Why there is no Procreate to PES converter
A .procreate file holds paintings: layers of pixels. An embroidery file such as PES (Brother, Babylock) or DST (Tajima) holds instructions for the machine: where each stitch goes, in what order, with which thread. Going from one to the other is called digitizing, and it involves choices a file converter can’t make for you: fill or satin stitches, stitch direction and density, underlay, and the order the colors are sewn in.
So the job splits in two. First get clean artwork out of the Procreate file. Then digitize it, yourself or through a digitizer.
What to send, and when
| You have | Send the digitizer | From toPSD |
|---|---|---|
| A logo or simple artwork on a plain background | A transparent PNG at 300 DPI or more at the stitched size | Flat > PNG (free) |
| Artwork where each color is on its own layer | A layered PSD, or one PNG per layer | Layered PSD, or every layer as PNG (free with an account) |
| A painting with soft shading | A PNG, plus a note on which details matter | Flat > PNG; expect the digitizer to simplify it |
| Text drawn in Procreate | A PNG, plus the font name if the artist used one | Flat > PNG |
The 300 DPI figure is what digitizing services commonly ask for in their artwork guides, for example Digit-IT’s guide to preparing artwork. Vector files are preferred where they exist; Procreate doesn’t make them.
Check the file before it goes to a digitizer
Procreate files are often made at screen size. When you open the file here, the converter shows the canvas size in pixels. Divide the width in pixels by 300 to get the widest it can be stitched with 300 DPI detail: a 1500 px wide canvas covers 5 inches.
A few things that cost stitches or don’t stitch at all:
- Gradients and soft brushes. Thread is solid color. Soft shading has to be turned into blocks of color or a few thread blends.
- Very thin lines and tiny text. Very small details may not stitch cleanly; ask your digitizer for their minimums.
- Many colors. Each color is a thread change. Limiting the palette makes the design cheaper and cleaner to sew.
Digitizing it yourself
Ink/Stitch is a free extension for Inkscape. It turns vector paths into fill, satin and running stitches, and its “Save a Copy” option writes machine formats such as PES and DST directly, as its 1.10.0 release notes describe. A PNG from Procreate has to be traced into vector paths in Inkscape first; plan on cleaning the traced shapes up before assigning stitches.
Commercial programs such as Hatch or Wilcom add auto-digitizing that starts from an image. Whichever you use, the clean PNG or the separated layers from the .procreate file are the starting point.