I can remember when I had to learn how to read Jacquard and then eight-channel tapes in the early Tajima days (the 1980s). In many ways, our modern machines work in a very similar way. I would move X or Y (direction), initiate machine functions like needles in or needle out, slow speed or fast speed, dull plate in or out, and a stop/color change command.

Much like old paper tape music boxes, the reader consisted of pins that would release through the holes on the paper tape and give the machine commands. The “automat” at the end of the loom fed the tape through its reader. Those tapes were the first embroidery file format, and just like today, they worked within a mathematical foundation. In the early days of embroidery automation, Schiffli looms were run by reading Jacquard paper tapes. From manually placing stitches, to paper tape readers, to 5 ¼ floppies, and finally, to the world we now live in where all our data is magically stored in an imaginary cloud. Since those early days, I’ve seen the embroidery industry evolve incredibly. That was over 35 years ago, and I must admit much has changed since I began my career as a manual pantograph puncher. That stitch made a running stitch, a satin stitch, and then a fill stitch.

A certain embroidery file format (example: PES.) is proprietary towards a distinct embroidery machine brand (example: Brother)Īt the beginning of my career, there was only a stitch.

The same thing goes with embroidery file formats. In other words, certain programs & files are proprietary towards either a PC or Mac-based operating system. As you well know, specific programs and files are created to only run on PC, while specific files are created to only run on Mac. With computers, we’re all familiar that there are PC computers & Mac computers. Make sense? If not, let me try to break it down. Simply put:įor an embroidery file format to be read or understood by an embroidery machine, it must speak the native language which an embroidery machine brand recognizes. Certain embroidery machine brands (such as Brother or Bernina) require different embroidery design file formats (such as PES.

In-the-Hoop Projects: Zipper InsertionsĮmbroidery file formats are how an embroidery design is saved to be stitched out on a specific embroidery machine brand.

Digitizer’s Dream Course Overview & Level 1.

Pes file extension