Welcome to the EmbroideryTrace beginner course. In this first lesson we'll take a simple daisy and walk through exactly how the app turns it into a real, stitch-ready embroidery file.

The whole point of EmbroideryTrace is to skip the hours of manual digitizing. You give it an image, and it does the heavy lifting — but the result is only as good as what you feed it, so we'll start there.

What you'll do in this lesson

1 Pick a good source image
2 Upload it to EmbroideryTrace
3 Let the AI process and trace it
4 Review your design's color layers

Pick a good source image

Your input image matters more than anything else

Before you upload anything, it's worth knowing this: the cleaner and flatter your image is, the better the result. The AI works by finding distinct colors and tracing them into shapes, so images with clear, flat color regions are easy for it to separate.

✓ Works great

Logos, cartoons, clip art, and simple illustrations with flat colors and clear outlines. Designs with 2–6 colors digitize most cleanly.

Harder to convert

Photos with gradients, shadows, and lots of shades. The AI has to guess where one color ends and the next begins, so results are less predictable.

Rule of thumb

The simpler the image, the better. If you can describe it in a sentence — "a daisy with a yellow center and white petals" — it's a great candidate.

Upload your image

Supported formats: JPG, PNG, SVG

There are two ways to get your image in:

Drag and drop the image straight onto the upload card
Click Upload and pick a file from your computer

JPGs, PNGs, and SVGs all work. If you don't have artwork ready, you can also describe a design in plain language and let the built-in AI generator create one for you.

Let the AI process the image

This takes just a few seconds

As soon as your image is in, the AI goes to work. Behind that "Analyzing…" screen, it's doing three things at once:

Finding every color in the image
Separating the design into individual layers
Tracing each one into clean, editable shapes

Why this matters

This whole process used to take hours to do by hand, path by path. The AI does a first pass in seconds — you just refine it from there.

Review your color layers

Each color becomes its own layer

When processing finishes, you're dropped into the Stitch Editor. Look at the list on the right — the Stitch Colors panel. Each color in your image became its own layer.

This mirrors exactly how your embroidery machine works: it stitches one thread color at a time, and each layer here maps directly to one of those thread changes. Understanding this layer-by-color model is the key idea that everything else in the course builds on.

Quick recap

Flat colors and clean outlines give the cleanest result. Busy photos with gradients are harder to separate. Keep it simple and the AI does the heavy lifting.

Follow along for free

Upload your own image and watch the AI build your color layers in seconds.

Upload Your Image — Free

No software to install

Frequently asked questions

What image formats can I upload?

EmbroideryTrace accepts JPG, PNG, and SVG files. For the cleanest image-to-stitch results, use images with flat colors and clear outlines. PNGs with transparent backgrounds work especially well.

What kind of image works best?

Logos, cartoons, clip art, and simple illustrations with 2–6 flat colors convert most cleanly. Photographs with gradients, shadows, and many subtle shades are harder for the AI to separate into distinct layers.

How long does processing take?

Just a few seconds. The AI finds the colors, separates the design into layers, and traces each one — then drops you straight into the Stitch Editor.

Do I need to install any software?

No. EmbroideryTrace runs entirely in your browser on Mac or Windows — Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox. There's nothing to download or install.

Is it free to upload and edit?

Yes. Uploading, AI processing, and editing in the Stitch Editor are all free. You only need a paid plan when you're ready to download your finished DST or PES file.

Upload Your First Design