Walk into any embroidery shop and you will quickly hear acronyms like DST, PES, JEF, and VP3 flying around. Understanding these formats is essential whether you are buying a machine, ordering digitized files, or converting your own designs.
1. DST — Tajima (Industry Standard)
DST is the most universal embroidery format in the world. Originally developed by Tajima, it is now supported by virtually every commercial and semi-commercial embroidery machine on the market. If you are unsure which format to use, DST is almost always the safe choice.
Best for: Commercial production, multi-brand shops, Tajima machines.
2. PES — Brother & Babylock
PES is the native format for Brother and Babylock machines. It supports thread color information linked to Brother’s own thread palette, which makes color matching on these machines very accurate. Home embroiderers often work exclusively in PES.
Best for: Brother PE series, Babylock Destiny, home embroidery machines.
3. JEF — Janome
JEF is Janome’s proprietary format. It carries both stitch data and color stop information optimized for Janome machine firmware. Some newer Janome machines also accept JEF+ which adds extra metadata.
Best for: Janome Memory Craft, Continental, and Horizon series.
4. EXP — Melco & Bernina
EXP is a simple, compact format used by Melco and older Bernina machines. It is lighter than DST but stores less metadata. Many commercial shops use Melco Amaya or BRAVO machines which rely on EXP files.
Best for: Melco Amaya, Melco BRAVO, Bernina Artista.
5. VP3 — Husqvarna Viking & Pfaff
VP3 is the format used by Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff machines. It supports thread color libraries from these brands and is commonly used by mid-to-high-end home embroidery enthusiasts.
Best for: Husqvarna Viking Designer, Pfaff Creative series.
Which Format Should You Choose?
Always start with what your machine requires. If you are sharing files across multiple machines, convert to DST as the universal standard. Our free PNG to DST converter supports all five formats as output — so you can convert once and download whichever format you need.