Getting your logo ready for embroidery is usually quick, but a little preparation upfront avoids back-and-forth delays and gets your first order into production faster.
File type matters more than you’d expect
A vector file (AI, EPS, or high-resolution PDF) gives the clearest starting point for digitising, since it defines your logo’s exact shapes and lines without any pixelation.
A low-resolution image pulled from a website or a screenshot can still be digitised, but often takes longer and may need some interpretation of details that aren’t clearly visible at low resolution.
If you have your original brand files from whoever designed your logo, those are worth tracking down before ordering.
Simplify where possible, without losing brand identity
Extremely fine detail, thin gradients, or very small text within a logo often doesn’t translate well into embroidery, thread has a physical thickness that a printed or digital logo doesn’t.
If your logo has fine detail, we’ll typically suggest a slightly simplified version for embroidery specifically, while keeping the core design recognisably yours.
This is a normal part of the digitising process, not a sign your logo doesn’t work.
Decide on thread colours early
Embroidery generally uses a limited number of thread colours cleanly, rather than the unlimited colour range of digital or print design.
Deciding which 1-3 colours best represent your brand for embroidery (rather than trying to replicate every shade in your full logo) speeds up the digitising process and avoids a colour that looks great on screen but doesn’t translate to thread.
Confirm placement and size before the first production run
Standard placement is left chest, but if your organisation has a different preference (or needs the logo alongside a name or designation), confirming this before your first order avoids reprinting or re-stitching a batch that’s already gone to production.
What happens after you submit your logo
Once we have your logo file, it’s digitised once into a stitch file, this becomes the master file used for every future order, so you won’t need to resubmit or reconfirm it each time your team reorders.
This is also why getting it right the first time is worth the small upfront effort, small changes later are easy, but a full re-digitising is unnecessary if the first version was set up correctly.
Common delays and how to avoid them
The most frequent hold-up is submitting a logo with unclear or conflicting brand colours (e.g. a logo that appears in three slightly different shades of blue across different existing materials).
Confirming one definitive colour reference (a Pantone code, if you have one) before submission avoids a round of clarifying questions that can add days to getting your first order into production.
