Adding embroidery to your screen printing shop's service list is a great way to grow revenue — but digitizing is a specialized skill that doesn't overlap much with screen printing knowledge. Here's why many screen printers choose to outsource this one piece rather than build it in-house.
Screen printing and embroidery digitizing require completely different expertise. Color separations, mesh counts, and ink types don't translate to stitch types, thread density, and pull compensation. Learning digitizing well takes real time — time that's better spent running your existing production line.
Professional digitizing software costs hundreds to thousands of dollars, plus licensing renewals. Add in the months it takes to get genuinely good at digitizing, and the upfront investment is significant — especially if embroidery is a smaller part of your overall business.
If embroidery orders come in occasionally rather than constantly, paying for digitizing per design (rather than maintaining in-house software and staff) is usually the more cost-effective option. You only pay when you actually have an order.
Outsourcing to an experienced digitizer means your embroidery orders can move just as fast as your screen printing orders — without waiting on an in-house team member to build up digitizing skills first.
A poorly digitized file leads to thread breaks, puckering, and wasted garments — all of which cost you money and client trust. An experienced digitizer catches these issues before the file ever reaches your machine.
You don't need to master digitizing to offer embroidery services. Partnering with a reliable digitizer lets you expand your offerings, take on more client types, and grow revenue — without the upfront cost and learning curve of doing it all in-house.
MDN Designer works with screen printers across the USA to deliver fast, accurate digitizing so you can offer embroidery without the overhead.
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