🪡 OpenStitch Studio

🌐 Language / Sprache: English · Deutsch · Français · Español

Universal Open-Source Embroidery & Digitizing Suite for Windows, macOS & Linux

OpenStitch Studio is a modern, open-source embroidery digitizing suite with an eye-friendly dark studio interface, real-time 3D thread preview, a smart Auto-Digitizer, PhotoStitch, real thread catalogs (Madeira, Isacord, Gunold, Brother) and a UI in 4 languages (English, Deutsch, Français, Español). It supports all common home and industrial embroidery machines (Tajima, Brother, Barudan, Ricoma, ZSK, Janome, Bernina, Pfaff/Husqvarna, Melco).

💬 Feedback & contributions welcome! This project thrives on real-world feedback from many different embroidery machines and on community contributions. Found a bug, have an idea, or want to help build it? Open an Issue or a Pull Request!

🔍 Preview: interactive in-app studio tour (spotlight & coach marks)

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✨ Highlights & Features

1. 🪄 Smart Auto-Digitizer (image / logo → embroidery file)

• Perceptual colour reduction in CIE-Lab + automatic matching to real thread catalogs (Madeira Polyneon 40, Isacord 40, Gunold Poly 40, Brother, Universal).
• Edge flood-fill background removal: removes the background but keeps same-coloured inner details (e.g. white lettering in a logo).
• Automatic stitch-type classification via medial-axis skeleton & distance transform:
  • thin lines → triple / bean run
  • lettering & columns → auto satin with smoothly rotating stitch angle, short-stitching on tight inner curves, split satin for wide columns and automatic underlay
  • large areas → tatami fill or curved contour fill with boustrophedon region splitting, hidden travel routing along the outline, edge/lattice underlay and directional pull compensation
• Colour trap vs. smart knockdown + 0.7 mm overlap lip: avoids bullet-proof stacking while eliminating fabric gaps between adjacent colours.
• Fabric presets: standard, piqué/polo/knit, terry/towel, caps, lightweight.
• Drag & drop: drop images (.png, .jpg, .webp), .svg vectors or embroidery files straight onto the window.

2. 🎨 Manual digitizing, node editor & pro tools

• Direct tools: tatami (F), satin (S), running/bean stitch (R) and an interactive node editor (N).

• Parametric live inspector: every object stays fully editable; scaling recalculates stitch density.

• 3D puff foam mode (caps): dense satin (0.24 mm) with perforating pinch end-caps for 2–3 mm foam.

• 1-click appliqué: placement line (with stop), tack-down and satin cover border.

• PhotoStitch: portrait/landscape photos → monochrome, sepia or 4-colour CMYK wave embroidery.

• Satin columns along your drawn centre line (S): stitches stay perpendicular to the line, with adjustable width, short stitches on tight curves, corner handling and automatic underlay (centre walk / edge walk / zigzag, chosen by column width).

• OpenStitch Micro: small lettering from 2.5 mm. A built-in single-stroke embroidery font, stitched like commercial small-text fonts. TrueType outlines fill in below ~4.5 mm; Micro stays readable:

  

• SVG import (transforms, arcs, styles, <use>, fill rules) & TTF/OTF lettering (arc text, automatic satin/tatami choice).

3. 🩺 Density guard, heatmap & quality doctor (F7)

• Anti-thread-break filter prevents needle collisions, bird-nesting and fabric holes.
• Live stitch-density heatmap (green / yellow / red).
• Quality doctor: checks hoop clearance, needle count, micro-stitches and trims before export.
• Binary verification on export: every exported file is re-read by an independent parser and checked for size and geometry.

4. 🌍 Languages & real thread catalogs

• UI languages: 🇬🇧 English · 🇩🇪 Deutsch · 🇫🇷 Français · 🇪🇸 Español — switch live at the top of the window.
• Thread catalogs with official colour numbers: Madeira Polyneon No. 40, Isacord Polyester No. 40, Gunold POLY 40, Brother Embroidery and a universal palette; custom CSV palettes can be loaded too.

5. 🏭 Manufacturer-neutral & all major machine formats

• Built-in machine profiles & hoop strategies: Universal (.DST / .PES / .EXP), Tajima (.DST), Brother (.PES / .PEC), Barudan (.U01 / .DST), Ricoma / HappyJapan / ZSK (.DST), Janome / Elna / Bernina (.JEF / .EXP), Pfaff / Husqvarna Viking (.VP3), Melco (native .EXP, built-in 1.44 MB FAT12 .IMG GoTek/FlashFloppy manager and an optional Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi bridge in melco_netbridge/).
• Smart hoop strategies: underlay, pull compensation and stitch order adapt to small hoops, standard hoops, jacket backs and curved cap frames (centre-out & bottom-up).
• A4 PDF production sheet: needle assignment, thread usage, stitch count and runtime estimate.

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🚀 Quickstart & Installation

Option A: 1-click download (no Python required)

Get the ready-made app from the GitHub release page (latest):

• 🪟 Windows (64-bit, single file): OpenStitch-Studio-Windows-x64.exe (download & double-click, nothing to unpack)
• 🍏 macOS (Apple Silicon M1 / M2 / M3 / M4): OpenStitch-Studio-macOS-AppleSilicon-M-Chip-arm64.zip
• 🍎 macOS (Intel x64): OpenStitch-Studio-macOS-Intel-x64.zip

Option B: run from source (Windows, macOS & Linux)

Requires Python 3.10+.

git clone https://github.com/lb2002/openstitch.git
cd openstitch
python -m venv .venv
# Windows:  .venv\Scripts\pip install -e .   &&   .venv\Scripts\python.exe main.py
# macOS/Linux:
.venv/bin/pip install -e .
.venv/bin/python main.py

On first launch you are greeted by the official OpenStitch emblem in the hoop and an interactive 7-step in-app tour (reopen any time with F1).

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🗂️ Project layout

openstitch/
├── openstitch/
│   ├── auto/          # CIE-Lab colour reduction, Auto-Digitizer, PhotoStitch & thread catalogs
│   ├── core/          # design model, stitch plan, hoop & machine profiles
│   ├── engine/        # geometry, tatami/contour fill, satin, 3D puff, appliqué, density guard
│   ├── io/            # DST, PES, EXP, JEF, VP3, U01 import/export, FAT12 generator, PDF report
│   ├── text/          # TTF/OTF vector lettering engine & arc text
│   ├── ui/            # Material 3 dark studio GUI, 3D canvas, dialogs & onboarding
│   └── i18n.py        # UI translations (EN / DE / FR / ES)
├── melco_netbridge/   # optional Wi-Fi USB-emulator server (e.g. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W)
└── tests/             # automated pytest suite

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🤝 Contributing & feedback

• 🌟 Star the repo if you like OpenStitch Studio!
• 🐛 Bug reports & machine tests: open a GitHub Issue and tell us which machine you use.
• 🌐 Translations: add or improve a language in openstitch/i18n.py.
• 🔧 Pull requests: see CONTRIBUTING.md.

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📜 License & copyright

Copyright © 2026 Linus Baumberger (@lb2002).

• Open-source copyleft: released under the GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later. Anyone may use, study, improve and share the software for free; derivative works and network/cloud services must stay open under the same licence.
• Commercial / dual licensing: as original author and copyright holder, Linus Baumberger (@lb2002) reserves the right to additionally offer OpenStitch Studio under commercial / OEM licences. See LICENSE.