Understanding the fundamental differences when digitizing for structured hats is the key to take your digitizing business to the next level. Obviously, digitizing for caps is a lot different than digitizing for T-shirts, jackets, and dresses. Unless you understand the intricacies, it can be a hectic task. Most embroidery machines are able to produce flat designs without any issue. You need special care when working on them for the 3D curvature in caps. On such a machine, it would be an uphill task to produce high stitch designs i.e. over 16000 stitches. They usually occur when there are small lettering on the front of a cap.
In today’s world, your shoes, lockets and even cellphones all come embossed with the manufacturer’s logos. Advertising is the key to business growth today. With all the brands flashing their logos to consumers from all sides, it is time you do the same. With your brand logo on the front of a cap means that people will read and recognize it. It will be the first thing they see, even before the face of the wearer. It is a great strategy for businesses with walk-in customers. The staff can wear hats and become a walking signboard of publicity.
Embroidery Digitizing for Hats
To obtain the perfect sew out on a cap, the journey begins with the perfect digitizing. We live in a world of industrial advancements. Machines work for us and provide unmatched quality along with speed and accuracy. Work by hand is quite obsolete because of the slow speed, inaccuracy and is expensive. Although we see machines obeying the commands of humans, there is more to it that meets the eye. Embroidery machines come with built-in computers running their own version of the software. To operate a machine according to our requirement, we communicate through the software. Every command it receives through its operating system is worked upon. Thus, we get our desired results.
In a nutshell, an embroidery machine is just like a printer we have in our office and home. The only difference is that it uses fabric as paper and threads as ink, the ink cartridge is the needle. With all such difference, it needs special commands too. This comes from digitizing for structured hats i.e. the process of telling a machine how to embroider structured hats. Just as an embroiderer handles the embroidery machine with perfection, an embroidery digitizer handles the commands in software. With the perfect combination of both, the customer will get an amazing result. The hats will be perfect for any advertising campaign.
How to Digitize for a Hat
Any design, logo or a tag line is possible to embroider on a hat. There are no limitations on the colors but one has to be careful about the dimensions. Owing to the limited space on headwear, the digitizer has to manage the size without compromising quality. This is why this task is considered to be tricky and requires high skills to accomplish. Novice digitizers are known to mess up, one must always acquire the services of an experienced digitizer. It does not matter which software is used, they all have the same functions and tools with minor variations. Thus, the result is pretty much the same, the outcome depends on the skill level of the embroidery digitizing service being used.
To begin work, it is important for the customer to provide the image and tell about the type of hat. Usually, the image or logo is present in a standard PC image file format. Embroidery machines cannot recognize it. Thus, comes the task of a digitizer who will import the image in the digitizing software. The entire image is traced manually filtering out unwanted elements. Now with only the important elements at hand, the first task is to determine the underlay type. Surely it is the first step to sew and without proper underlay, production can be a huge mess.
Digitize the Design
Digitizing seems fun to people. Actually, it can be a dry task because you have to do one thing over and over multiple times. Now back to tracing, not the whole image but one element at a time. While tracing the image when digitizing for structured hats, the digitizer has to make needle points. He creates the path for the machine to understand how and where to strike the needle. The stitch type determines the final look, hence the digitizer must make good decisions. The push and pull compensation also affects production so it is taken care of during digitizing.
Photo Credit: Dolce & Gabbana
A professional digitizing service is required to keep the stitch count to the perfect. Increasing it can make a cluster of the design under the needle. Decreasing the stitches often results in revealing the fabric underneath. It is worth understanding that hats cannot be hooped as in the case of flat fabrics. Even if the embroiderer tries to use a hoop, he can stabilize the bottom only. Thus, a digitizer must know that the stitching cannot commence from the top as it is already unstable. As opposed to digitizing for flat surfaces, digitizing for structured hats starts from center out, bottom to top.
Keeping in view the challenges faced by an embroiderer, the digitizer has to remain focused. The distortion of design during production is common. In such a case a circular design can transform in an oval shape. If not taken into account during preparing of the file, it will be a hassle on the embroidery machine. In many occasions using an edge-run underlay helps but every digitizer can choose according to her experience. The next crucial thing is to keep the design within the boundaries. Digitizing it too large will result in negative consequences.
The Perfect Solution to Digitizing For Structured Hats
When looking for unmatched quality in digitizing for structured hats, you need to work with the best team. At Absolute Digitizing we have expert digitizers with many years of experience. We have successfully worked on thousands of cap designs providing excellent results. Having state of the art technology in our lab enables us to provide excellent custom embroidery digitising services. We are a USA based company with over two decades of working and serving customers worldwide. Our experience benefits our customers who get unmatched quality at only $1/1000 stitches. We operate round the clock so you can connect with us at any time of the day. Share your designs with us and let’s begin digitizing!