Photo to embroidery: see your portrait in thread before you order

How does a photo turn into embroidery?

An embroidery machine does not print dots: its needle lays thread on the fabric. To turn a photo into embroidery, the tones of the picture have to be translated into how dense the stitches are, which way they run and how many thread colours are used. The demo does this in three ways and draws the result on the fabric you choose, with the texture of real thread.

Two stitch types come up again and again. Satin stitch runs back and forth between two edges in long, glossy stitches; it suits lettering, outlines and narrow shapes. Fill stitch, also called tatami, covers a larger area with rows of short stitches. Underneath both lies the underlay: a few sparse stitches sewn first to hold the fabric steady, so that the top stitches lie flat.

The three techniques of the demo:

• Photo stitch: a single-colour zigzag that runs along rows. In dark tones the zigzag gets denser and wider, in light tones it thins out, so from a distance the portrait reads like a photograph.
• Hatching: layers of straight lines at four different angles; the darker the tone, the more layers cross each other. The result looks like a pencil sketch or an engraving.
• Colour fill: the photo is reduced to a few thread colours and each colour is filled as an area of its own. Strong for drawings, cartoons and logos; a real photograph becomes poster-like.

Which technique suits your photo?

Each technique handles tones in its own way, so the right choice depends on the picture. Switching between them in the demo takes one click, and the stitches are recalculated after every change.

What makes a good photo for embroidery?

The demo accepts any PNG, JPG or WebP image, but some photos give a far better result than others:

• A close-up in which the face fills most of the frame.
• Clear light and shadow on the face; in flat, shadowless light the features disappear.
• A plain background in one colour, which the demo’s “Remove background” option can separate from the person.
• A sharp picture: detail that is blurred in the photo does not come back in the stitches.
• One person: in a group photo every face ends up small.

How does size affect the detail?

Size decides how much of a photo survives in thread. By default the rows of photo stitch sit about a millimetre apart, so a portrait ten centimetres wide is drawn with roughly a hundred rows. For the eyes, eyebrows and lips to stay readable, the face itself needs to be several centimetres tall; at a small size the features are simplified. The “Detail emphasis” setting darkens the facial features against their surroundings, and “Tone density” makes every tone lighter or darker.

A name, a date or a club name can go under or around the portrait as a text layer, and a badge frame (circle, oval, shield or rectangle) turns the whole design into a crest. In embroidery, letters should not be smaller than about 5 mm in height, and a satin column needs a width of at least about 1 mm. The demo warns you when a letter or a detail gets too small for the needle.

A left-chest logo is usually 7.5–10 cm wide; on a T-shirt or polo shirt it sits about 18–23 cm below the shoulder seam, with its centre about 7.5–12.5 cm to the side of the centre front. A back logo is usually 25–30 cm wide, a sleeve logo usually 6–8 cm. These are common ranges in the trade; the exact size is fixed on the sample. The “Placement” buttons in the demo pick the middle of these ranges.

From a portrait to a finished product

We work from 10 pieces and don’t embroider a personal name on a single item. For a one-off personal piece, an embroidery shop near you is the better choice.

Embroidering the same portrait or illustration in series, for example as a corporate gift or on wear for a club or a school, is settled at the quote stage: whether the picture works at the size you want, which technique and which product. The production file is prepared in our workshop, and the run starts after you approve the sample; the steps are described under sample approval on our English home page.

To see how the portrait sits on a garment, switch the demo to “On the product”. It places the design on a polo shirt, T-shirt, sweatshirt, medical top, cap, towel or apron, at the placement you choose, at its real size (garments are scaled to size L) and in the product colour you pick. The product images are representative; the exact position is fixed on the sample.

If the picture has to look like a photograph, with smooth gradients and fine detail, print may suit it better than thread: we also print T-shirts and other textiles with DTF in our own workshop. T-shirt printing in Istanbul compares the two.

How do you ask for a quote from the demo?

Under the preview, the “Ask for a quote on WhatsApp” button saves your design for the quote, with the photo, any text and the preview, and opens a WhatsApp message with its code and link and a summary: the size, the estimated stitch count, the thread colours, any text, the fabric and, in the product view, the product and its placement. You do not need to attach the photo: we open the original from the saved design to judge the portrait. To send only the summary, use “Write without saving” under the button.

The estimated stitch count is approximate, because in production the stitch direction, the density and the underlay are adjusted to the chosen fabric. We digitize your logo in our workshop, turning it into a file the embroidery machine can read. We prepare the embroidery file in DST format as standard, and in PES if you ask for it. We start production once you have approved the sample; the approved sample is the reference for the whole run.

Minimum order, lead times, pricing and shipping are answered in the FAQ on our English home page.

What happens to your photo?

The preview is calculated in your browser, while the images and files you upload, the preview of your design and the steps you take in the demo are sent to our workshop and kept for 60 days; when you ask for a quote on WhatsApp, your design is saved and its code and link are added to the message. We also note the type of device, the operating system family, the country and whether you came from a search engine, social media or another page. Your IP address and cookies are not part of this record, and any text you add is not stored as text; it only appears in the preview image.

Anyone who has the coded link of a saved design can see its preview; the link is hidden from search engines, and only our workshop sees the original photo. After 60 days everything is deleted automatically. To have it deleted sooner, write to us with the day, the approximate time and the page of your visit, or with the design code.

Please upload a photo of another person only with their permission, and a photo of a child only with the permission of a parent or guardian. Our full privacy notice under Turkish data protection law is available in Turkish: KVKK privacy notice.