Digitization: what makes a digitization a good one or a poor one? Thanks for your opinion and your help. Pat

I agree with the postings. I HATE designs that have no underlay or unnecessary jump stitches. Even though my machine cuts these jumps on top, I still have to go and clean up on the bottom. I also dislike massive color changes that could have been avoided with careful planning on the digitizer's part.

I have dumped most of my designs I've collected from "membership" sites simply because most of them were poorly done. When you start stitching Embroidery Library, OESD, Amazing Designs or Dakota, you'll see the difference!

Good luck! :-) teri

I agree with what the others have said. If you sew out the designs from Cute and Amazing, you'll know what a good design is. Embroidery Library has good designs, as well as Artistic Thread Works. Download and stitch out some of their sample designs. Generally speaking, I would think a digitizer would share his/her best digitizing as samples, so if they don't sew out well, I wouldn't purchase any from that person. Best of luck to you, Marji

For me a good design is one that flows when you embroider it.
Colour changes are kept to a minimum and there aren't any unnecessary jump stitches, (ones that I know could have been avoided).

I absolutely despise designs that don't have any underlay when there should be, or that are so lacking in density that it leaves gaps in the stitching, forcing you to stitch over segments a second time. Also some Satin stitches in designs can be made so long as to cause the same resulting sparseness.

Likewise, some designs, especially auto-digitised designs, have layer upon layer of stitches, (because this is the way software programs read wmf's) and the digitiser doesn't have the skill or the knowledge, or just couldn't be bothered removing the unnecessary stitch layers. This makes it almost impossible to obtain a good stitchout as the needle cannot penetrate all the layers cleanly.

When you have stitched out a poorly digitised design and then a well digitised design, you will automatically 'know' the difference between a good and a bad design.

The more experience you gain the easier it is to tell the difference and you will know which digitisers are the ones whose designs are worth paying for.

This is of course, just my personal opinion.
hugs n roses, Meganne

1 comment

by prampelb 26 Jun 2009

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my question. I really appreciate your input. Pat

Tough question. In my view a good one is a design that stitches out beautifully, where outlines have no gaps, the density is right for the fabric you're using, there aren't unnecessary jump stitches (some can't be avoided), there's a variety in filling (angles, different fill stitches) that makes a design interesting instead of boring; in short one that's a delight to sew.

1 comment

by prampelb 26 Jun 2009

Thanks a lot for your answer. I have seen so much different qualitieds in free design but also in paid designs that I now hesitate to buy now. Thanks again. Pat