# How much does embroidery digitizing cost? URL: https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/how-to/embroidery-digitizing-cost/ Updated: 2026-10-23 Before a machine can stitch your design, someone has to turn it into stitches. That step has a price, and it's charged per design, not per hat. **Short answer:** Printful charges a one-time digitization fee per new design: $6.50 standard, $3.95 if it's text only, and $2.95 for each extra placement or adjustment, according to its help centre in October 2026. Reorders of the same design aren't charged again, and orders of 25 or more embroidered items skip the fee. ## What you're paying for A picture file says what colour each pixel is. An embroidery machine needs something else: where every stitch goes, which way each fill runs, which areas are satin (smooth columns, used for letters and narrow shapes) and which are fill stitches, and the order the colours go in. Turning artwork into that stitch file is digitizing. It's done once per design. After that the same file stitches the hundredth hat exactly like the first, which is why the fee is a one-off. ## Printful's fee, line by line These are the numbers in Printful's help centre as of October 2026. Check there before you budget, since fees change. - **$6.50** per new design, standard. - **$3.95** per new design if it's text only. - **$2.95** for each extra placement (a back or side logo) or adjustment. - **$0** for a design they've already digitized for you. - **$0** on orders of 25 or more embroidered items. ## What other digitizers charge If you hire a digitizer yourself, typical quotes run about **$10 to $60 per design**, or about **$1 to $3 per 1,000 stitches**. The spread comes from size and detail: a two-word hat is a small job, a full-back jacket logo is a big one. You can rough out stitches yourself. A common rule of thumb is 1,500 to 2,000 stitches per square inch of thread. A hat front is 4 x 1.75 in, so 7 square inches; a design that covers half of it lands around 6,000 stitches, which at those per-stitch rates is somewhere between $6 and $18. A hat front tops out around 15,000 stitches. ## How to pay it once, or less - **Finish changing it first.** Printful lists a fee for adjustments as well as new designs. - **Reuse it.** The same design on more hats, or more hats later, isn't charged again. - **Keep it to one placement.** Each extra spot is another fee. - **Consider text only.** It's the cheaper rate, and plain bold type stitches cleanly anyway. - **Group the order.** At 25 embroidered items the fee goes away. ## Get the design right before it's digitized Digitizing won't save a design that breaks the rules. Text under 0.25 in tall or lines under 0.05 in thick get thickened or dropped, and you've paid for a stitch file of something you didn't want. [The Club](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/club/) and [Merit Badges](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/badges/) check every design against those minimums in the browser, so what reaches the digitizer already fits. The rules are in [how to design a hat that stitches](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/how-to/design-a-custom-embroidered-hat/). ## Questions people ask ### Do I pay the digitizing fee again for a reorder? Not at Printful. A design they've already digitized isn't charged again. ### Why is text-only digitizing cheaper? Letters are mostly columns of satin stitch, with fewer decisions about fills, angles and colour order than a drawing. Printful charges $3.95 for text-only versus $6.50 standard. ### Why does a second logo on the side cost more? Each placement is its own stitch file. Printful lists $2.95 for each extra back or side placement. ### How many stitches is a typical hat logo? It depends on how much of the 4 x 1.75 in front is filled. Roughly 1,500 to 2,000 stitches per square inch of thread, with about 15,000 as a practical ceiling for a hat front. ## Or just make one - [The Club](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/club/): A fake yacht club for your one problem, with a Latin motto. - [Merit Badges](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/badges/): Scout badges for grown-up stuff, like doing your taxes.