Most embroidery shops charge a digitizing fee — a one-time charge to convert a new logo or design into a stitch file. Understanding this fee helps you price it correctly and turn an industry cost into a profit center.
What the Fee Covers
Traditionally, digitizing a logo took skilled time on expensive software or money paid to an outside digitizer. The fee compensates for converting artwork into a clean, machine-ready file with proper underlay, fills, and edges.
Typical Digitizing Fees
- •Simple text or monogram: low or waived
- •Basic logo: a modest one-time fee
- •Complex multi-color design: higher fee
- •Reorders of the same design: no new fee
Turn It Into Profit
Because SewFlow lets you digitize logos, images, and text for free, the digitizing fee you charge can become margin rather than a pass-through cost. Alternatively, waive it strategically to win larger orders.
Digitize any logo or design for free:
Open the Converter →Be Transparent
Explain the fee as a one-time setup that covers preparing their design, and note that reorders skip it. Clear communication prevents pushback.
Waive to Win
On large orders, offering to waive the digitizing fee is a cheap, attractive concession — especially when your own cost to digitize is zero.
The digitizing fee is a normal, expected part of embroidery pricing. With free digitizing tools, you control whether it is extra profit or a strategic discount to close bigger deals.