Everything Qepe does.

• Opens the logo⌘O

  PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, PDF or AI: open it, or drop it on the window or on Qepe in the Dock.

• A file check first

  Good file, OK file or Poor file, with the reason, before a single stitch is made.

• Photos and screenshots

  Offered a crop to the logo, or turned down in under a second with the reason.

• Where it goes

  Left chest, cap front, sleeve, full back, or any width and height in millimetres.

• Garment and its colour

  Ten garments, each setting its own underlay, density and pull compensation.

• Machine and hoop

  Choose the machine; the smallest hoop that takes the design is recommended.

• Thread colours

  1 to 12 or Auto. Leave a colour out, drag one onto another to merge them, pick each thread from a chart.

• A digitizer’s questions

  Background embroidered or left out, shading flattened or kept as drawn, details Fine, Normal or Clean, lettering Auto, Satin or Fill.

• Digitize

  Traces the logo, picks satin or fill for each part, keeps lettering as lettering, and sets underlay, density and pull compensation.

• The garment stays fabric

  Nothing white is embroidered on a white shirt: the garment’s own colour shows through.

• A verdict before it opens

  Fix all and Quality run first. The card says Ready to embroider, Check n things or Not ready to embroider, with stitches, run time and trims.

• Parts you can edit

  The result is satin, fill and lettering for every tool on this page, not a locked picture.

• Draw it myself

  Puts the logo on the canvas at your size, to trace with the Magic Wand or draw over by hand.

• A logo in under half a minute, typically

  A heavy, detailed crest can take minutes, and the heaviest can stop at the five-minute limit.

• Quality score

  0 to 100 for the garment and machine you chose. Any critical problem keeps it under 60.

• Checked against the artwork

  Every stitch drawn as 0.4 mm thread over the logo: bare fabric, lost details, closed openings, parts not embroidered.

• Six categories

  Geometry, Settings, Density, Stitch order, Small details and Machine, each with its own bar.

• Findings in plain words

  Which parts, why and what to do, each marked Measured on the stitches or Predicted from the settings.

• 46 checks

  Built on five written standards, for satin, tatami, lettering, structure and block, and fourteen production rules.

• From a finding to its stitches

  One click opens the simulator in X-ray at that place.

• Fix all safe problems

  Changes stitch settings and stitch order, never shapes, skips any fix that would cause a new problem, and is one undo step.

• Live check

  Quality checks again by itself as you work, on designs up to 60,000 stitches.

• Export asks first

  A critical problem offers Review problems or Export anyway before any file is written.

• Knows your machine

  Colours against needles, the longest stitch it takes, and the hoop’s embroidery field.

• Record stitch-out

  How a design came out, with photos, kept on your computer. Qepe doesn’t learn from the records yet.

• Simulator⇧P

  Plays the stitches in the machine’s order at 1×, 5×, 25× or 100×. Space plays and pauses.

• Stitch by stitch← →

  Step one stitch, or ten with ⇧; jump a part with ⌥; go to the first or the last stitch.

• X-rayX

  Every stitch by its role: top, underlay, travel and lock, so you see what lies underneath.

• Four looks

  Lines, X-ray, Thread and Realistic, with thread sheen, twisted plies and shadows, all drawn from the real stitches.

• Lines⌘Y

  Every part as its path only, over the photo. It comes on by itself while you digitize over a photo.

• On the garment

  The canvas takes the garment’s fabric and colour, with a weave for each fabric.

• Mockup⇧G

  The design on a T-shirt, polo, hoodie, jacket, cap or tote, where the shop puts it. Save the picture or copy it for the customer.

• The hoop on the canvasH

  Drawn as the real hoop, with its embroidery field and safe zone: Fits, Close to the edge or Does not fit.

• Jumps and trimsJ

  Show the moves between parts or hide them; the grid and the logo picture too.

• Rulers and guides⌘R

  Millimetres or inches. Drag guides out, type them exactly or set them on the hoop’s centre; they are never embroidered.

• Snapping

  Moving and drawing snap to guides and to other parts’ edges and centres, with the distance shown.

• Actual size

  Calibrate the screen once and see the design at the size it will be embroidered.

• SelectV

  Pick, move and resize parts; drag across the canvas or ⇧‑click to take several.

• Edit pointsA

  Move, add and delete the points and curves of a part.

• Vectorize⇧W

  Every shape of the logo traced at once, then the cuts a master digitizer would make, to accept or dismiss.

• Magic WandW

  Click one shape of the logo or photo, a letter, a symbol or a stroke, to trace just that shape.

• KnifeK

  Cuts a part straight or on an arc, suggests where, snaps to corners and edges, and overlaps the seam so no fabric shows.

• FillF

  Tatami by default; contour, circular, meander and more, at any stitch angle.

• SatinS

  A column drawn along its centre line at the width you set; satin, E, S or zig-zag stitch.

• BlockB

  A shape that changes width and direction, cut into blocks, each with its own stitch angle.

