Digitizing is to embroidery what architecture is to construction. We all know that a great architect can make a building into a showplace, rather than just a store room. In the same way, a good digitizer can create three dimensional art out of your printed logo or design. In addition, a great digitizer will make that design so that it runs efficiently on the embroidery machines. But can’t you just scan my logo into the computer? Yes and no. We start by scanning in your camera-ready art. Then we start creating your embroidered image using the scanned image as a backdrop. Unlike a silkscreen image, your embroidered logo will have direction, dimension and texture. The extent of these features is a result of the quality of the digitizing process. Why do different shops give varying prices on digitizing the same image? Each digitizer is an individual, with differing experience, motivation and talent. Each may see your logo in a different light, with more or less attention to detail. The lowest price is usually not the best digitized image. What is stitch count and how does it affect the design? Stitch count is the total number of stitches in your design. The average embroidery machine can stitch about 30,000 stitches per hour, so the higher the stitch count, the longer each garment spends on the machine. Your price per garment is directly proportional to the stitch count and is usually measured “per thousand stitches”. Should I always choose the embroiderer with the lowest price per thousand stitches? Again, usually not. Price is always a consideration, but there are two other factors that you must consider: quality and time. The three of these form the basic purchasing decision. The primary reason most customers choose an embroidered image is to project a quality image of their company or group, so you should verify that the embroiderer will pay close attention to detail in both digitizing and embroidery. Why is there a wide variation in prices for embroidery and digitizing? There are huge shops, medium sized shops and tiny shops. The huge shops are generally very inexpensive per thousand stitches, but you need to have a ton of work just to get their attention. Even when you do, they tend to do all of their orders the same, so don't be expecting special treatment (fine needles & thread, extra trimming, special handling, etc) because they are busy pounding out a million piece an hour. Tiny shops, on the other end of the spectrum, can offer very personalized service, making every time one at a time, but they need to charge a much higher price per thousand stitches to cover this attention to detail. The problem with a tiny shop is that they don't have enough volume to become experts at what they are doing. We are a "medium sized" shop, which we hope means we have the advantages of both huge and tiny. We can process large orders, and yet give personal attention when it is required (and the customer wishes to pay for it). In addition, we have enough experience to be able to handle some of your non-standard needs. The moral of the story is that you should expect to pay more for small, rush or special orders, and you should get a great price for large, standard, run of the mill orders with reasonable time frames. If you want specifics, email us or give us a call on our toll free number. What does Reddi Ware need to create an embroidered image? Bring us camera ready artwork. From that, we can give you an estimate to create the digitized image and the price per embroidered garment. We can usually use letterhead. Sometimes we can use a business card. You can send artwork to us as a jpg, pcx, gif, tif or bmp file. You can send us a fax to give us some ideas of your design, but a fax is not clear enough for a final estimate or for digitizing. Does the customer have to supply the garments? No. We prefer to supply the garments and the embroidery (although we will embroider garments that you bring with you). The reason we prefer to supply the garments is that way we can ensure that each of your garments is free of defects or stains. The garments that we purchased are shipped to us in bulk, ready for embroidery. The items you purchase at retail may be individually pinned or bagged, which we have to charge you more for the handling. In addition, we will absorb any garments that are damaged by the machine (this ranges from 1 to 3%). If you supply the garments, we do not inspect them for imperfections or stains, and you will need to provide 3% extra garments for the inevitable machine damage. We charge $1 extra per garment for handling your items. |
Please contact Reddi Ware at 1-877-494-9572 or send questions and comments to our email address info@reddiware.com. We welcome your calls and will be happy to answer your questions! SHOPPING WITH REDDI WARE IS ALWAYS SECURE AND WE WILL NEVER PROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO A THIRD PARTY! Links: 
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