Creating production-ready embroidery lettering

Creating production-ready embroidery lettering

When selling decorated garments online, it’s not enough to simply let customers type in text and place it on a shirt. Unlike printing, embroidery requires fabric-specific settings to produce good stitch quality. The same lettering will need different parameters depending on whether it is stitched on fleece, wool, silk, or poly-cotton. These parameters include:
  1. Density – how tightly stitches are placed
  2. Underlay – supporting stitches under the surface
  3. Pull compensation – adjustments for fabric stretch
  4. Minimum stitch length, and more.
If these settings are not correct for the chosen fabric, the result may look poor, distort the garment, or even damage it. The solution is to create template EMB files in Wilcom EmbroideryStudio, one for each fabric type. By combining these templates with the Wilcom API, you can let customers personalize lettering on your website while ensuring that the output is production-ready, requiring no extra manual editing before sending it to the embroidery machine.

Scenario

Imagine you sell garments made from different fabrics – e.g. fleece, wool, silk, poly-cotton.

Each fabric needs different stitch settings – density, underlay, pull compensation, etc. The challenge is: how to generate embroidery lettering that is ready to stitch, without manual editing.
Idea
Solution: Create one template EMB file per fabric type using Wilcom EmbroideryStudio, and then use the API to edit lettering based on the chosen garment.

Procedure

Step 1: Prepare lettering in EmbroideryStudio

  1. Create a base lettering design – choose font, baseline, size, etc. Example: Wilcom Script 1 font.

  2. Customers may be allowed to change font or color later.

Step 2: Create fabric-specific EMB templates

  1. In EmbroideryStudio, set the design parameters for each fabric type.

  2. Save a separate EMB file for each one, e.g.:
    1. Fleece.EMB
    2. Wool.EMB
    3. Silk.EMB
    4. PolyCotton.EMB
Idea
Optional: assign a thread chart so colors carry proper codes.
When a user selects a garment, your website selects the corresponding EMB file.

Step 4: Use the editDesign API

Instead of api/newDesign, use api/editDesign to edit an existing EMB template. Each template contains just one lettering object, pre-configured for the fabric.
Example API call:
<design file="PolyCotton.EMB" colorwaytype="all" />
  1. The app/server returns design data and a TrueView image.
  2. The user types their text – e.g. 'My Polo' – updates the design, and the lettering is applied with the correct fabric settings.

Wilcom concept app

The Wilcom Concept App is a simple demonstration tool provided through the Wilcom API Developer website. It is not intended to be a commercial or customer-facing application, but rather a reference interface to show developers how the API works in practice.


When you upload one of your prepared EMB template files – e.g. PolyCotton.EMB – the Concept App:
  1. Sends the file to the Wilcom API server.
  2. Returns the design data along with a TrueView image preview.
  3. Recognizes the lettering object inside the design, so you can edit the text.
  4. Displays the thread information – e.g. brand, color code, and name if available.
Developers can then:
  1. Type in new text – e.g. 'My Polo',
  2. Update the design using the API call, and
  3. Instantly see how the lettering changes in the TrueView preview.

For testing, you can also enable 'Show Design Recipe' within the app. This option shows the actual XML API call being made in the background. It’s a useful way for developers to learn the correct syntax for api/editDesign requests and to understand how parameters like file, colorway, or font are passed.
Idea
In short, the Concept App is a learning and debugging tool: it bridges the gap between reading the documentation and building your own website integration.

Production-ready output

To create a machine-ready file, export with the correct extension:
  1. DST for Tajima
  2. TAP for Happy
  3. EXP for Melco, etc.

Multiple colorways

Designs can include multiple colorways – different thread color arrangements.

  1. Useful when a garment comes in multiple colors.
  2. Developers can map website garment colors to design colorways.
  3. Example API call with colorway selection:
<design file="PolyCotton.EMB" colorwaytype="current" colorway="Colorway 3" />
Info
For more details, contact support@wilcom.com

Key points

  1. Use fabric-specific EMB templates created in EmbroideryStudio, one per fabric type – e.g. fleece, wool, silk, poly-cotton.
  2. Edit templates via api/editDesign, not api/newDesign, so the correct stitch settings are preserved.
  3. Each template contains only one lettering object but already has the optimized parameters for that fabric.
  4. Export the correct machine format – DST, EXP, TAP, etc – for production.
  5. Leverage colorways to handle garment variations – map website garment colors → EMB colorway.
  6. The Wilcom Concept App is a handy way to test templates, preview results, and view the XML recipe for API calls.

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