ImagesMagUK_June_2021

travel needed to fill complex shapes, and excess needle penetrations in narrow elements would be better rendered separately as unbroken satins. Re-evaluating redraws ‘Converters’ that achieve successful embroidery learn that they must edit extensively, scaling up overly small elements to stitch cleanly, sequencing elements in the proper stitching order, Direct vector conversion of even this simple, single-layer quartered circle can result in shapes being inadequately overlapped to compensate for pull distortion. Even pull compensation set automatically on the four quarter shapes results in overcompensation at the centre if there’s enough compensation for sufficient overlap with the outer border. To compensate the border enough for reliable registration despite shifting, you’d first add uniform pull compensation to the initial pair of quarters, then manually extend the top quarters’ edges deeply under the border, compensating less for the small amount of pull in the centre to keep the central divisions aligned. and compensating for distortion. Knowing that conversion requires this much labour makes total redraws sound more reasonable. Drawing or digitising your elements from scratch is admittedly time-consuming, and requires a more complete familiarity with the needs of proper stitch types for the areas you want to stitch, and demands knowledge of drawing tools. That said, adjusting vectors for the best-looking and most efficient embroidery has the same requirements. When decorators argue for vector conversion’s time-savings, they are often citing it as a way to avoid drawing, but with the burden of editing that even simple designs may require, the comparison often can’t hold up. Weighing it up With a modicum of embroidery knowledge, redrawing creates shapes specific to the medium that overlap logically to prevent poor registration and benefit from conscious judgments about the sizes and spacing of elements critical to the outcome of the finished file. Provided you calibrate your monitor and work over a uniform grid, you will be able to readily assess the size of your digitised elements and decide how much detail you can pack in a given area as you work. Redrawing frees you from the decisions made for print, letting you reinterpret it for the best embroidery outcome possible. Without additional steps or software, you can thicken overly thin strokes, remove extraneous details, increase open space and, depending on your preferred tools, instantly input embroidery attributes as you draw. Despite added labour at the outset, you are less likely to require editing and far more likely to create dynamic, dimensional embroidery if you are thinking in thread from the moment you create your shapes. In the July 2021 issue of Images , Erich discusses the tools needed for digitising and what they can achieve . www.images-magazine.com JUNE 2021 images 67 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator, with more than 20 years’ experience both in production and the management of ecommerce properties. He is the programme manager for the commercial division of BriTon Leap. www.erichcampbell.com