You will need a graphics or paint program in order to create a BMP from the characters of the font you wish to digitise. the Shareware program, Paint Shop Pro [PSP] is an ideal choice.

I would suggest that you print this tutorial so that you can have it along side you while you are digitising

3 Easy Steps to digitising:

Creating the BMP image file(s)

It is a good idea to reduce the number of colours in your picture to 2, this reduces the size of the BMP file which can eliminate some problems in transferring to Design Centre. (Colours can be reduced via the command "Colors - Decrease Color Depth")

In the "File Open" dialog box that results, locate and select the required BMP file, click OK

Click on the 2nd Parrot (or Dog if using Version 1) or use command "Stage - To Line Image" You will be presented with a dialog box containing a picture of your text and the cursor will now be an eye dropper.

Locate the tip of the eye dropper on a solid (black) part of a character in the text and click

You should now have a black ticked box in the "Pick Colors" part of the dialog box. If you have both a ticked black AND white box, then click on the tick alongside the white box to remove the tick. Click OK

You will now have a solid black picture of your text with a toolbar down the left side of the work area. This toolbar contains various sized pencils which you activate by selecting, then dragging the left mouse button. Dragging the right mouse button acts as a rubber. You can use these tools to modify your letters if you wish. (The left side toolbar also contains some zooming tools)

Click on the 3rd Parrot (or dog) or use command "Stage - To Figure Handle"

You will be presented with a "Figure Handling Conversion Setting" dialog box. Most of the adjustments are not required for this procedure with two exceptions.

Set "Thinning Process" to OFF (the second adjustment is only applicable if you want a 5 x 7 hoop size - if so, click on "Design Page Property" and select required hoop size and orientation. Click OK) and then OK to close the dialog box.

You will now have on you screen an outline of the character(s) of your text. and the left side tool will have changed.

Examine your character(s) and note if there are any lines which have kinks in them. If so, click on the second tool from the top (the point edit tool) and then click on any part of the line segment which is kinky

You will now see little boxes at various points along the line segment. Each little box represents a location where a direction change has occurred. You can modify these little boxes and hence the line segment as follows:

To delete one box, Click on it, (it turns blue), then press the "Del" key

To add a direction change point, click on the line where you want the new point

To move a point, Drag it using the left mouse button

To delete several points at once, using the left mouse button, drag a rectangle around a number of points, they will all turn blue. Press the "Del" key to remove these points

Use these techniques to remove any kinks from all line segments.

(Should you wish to have multi coloured letters, you can prepare for this by using the "line" tool (the zig zag) to draw a line across your letter(s). Click on the line tool, then click on your screen outside the letter(s). Move your cursor to the other side of the letter(s) and double click to end the line. You may, if you wish make this line curved or zigzag by adding other directional change points to it as described above or as you create it by clicking at each directional change points.)

Click on the 4th Parrot (or dog) or use command "Stage - To Sew Settings"

You are now presented with a screen having a new set of tools , and showing your letter(s) (and any additional lines you have drawn) as an outline.

From here, you can set the sewing attributes of each fill area and each line segment:

To Set Fill Area attributes: Click on the "Fill" tool (the top one on the left. The fill area attributes are controlled by the coloured bobbin(sets the colour, The stitch type selection, (choice of Satin Stitch, Fill stitch, or programmed fill). The stitch lengths, direction, and density, set by the "Sew - Attributes" command or the zigzag tool at the top and the sewing on/off button, alonside the coloured bobbin.

Set these to your requirements. Left click in each area of the lettering that you want these attributes to apply to. (its a good idea to click areas in the order in which you want them sewn out (this can be changed later but is easier if you do it at this time.) Change attributes and left click next lot of areas. (Note:- Using Design Centre, the fill areas will all start and finish on their bottom edge. If you can, take this into consideration when determining sewing order so as to possibly minimise jump threads crossing over as yet unsewn areas.)

Outlines attributes are similar to controlling fill attributes except that the "Line (All)" tool (second from the top) is used. This has only a choice of 2 stitch types, running stitches and satin stitch. You can control how many times the outline running stitch goes around the text, you can also elect not to have an outline, simply by clicking the sewing on/off button alonside the bobbin. (Note:- if you have set up for multi coloured fill as previously explained, you should set the seperation lines to "No stitch").

At any time in the procedures above, you can switch to a view of the actual stitching by clicking on the "Preview" tool in the top tool bar. (This is the small TV screen icon) While in "Preview", you cannot do any editing. To return to normal mode , click again on the "Preview" tool.

The remaining two tools, "Line(Part)" and "Hole Sewing" are not generally applicable to digitising fonts and are not explained here.

You have now finished digitising one letter, word or phrase except for making it the desired size and converting it to a format usable in transferring to a machines card or to other software. These steps are done in Layout and Edit.

You can now use command "File - Save As" to save this intermediate step. the file will save in PEM format which you can later load back into Design Centre and ammend should you so wish.

You can now open the Layout and Edit section of the PE Design, either by using your normal desktop procedures or by using the Design Centre command "Option - Layout and Editing".

When you eventually go to close down Design Centre, you will be asked if you wish to save the PEL file. This is the file of the modified bitmap and unless you have made changes to the characters with the Pencil tools, there is little reason to save these files.

Layout and Edit:

When Digitising fonts, using the technique described, L&E is only needed to correctly size the final design and to convert the file format.

Having opened L&E, you will need to IMPORT the design from the Design Centre. This can be done either with the command "File - Import - From Design Centre" or by clicking on the 4th tool from the left on the top tool bar.

When you do this, you will be presented with a dialog box in which you can change the the orientation and the size of the final design. It is important if digitising several (or all) of the letters of an alphabet to make them all have the same height. . This you can do with the magnification control. (In reality, rounded letters should be made very slightly taller than those with straight sides, there is an optical illusion that then makes them all appear the same height) When you have correctly sized the design, click "Import", Your design will now be displayed on the work area.

You should now Save your design (Use the command "File - Save As") It will be saved as a PES format file which you can use to load onto an Original (Blank) card or converted in other software to another format for use in other brands of embroidery machine.

Should you want the same letter, word or phrase in more than one size, simply, click on the "New" tool (or use command "File - New"), this will clear the screen of the previous design, then import again from DC, adjusting the magnification for the new size.

When doing a succession of letters, you should clear the L&E screen before importing the next letter, otherwise, you will end up with both being on the screen at the same time.

Well, that's it, a bit long winded but I hope that it will help you with your digitising.