Artwork Created - Embroidery News 20

Artwork - What Is It?

To get a good quality embroidered design you need good artwork. What is good artwork? "Artwork" can mean many things ranging from a concept sketch on a napkin to a previously embroidered hat to a vector artwork file. To digitize a quality embroidered design the digitizer (person who creates an embroidery file) usually needs the highest resolution artwork file that's available. Having a high resolution file will allow the digitizer to correctly size the file while maintaining the clarity of the file so it can be used as a template for the embroidery set-up.

Are there times when other forms of artwork can be used? If the design is very simple then sometimes poor artwork can work although often the text must be recreated before that portion of the embroidery design is set-up.

What are some artwork "forms" that don't work well for an embroidery set-up?

• Concept sketch - often sketches are more suggestive than being accurately detailed and complete. For example, line thicknesses can vary when they should be consistent and portions of a design can be missing.
• Embroidered shirt or hat - a photograph must be taken of an embroidered item to create a computer file. While this may work for a simple shirt design its hard to get a non-distorted picture of a 3D item such as a hat.
• Web image - most web images have a maximum low resolution of 76-96 dpi and can become too pixelated when resized for an embroidery set-up.
• Business card - Often the resolution of a scanned business card is poor and business cards usually have too much information for a left chest design. Items can be eliminated but usually that negatively effects the design. Often its best to redesign the logo for embroidered shirts.
• Image in the body of an email - email software limits the resolution of images in the body of the email. These images may be fine to obtain a quote but artwork must be sent as an attachment to maintain the file's resolution.