Logo to PES
Turn a logo into a stitch-ready PES file for Brother and Baby Lock — free, in the browser, nothing to install.
Convert now — no account neededWhat to know about starting from a logo
A logo is the most common thing anyone digitizes and the most demanding, because people know what it is supposed to look like. Flat colours and hard edges convert well; thin outlines, small tag lines and drop shadows do not.
Logo to PES specifically
Most Brother and Baby Lock home machines top out around a 5×7 inch hoop, which is the real constraint on a logo rather than anything about the artwork. A left-chest logo runs about 90mm wide and fits comfortably. Check your tag line at that width before exporting — text under about 6mm cap height fills in and becomes a smudge no matter how good the digitizing is.
How to convert Logo to PES
- Upload your logo. Decide the finished width first — a left chest logo is about 90mm — then look at what is still legible at that size. Anything under about 1.2mm wide cannot be stitched as its own shape, so a hairline keyline or a 6pt tag line has to be thickened or dropped.
- 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.
- Reduce the colours. Each colour is a thread change on the machine. Pick the fewest that still read as your artwork.
- Check the preview, then export as PES. 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 PES format
PES is the native format for Brother and Baby Lock. PES stores your thread colours, so the machine shows the design in colour and prompts for each one by name. It also encodes most jumps as a cut, so expect a few more trims on the back than the same design in DST.
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.
Already have the vector?
If whoever designed the artwork can send you the SVG, AI, EPS or PDF, use that instead. Converting from vector skips the whole business of inferring edges from pixels, and the difference is visible in the finished stitch-out. See SVG to embroidery.
Common questions
How small can the text in my logo be?
Roughly 6mm cap height is the floor for legibility, and it is a physical limit rather than a software one — below that the enclosed holes in letters fill in with thread. A tag line that sits under 6mm at your finished width has to be enlarged, set in a bolder face, or dropped.
Will my exact colours survive as PES?
Approximately. PES stores an index into Brother's thread chart rather than an RGB value, so each colour is matched to the nearest thread Brother sells. For an exact brand match, choose your thread from the chart first and design to it.
Why does my PES have more thread trims than the DST?
The PEC block inside a PES file leans on trim-jumps rather than uncut jumps for travel between shapes. It is how the format handles moves, not a fault in the design, but it does mean a few more ends to clip on the back.
Can I open a PES file on a machine that is not a Brother?
Not natively. Most other brands need the design re-encoded to their own format first, which is a re-encode rather than a re-digitize — the stitches are already decided and only the container changes.
What is the PEC block inside a PES file?
PES is a wrapper. The PEC block holds the actual stitch data for backward compatibility with older Brother machines, and the PES layer around it holds the colour list and hoop metadata.
Related converters
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.