You should give Embrilliance a try. I find it very straightforward and easy to use. Also they have a forum for questions and will answer any questions you have. Here is the address:

Hi, Tracey, I hope you come back to find this answer. First, I know your question is about digitizing, and you put it in the digitizing section, which is pretty logical. Sigh. Unfortunately, I don't think everyone thinks like we do. Try asking your question again, only put it in the Q&A part of the forum, I'll bet you get a lot more answers. Honestly, it seems to be the only place some people go, so you're likely to catch more opinions there.

I have Janome's Digitizer Pro, which I got at the same time as my Janome 300E 7 years ago as a gift from my late husband. Digitizer Pro (replaced by MBX, now) is a very expensive program, but it is very powerful. A program is only worth the use/enjoyment you get out of it. My super expensive program doesn't make me any money, but I do love to digitize because it's creative, and I'm an artist of sorts, and a computer program geek of sorts. I picked up how to use it right away, because it did have a manual, and because whoever wrote it must have been or known very well the person who wrote Microsoft's Publisher, because it works the same way, kinda. So I had a really good idea how to use it even before I started the free lessons from the dealer. A digitizing program is, it seems to me, like Cinderella's slipper; when you find the one that 'fits', you become a princess. Digitizer Pro was a perfect fit for me, because of the way I think and learn. If I had had to watch video tutorials to learn it, the computer would have gotten thrown across the room and I would be fixing broken windows. Can't afford that, hee hee hee. ANY program is learnable. The actual HOW you learn is more important, and the support the seller gives you. And, of course, what you're going to do with it. For just doing stuff for family and friends, you probably don't need an industrial-strength program. Just don't let anyone sell you on "auto-digitizing", as in, "just load your photo, and press this button, and you'll have a design you can sew out"--NOT!! Well, you'll get a design, but I don't think anything you'd be proud to put on your kid's t-shirt, and it will have about a million jump stitches. Computers are smart, but not that smart yet. I have that feature on my Digitizer Pro, of course I tried it, and the designs come out just awful. Embird makes a digitizing program that a lot of the women use and like, and find easy to learn and use. There seem to be a lot of tutorials out there, free and paid for, showing how to use it. I don't know anything about it, but a lot of them do, and I'm sure would be glad to tell you. As I said, ask again in Q&A. Embird is also reasonably priced. You can buy all the different things it does in "modules", so you can get the basic program, and if you want it to do more in a few months, just pay for another module. That way you don't get a hugely powerful program that you're only going to use a quarter of, you just buy the parts you're actually going to use, which makes sense for what you're doing. But again, see if how you learn is how the teaching or tutorials are constructed. I don't know the program you have, but it sounds a bit like you've been taken for a ride to me. You're not getting any support to learn the program, and it must be on-line if you're being charged a "per use" fee; you're also paying a yearly fee, and now at the end of two years you're expected to purchase something even more? Um, sorry, not good, I think you got took. I don't know the Embroidery Magic you're looking at, either. If I have the time, I'll look them up, see what the websites look like. But my strongest advice, if you could afford it, go to a reputable embroidery machine dealer, or all the dealers in your area, and do a hands-on "test drive" of their software. Janome's is now MBX, Bernina has Artista, Husqvarna has 5D now I think or maybe up to 6D--everybody has one. You could even test drive them all, see which one seems easiest to use, see what kind of price you could get, and what kind of training. I think they'll probably all be too expensive, but it would show you how different programs are written. Again, it depends on how you actually think. My Janome was written by Wilcom, and it is NOT one of these Mac-like "intuitive" programs. I think it speaks DOS and so do I, I learned computers in DOS. I hate Mac, and I hate intuitive anything, because my intuition doesn't work that way, I run logic chains. I quit a job once because they got a Mac. So, anyway. See how you learn, how you grasp the programs, and you'll be successful no matter which one you end up with, because it will actually fit you. Maybe you are one of those intuitive people, and your program choice will be totally different from mine. But the end result is what you want, actually being able to use the program and sew something on somebody's shirt. Check out many programs, and do ask this question again in the Q&A. I wouldn't have put so much stuff here in this answer, but I'm fairly confident that many people won't even see it. If you want to use the Private Mail and give me more information about you, your machines, etc., I'll try to take the time and help you, I think you'd make good use of the knowledge, and might even have fun in the process. Just go to your Inbox at the top of the page, type my screen name in the To: slot. I'll try to check out the programs you mentioned. I don't know the embrilliance that mrskiki below mentioned, either. By the way, makes it easier for us to check things out when you can put a link to the website in your message. Best of luck to you, hugs, Marji

I use Embird, it is divided in parts, so pay only for what you are interesting in, I have the Basic, is the one I use almost everyday, and Studio this is for digitizing, I do not use this section too often. embird is free for 30 days

Tracy, here's some things I found out about the programs you mentioned. Stitch Era is a web-based program, which I think is bad. If you have no internet connection for some reason, you have no program. If their website has a "bug", your computer gets a virus? Uh, no. And everything I read about it said "free"--apparently not, that must be in the fine print. You're paying good money for something that isn't even installed on your computer. And apparently paying a lot to just "rent" their program with no support. No, get rid of it. Embroidery Magic: please look this up on Amazon.com, and read all of the reviews. It's cheap, but it doesn't sound like a lot of people like it. Also, it only saves in DST, so if that isn't your machine format, you'll need another program to convert the files to whatever format you use. The reviews don't sound like it's very easy to learn or use, either, and again, no support. If you want this, Amazon is the cheapest place to buy it. I wouldn't. Please read all the reviews there, very educational. Embrilliance: now, this sounds cool for what it does, but you're not going to be able to digitize with it, only manipulate designs you already have, freebies or purchased. Doesn't sound like you can create anything new from scratch with it. A lot of the things it does you can also do with free programs like Wilcom's Truesier or Tajima's Pulse Ambassador, like change the colors of an object, etc. If you get a true digitizing program, all the stuff in Embrilliance will be included and then some, I would certainly hope. I have them in my Digitizer Pro, and use them all the time, they're super nice and convenient to have. But I just can't see where you can actually digitize a design with Embrilliance. I see Mary jumped in below, and recommended Embird also. I would sincerely urge you to check Embird out, it's a great digitizing program, and fairly inexpensive compared to the rest, and it installs on your computer, you're not dependent on a web connection. And there are tons of tutorials for it, lots of people using it, and lots of help out there. I'm also adding a link for another question right here on the Cute forum that came up when I did the google search, it has a lot of information on the different programs and Cuties opinions of them. The post was made back in 2011, so I'm sure it's way back in the pages. But doing a google search will bring up questions here, as well as at other forums, where you can find good information and discussions of the products you're interested in. Actual users are a better source than the website that's selling it, that's for sure. Just as an example, that website I found for Stitch Era is selling USA sticks that you can get almost anywhere for like $5-7 for $13.95, so what's that tell you? Anyway, like Mary says, there's also a free trial of Embird, so you could download it, do a few of the tutorials, see if it fits you, all for free. Real free, not that pretend free like Stitch Era. Good luck, hugs, Marji

Now I am seriously looking at Embrilliance. It's only a little more and looks to be better supported.