is a thread change on the machine. Pick the fewest that still read as your artwork.
  4. Check the preview, then export as DST. The stitch preview plays the design in the order the machine will sew it, so you can catch problems before there is thread in the hoop.

About the DST format

DST is the native format for Tajima and most industrial multi-needle machines. DST is the universal format — if you are sending a design to a shop and do not know their machine, send DST. The trade-off is that it stores no thread colours at all, only the stops between them, so the operator sets the threads. We write a thread sequence list alongside the file so you can pass the colour order on.

DST does not store thread colours. That is the format, not the converter — it records stitches and the stops between them, and the operator loads the threads. Every DST export comes with a thread sequence list naming the colours in stitching order, so nothing is lost, it just travels beside the file rather than inside it.

What makes the difference to the result

Digitizing is not tracing. The converter decides how each region gets filled, which direction the stitches run, where the underlay goes and how much to compensate for the fabric pulling the design in as it sews. Those decisions are what separate a design that stitches cleanly from one that puckers, gaps at the edges or takes twice as long as it should.

  • Size before everything. A shape narrower than about 1.2mm cannot be stitched as its own satin column; it has to be widened or dropped.
  • Fewer colours, better result. Every extra colour is a thread change, a trim and a chance for registration to drift.
  • Flat beats subtle. Gradients, glows and soft shadows have no equivalent in thread and become banding.
  • Check the stitch order. The simulator plays it back so you can see the sequence before you sew it.

Related converters

PNG to DST JPG to DST SVG to DST Logo to DST Photo to DST

Already have an embroidery file in the wrong format? That is a different job — no digitizing needed, just a re-encode. Use the embroidery file converter. Working with text rather than artwork? Browse the embroidery fonts.