DST ↔ PES Converter
Convert between Tajima’s DST format and Brother’s PES format, including for shops that bought a Brother file and need a Tajima one. Runs entirely in your browser — the converted file downloads directly to your device.
What actually changes depends on direction. DST → PES has to invent something for a field DST never had: since a DST file carries no colour data at all, the converter assigns one placeholder colour per thread block just so the PES has a valid palette, and flags this clearly so you know to reassign your real thread colours before stitching. PES → DST goes the other way — the real Brother colours you had are dropped, because DST has nowhere to keep them, but every colour change still becomes a plain machine stop, which is what a Tajima head actually reads regardless of what colour thread is loaded. In both directions, the stitch positions themselves — the part that determines what the finished embroidery looks like — convert exactly.
People reach for this when a shop sent a DST and you sew at home on a Brother, or you bought a Brother/Babylock file from a marketplace but run production on Tajima machines. Either direction, the conversion re-parses the file it just wrote and compares the stitch count against the original before letting you download it — if that count ever drifted by more than 1%, the download is refused rather than handed over silently wrong.
Want this design as a patch? Drop your file above — you'll see the price at 50, 100 and 500 pieces, then get a mockup in 24 h.
Your file stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to attach it to a quote. The converted file downloads directly to your device.
Need EXP, JEF or VP3? Tell us.
Want to see the design before converting it? Use the DST viewer or the PES viewer first, or the stitch count calculator if you don't have a file yet. Either format converts into a custom embroidered patch — or get one digitized from scratch with embroidery digitizing. For background on the terms above, see what digitizing means, stitch types and thread weight in the glossary.
Converter questions
- Is this DST to PES converter free?
- Yes, free with no signup, and there is no limit on how many files you convert.
- Are my files uploaded?
- No. The conversion happens entirely in your browser — the file is read, converted and written back out on your device, and the result downloads straight to your computer. Nothing is sent to our servers.
- Does converting DST to PES lose anything?
- DST carries no colour data at all, so a PES converted from a DST file gets a placeholder colour assigned to each block rather than the colours you actually intended — you will need to reassign the real thread colours in your embroidery software before stitching from it. The stitch pattern itself, the actual needle positions, converts exactly.
- Does converting PES to DST lose anything?
- Yes — DST has no way to store colour information, so a PES file's thread colours are dropped in the conversion. Each colour change is still written as a plain stop, which is exactly what a Tajima machine reads regardless of colour, so the physical stitching is unaffected.
- Why are the colours wrong after converting DST to PES?
- Because there were never any real colours in the DST to begin with — it's a placeholder, not a mistake. DST has no field for colour, so converting to PES assigns one arbitrary catalog colour per thread block just so the file has something valid in that slot. Open the result in your embroidery software and reassign the actual thread colours before stitching.
- Can you convert other formats (EXP, JEF, VP3)?
- DST and PES (PEC) today. EXP (Melco), JEF (Janome) and VP3 (Pfaff/Husqvarna) are on request — email us the file and our team can convert it, and it tells us there's demand for adding the format here.
- Can I order patches instead of converting?
- Yes — after your file downloads, a "Get this quoted" button appears using the same real stitch count the conversion already parsed, so you can skip converting altogether and go straight to a patch price.
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