You shouldn't need professional software for a hobby
Ask in any embroidery group how to turn a picture into a stitch file and you'll get the same answers: buy digitizing software for hundreds of pounds, spend weeks learning it, or pay a service and wait days for every single design. That's a lot to ask when you just want to sew something you drew, or a design you have as a PNG.
Embify does the digitizing for you, in the browser. It traces your picture, removes the background, chooses the stitch types, and writes the file for your machine. You see a realistic preview of the stitching before you download anything, and trying it costs nothing.
Made for the projects home embroiderers actually sew
Kids' drawings
Stitched onto a cushion or a keepsake, exactly as wobbly and wonderful as drawn.
Club and team badges
For jackets, bags and blankets, from any picture of the badge you already have.
Your own artwork
A doodle, a lino-print style design, a favourite motif you've only ever had on paper or screen.
Hoop art and quilt labels
Designs that have lived as images finally become stitches, sized to your hoop.
Names and lettering have their own page: text to embroidery.
Bold shapes and a handful of solid colours sew best. Photos can work, but thread has no gradients, so a photo of your dog becomes a simplified, poster-style version. The preview shows you honestly what you'll get before you spend fabric and stabiliser on it.
Works with the machine you already own
Every conversion exports all the common home formats from the same file:
Brother & Baby Lock
The most common home machines.
Janome
Including the Memory Craft range.
Singer
Like the Futura range.
Husqvarna Viking & Pfaff
Both read the same VP3 files.
DST and EXP cover everything else, including Melco and Bernina. Sizes are set in real millimetres, so you can size a design to your hoop, whether that's a 100 × 100mm starter hoop or something bigger. Not sure which format your machine reads? Look it up here.
See the stitches before you waste a single one
Every home embroiderer has a story about a downloaded design that sewed nothing like the picture. Embify shows a realistic 3D sew-out preview of your actual file: the fills, the satin edges, the colour order, at the real size you chose. It also flags the classic traps before you hit the machine, like lettering too small to stay readable or hairline details that tend to snap thread.
If something looks off, change the size, simplify the colours, or try different artwork, and preview again. None of that costs anything.
What it costs, in plain numbers
Uploading, digitizing and previewing are free, with no card required. When you want the actual machine file, a one-off download is £5. If you sew a lot, plans start at £29 a month for 10 conversions. There's no software licence, no upgrade fees and nothing to install.
Common questions
Do I need to install anything?
No. Everything runs in your browser, upload, preview and download, and it works on Mac, Windows and Chromebook.
Can I turn a photo of my pet into embroidery?
Yes, with a caveat: thread can't do gradients, so photos are flattened to a small set of solid colours, more like a poster than a photograph. The preview shows you exactly how it will look before you download. Clear, high-contrast photos work best.
How do I get the file onto my machine?
Download it, copy it to a USB stick, and plug that into your machine, which is how most home machines load designs. Some Brother and Janome models can also receive designs over Wi-Fi through their own apps.
Which file format do I pick for my machine?
PES for Brother and Baby Lock, JEF for Janome, XXX for Singer, VP3 for Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff. Every conversion includes all of them, and our machine format page lists specific models if you're unsure.
Is it really free to try?
Yes. Digitizing and previewing cost nothing and don't ask for a card. You only pay when you download a machine file, £5 as a one-off.
My design sewed badly. What went wrong?
The usual culprits are size and detail: designs shrunk too small, text under about 5mm, or fine lines that can't survive in thread. Check the readiness warnings and preview at your real stitching size, and always run a test sew on scrap fabric with the same stabiliser you'll use on the project.