Your Embroidery design can look different from your original art on the proof for a few reasons, like the size of the patch, the size of text, or the number of small details. Translating embroidery designs into embroidered patches will require a few adjustments.
Sizing
One of the most common reasons your embroidery design could change is sizing. If your art is too small or too detailed for the product you chose then adjustments would be made during the proofing stage to better accommodate the embroidery process.
An example would be if you are looking into getting an embroidered 2″ x 2″ patch with text. Since most text is done using a satin stitch your text can not be smaller than 3/16 inch. If it is smaller than 3/16 inch then the stitch would change to a run stitch, which can affect the readability of the text. The text would need to be enlarged or removed to ensure a good result.
Colors
Another example would be if your art has a lot of colors. We have a twelve-color maximum on embroidered patches, so sometimes colors will need to be reduced.
Embroidered patches tend to get thick and do not look as good with too many colors. Try to keep your embroidery design simple and avoid details like thin lines or dots. We like to keep line thickness to be at least 1/16” thick to avoid run stitches.
We will match your thread or Pantone colors as closely as possible, but we can’t guarantee an exact match. We do have a standard thread chart that is available online or can be sent to you if requested.
Tips
To avoid embroidery design changes here are some tips from our Arrow team…
Keep size limitations in mind – if you are ever unsure, our Arrow team is always happy to help give recommendations. We can also do free mockups of your embroidery design to see how it would look on the product.
Every product is different – While a embroidery design can work on a pin or a t-shirt, this doesn’t always mean that it will work the same on an embroidered patch
Color matching – while we have a lot of colors to choose from, we can’t always guarantee that the finished product will be an exact match. Printed art will vary from embroidery threads. We lost our thread color options on our site as a reference but you can also ask our team to pick what best fits your embroidery design.
If you are still not sure how your embroidery design might be different on proof from your original art. Feel free to send us an email at service@capitaldigitizing.com our Arrow team will make sure your questions are answered.