HoopReady
DST to PES converter
Have a Tajima .dst and a Brother or Baby Lock that wants .pes? Choose the file and download the PES. It is converted by this page in your browser — nothing is uploaded — and the stitches are written across as they are.
What changes, and what does not
| In the DST | In the PES | |
|---|---|---|
| Stitches and their order | A list of hoop movements | The same movements, in the same order |
| Jumps | Moves without sewing; the machine decides whether to cut | The same moves, flagged as trims, so a Brother cuts there |
| Colour stops | A stop, with no colour | A stop, and a thread entry for the block that follows |
| Thread colours | None | One per block, from the palette the machine names |
| Size | Unchanged — a design is as large as its stitches, whatever the format | |
The thread entries are the only thing the converter has to invent, because the DST never had them. What a PES does with colour — and why a Brother's screen names threads you did not choose — is on PNG to PES; how the palette snap looks on real colours is on PDF to PES.
Where the PES comes from
The converter is a port of the PES writer in pyembroidery, the open-source library our own engine writes every PES with, so a file converted here and a file we deliver are written the same way. Given the same DST and thread colours, the file it writes is byte for byte the one pyembroidery writes. The example button converts the DST of the crest from logo to embroidery, in the thread colours of its thread list: our engine counted 20,944 stitches when it wrote it on rule set 1.3, and the converter reads the same number back out of the file.
A converted file is only as good as the DST it came from. If the design sews badly as a DST, it will sew the same way as a PES — converting changes the language, not the digitizing. For a new file made from artwork, the check on your image is free: check your artwork.
Questions
- Is this DST to PES converter free?
- Yes, and it has no limit because it costs us nothing to run: the file is converted by this page in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no queue, no sign-in and no copy of your design anywhere but on your own computer.
- Does converting change how the design sews?
- The needle goes to the same places in the same order: stitches and colour stops are written across as they are, and the PES adds a thread entry for every block. One thing is marked differently — a PES flags the jumps between sections as trims, the way pyembroidery and every PES we deliver do, so a Brother may cut the thread at a jump where a Tajima would have carried it across. Test on a scrap of the real fabric first, as with any file.
- Why are the colours on my Brother's screen not the ones I use?
- A DST has no colours to carry across, only the places the machine stops for a new thread. The converter has to put a thread in every block of the PES, and it picks from the palette Brother machines name — which is why the screen may say “Deep Green” where you meant a particular green. Load the spools in the order of the thread list that came with the design; the colour names on the screen do not change what is sewn.
- Can I convert PES back to DST, or to JEF or EXP?
- Not here: this page does one direction. If you ordered the design from us, every package already contains both PES and DST, and Standard and above add JEF, EXP and VP3, so there is nothing to convert.
- Will a converted file fit my hoop?
- Converting does not change the size, so the PES is exactly as large as the DST was. The converter shows that size in millimetres; compare it with the largest embroidery area in your machine's manual before you load it. The hoop written inside the PES is the standard entry every PES carries, not a measurement of your design, and your machine checks the design against its own hoop.
- The file will not convert. Why?
- Usually because it is not a DST inside, whatever its name says — a PES, EXP or an image renamed .dst — or because the download was cut short. The page says which when it can. A DST you cannot open here will not open on a machine either; the DST file viewer shows what the file contains.