• Auto blockQ

  Click a part and Qepe proposes the blocks, their order, entry and exit; nothing changes until you accept. Q switches to pairs by hand.

• RunR

  A running stitch line, with Bean for a heavier line and passes.

• Stitch directionD

  A dial turns only the stitches inside a part, never its shape: ⇧ for 15° steps, or Follow shape on a satin.

• Several angles in one fill

  ⌥‑drag across a fill to add stitch-angle lines; the rows blend from line to line, with no seams.

• Segment

  Stitches the possible constructions of a part, compares them with Quality and proposes the simplest that stitches best.

• Edit stitches⇧S

  Move, delete or add single stitches, or turn a move into a jump or a trim: to fix a customer’s DST or PES.

• Stitch order⇧⌘O

  Drag parts into order, or Optimise sequence for the fewest trims; drag a part’s entry and exit points by hand.

• Inspector

  Stitch type, angle, density, underlay and pull compensation of the selected part.

• More settings

  Every setting of the stitch engine, with a search.

• Group, weld and lock⌘G

  Group parts, weld them into one, or lock a background so clicks pass through it (⌘2).

• Align and distribute

  To the selection, a key part or the hoop; distribute with a gap in millimetres; Centre on hoop.

• Restore original

  Blocks, cuts and traces keep the part they came from, so you can always go back.

• 200 steps of undo⌘Z

  A big operation is one step.

• TextT

  Any installed TrueType or OpenType font, 2 to 300 mm tall, as Auto, Satin or Fill.

• 128 Qepe Fonts

  Embroidery fonts digitized by hand, listed first, each at the sizes its digitizer made it for.

• Stroke by stroke

  Typed text is stitched as satin columns, one per stroke, with underlay set by the letter’s height.

• Straight or on an arc

  Arc over or Arc under, with the circle’s radius.

• Text on a path

  Letters follow a run, a satin’s middle line, a shape’s outline or a path you draw, and move with it.

• One letter at a time

  Move, turn, scale or kern a single letter; it stays when the words change.

• Monogram⇧M

  One to three initials, classic, side by side, stacked, round or block, in a frame, a laurel or a flourish.

• Names

  One list, one machine file per name, in the text’s font, size and place; long names fitted to the width.

• Too small, said

  Warns when letters are too small for the font and the fabric: on a knit, 5 mm sans, 6 mm serif, 8 mm script.

• Laydown on pile

  On towels and fleece, a laydown under small letters keeps them from sinking.

• Font licences

  Many commercial fonts don’t allow embroidery, and Qepe says so; every Qepe Font’s licence is in Help.

• Patch⇧B

  Circle, oval, rectangle or shield, 20 to 400 mm, built round any design and edited again later.

• Satin or merrow edge

  A satin edge of 2 to 8 mm, or a merrow edge: a run marks the cut, and the art stays 4 mm inside.

• Three faces

  Embroidered, printed or the fabric itself; texts over and under the art, an inner ring, offset rows.

• Printed patches

  For sublimation: the print runs 2 mm past the cut line, and the print file has registration marks.

• Appliqué

  Placement run, stop, tack-down, stop to trim, 3 mm satin cover: under half the stitches of tatami.

• Fewer stops

  Pieces of one colour form one set: four letters stop twice, not eight times.

• Cut files

  At 1:1 in millimetres: SVG with a red hairline for lasers, DXF for plotters, written beside the machine file.

• Print and embroidery

  Print images lie under the stitches and are never stitched; the print file is a 300 DPI PNG.

• Ten formats written⌘E

  DST, PES, EXP, JEF, VP3, U01, XXX, DSB, TAP and PEC. The format follows your machine.

• Read back and compared

  After writing, every needle point is compared with the screen. A file that doesn’t match is never saved, and the old one stays.

• Opens 40 formats

  A machine file opens as a design to recolour, move or add a name to.

• Trims your machine cuts

  A DST trim is written as the number of jumps your machine cuts at, set once for each machine.

• Notes when they matter

  Rethread stops, a stop written as a colour change, JEF’s 200 × 200 mm limit, stitches split at 12.1 mm.

• 13 machine families

  Tajima, Brother PR, Barudan, Janome, Melco, Bernina, Husqvarna Viking, Pfaff, Singer, Happy, SWF, Ricoma and Chinese multi-needle machines.

• Three models with their own hoops

  Brother PR1055X, Brother PR670E and Tajima TFMX-IIC.

• 69 hoops

  Round from 9 to 30 cm, rectangles up to 40 × 50 cm, cap frames. A field the maker doesn’t publish is estimated and marked ≈.

• The smallest hoop that fits

  Picked for you, or a 90° turn offered; resizing past the hoop asks first.

• Your own hoop

  A name, a shape and an embroidery field from 10 to 1000 mm.

• Larger than the hoop

  A jacket back split into hoopings, each its own machine file, with alignment marks and a basting box.

