Machine embroidery formats are brand-specific, and the file extension is not interchangeable.
- PES — Brother, and Babylock
- JEF — Janome
- VP3 / VIP — Pfaff and Husqvarna Viking
- EXP — Bernina and Melco
- DST — the commercial and industrial standard
- HUS — older Husqvarna
- ART — Bernina’s native design format
Renaming a file does not convert it. A .jef renamed to .pes is still a .jef and the machine will reject it or stitch nonsense. Conversion requires software that reads the stitch data and rewrites it.
Buy designs in your format. Most design sellers supply a bundle containing several formats — check yours is included before buying rather than after.
Two things the format does not carry reliably. Hoop size, which you must check separately against your machine, and colour information, which is often only advisory and varies between formats.
DST is the most portable and the most lossy: it carries stitch positions but little colour or density information. It is what commercial embroiderers exchange, and it will usually stitch on anything with the right converter.
Check the design size against your hoop before buying. A beautiful design 200 mm wide is useless on a 100 mm field, and it cannot be scaled down without destroying the stitch density.
Questions people actually ask
Can I convert between formats?
Yes, with embroidery software. Free converters exist and vary in quality; some lose colour data or distort density. Buying in the right format avoids the question.
Can I embroider a JPEG?
Not directly. A photo has to be digitised — converted into stitch instructions — which is a skilled process and a separate piece of software from a format converter.
Last reviewed 2026-08-11