How to Prep Your Logo for Embroidery Without Starting Over
Most logos need some adjustment before they'll stitch cleanly. Here's what we look for — and what we can fix before your order goes to the machines.
The most common question we get before an embroidery order: "Is my logo okay to use?" Mostly, yes. Sometimes with adjustments. Rarely, a redesign. Here's how to know which category you're in before you send us anything.
What We Actually Need
Vector is best. An AI, EPS, or SVG file gives us clean, scalable lines to work from. If you have it, send it.
High-res raster works. A PNG or JPEG at 300dpi or higher at the actual print size is workable. A logo pulled from a website at 72dpi — the kind that looks fine on screen but blurry when you zoom in — is not.
If you only have a low-resolution file, tell us. We've reconstructed logos from business cards, website screenshots, and napkin sketches. We can usually figure it out.
What Doesn't Translate to Thread
Gradients. Thread doesn't gradient. A logo that fades from dark blue to light blue on screen will be reproduced in the closest solid thread colors, which usually means two solid shades with a visible line between them. If gradients are essential to your logo, we'll talk about how to adapt.
Very thin lines. Thread has physical width. A line that's 1 pixel wide on screen may not be reproducible in thread at all at small stitch sizes. Logos with thin serifs, hairlines, or intricate linework often need to be simplified or enlarged.
Very small text. Anything under about 4mm tall in the final stitched size starts losing legibility. Small text in a logo — a tagline, a small URL, fine print — often gets dropped or enlarged when digitizing.
Photographic or shaded artwork. A full-color photograph cannot be embroidered. Neither can a painting-style illustration with hundreds of shades. Embroidery works in flat colors, with thread fills, not color mixing.
What Digitizing Actually Is
When we say we "digitize" your logo, we mean we convert your artwork into a stitch file — a set of instructions that tells the embroidery machine exactly where every needle pass goes, what direction threads run, and in what order colors are sewn. It's skilled work. A badly digitized logo will look blurry, pucker the fabric, or have thread gaps.
We do this in-house. The digitizing fee is a one-time setup cost. Once your logo is digitized, we store the file. Your next embroidery order with the same logo has no setup fee.
What We Fix For Free
Minor cleanup — removing a faint gradient, simplifying thin lines, converting a low-res raster to a workable trace — is part of our standard process. We're not going to charge you for ten minutes of prep work.
What we'll come back to you about: anything that requires redesigning the logo rather than adapting it. If your tagline is 3mm tall and reads as critical to the brand, we'll ask before we drop it. If your logo has a visual element that fundamentally won't survive the translation to thread, we'll show you what it'll look like and let you decide.
The Short Version
Send us what you have. Tell us what size you want the embroidery and what it's going on. We'll tell you what works as-is, what needs a small adjustment, and what needs a conversation. Most logos make it through without drama.
Written By
Pam Rios
Pam Rios is the Co-Founder of Blanq Mfg, bringing specialized design precision and brand identity expertise to premium apparel manufacturing.