Every format, one page each Every machine, with its hoops

• Ten garments

  T-shirt, polo, hoodie, sport, workwear, denim, cap, towel, jacket and leather.

• Underlay by fabric

  Centre walk, edge walk, zigzag and tatami underlay: heavier on knits and pile, more open on leather.

• Pull compensation

  Each satin widened for the fabric, more as it gets wider; lettering keeps a lighter range.

• Density and stitch length

  Fill rows 0.37 to 0.40 mm apart; the longest fill stitch 3.5 mm on knits, 4.0 on wovens, 5.0 on leather.

• Satin limits

  6 to 8 mm by fabric. A column past it splits its stitches and scatters the splits; much wider, it becomes tatami.

• Caps

  Cap front placement and cap frames; colour changes start from the centre out.

• Change the garment later

  Quality checks every part again for the new fabric, and Fix all adjusts them.

Starting values from the trade’s published standards, not yet confirmed by stitch-outs on every fabric: stitch a test on a new fabric first.

• 75 thread charts

  Madeira, Isacord, Gunold, Robison-Anton and more.

• Nearest thread

  Every colour shows its nearest thread’s number and name.

• Thread palette

  Beside the canvas: pick a thread, and new parts take it.

• Thread names in the file

  PES and VP3 carry maker, number and name, JEF the Janome number; DST, EXP and U01 have no place for them.

• Colours and needles

  Quality counts colours against your machine’s needles; more colours than needles become rethread stops.

• Approval sheet

  For the customer: the real stitches on the garment’s colour, the size with dimension lines, the threads and a line to sign.

• Your shop on every sheet

  Your logo, name, contact and terms in the header and footer, added once; A4 or Letter.

• Production worksheet

  For the operator: hoop, needles in stitch order, trims, jumps, stops, run time, fabric, file and start point.

• 1:1 template

  Print at 100 %: a cross where the machine starts and a 50 mm ruler to check the scale.

• PDFs named by order

  Customer, order, placement, quantity and notes; one PDF under 1 MB, named by customer, order and date.

• The garment on the sheet

  Add to approval sheet shows the design on the garment the customer will wear.

• Stitch image

  The real stitches as a transparent 300 DPI PNG, for mock-ups, quotes and web shops.

• Run time

  Estimated at 800 stitches a minute, the same in the bottom bar, the result, the worksheet and the simulator.

• Safe save⌘S

  Written to a temporary file, flushed to the disk, then moved over the old one: never a half-written design.

• The save before

  Kept beside the design as a .qepe.bak file.

• Changed on disk

  If the file changed since you opened it, Save asks: save a copy, replace it, or cancel.

• Drafts

  Unsaved changes are kept a moment after each change and come back after a crash or a force-quit; drafts stay 30 days.

• Back after a crash

  A crashed window reopens with its design; a stitch engine that hangs restarts by itself in about ten seconds.

• A full disk is said

  One notice with the free space and Save to another disk; the last good draft is kept.

• Export never loses a file

  A failed export leaves the old machine file where it was.

• Several designs at once⌘T

  Tabs, each with its own undo, view, hoop and drafts; drag one out into its own window.

• An open file

  A .qepe design is SVG underneath, so other vector programs can open it.

• Copy details for support

  What went wrong, never your designs, pictures or keys.

• Ask

  Change the design in your own words.

• Review

  The design judged as a professional digitizer would: what to change, and a production sheet.

• How far it goes

  Advisor, Assisted or Autonomous; Quick fix, Professional or Deep optimization.

• Checked by Quality

  Every AI change goes through the Quality check and is rolled back if quality would drop; one undo step a run.

• The artwork can stay here

  Keep the original artwork on this computer, and no picture of the logo is sent. Qepe asks before the first request.

• AI Digitizing PRO

  From a photo of a logo to clean artwork, then digitized and checked like any design.

What the AI does, and how credits work

• Seven languages

  English, Shqip, Deutsch, Français, Türkçe, Srpski and Español: 3,687 texts in each, every screen and message.

• Starts in your language

  The computer’s language when Qepe has it, with numbers written the way that language writes them.

• Your own wording

  Correct any text or add a language in Settings; the shop’s wording stays on its computer.

• Working style

  The mouse and keys you’re used to from other design programs: Qepe asks once, and Settings changes it any time.

• Keyboard shortcuts⌘/

  Every key on one sheet, in your language.

• Light or dark

  Light, Dark, or the same as the system.

• Mac with Apple silicon

  M1 or later, with macOS 13 or later. Native: no Windows, no Parallels.

• Windows 10 and 11

  64-bit PCs. The same Qepe, the same tools, the same files.

• Your designs stay on your computer

  Digitizing, Quality and export run on your computer, without a connection. Only Qepe AI sends anything, and it asks first.

• Opens with a double-click

  Double-click a .qepe design in the Finder or File Explorer, or drop a logo or a machine file on Qepe.

• Samples to learn on

  Qepe opens with the Badge sample, a tool demo; more are under File › Open Sample.