5 Best Free Open Source Embroidery Software for Windows

Here is a list of Best Free Open Source Embroidery Software for Windows. These software are used to view, edit, annotate and convert embroidery files of various formats. All these embroidery software come with an open source license that allows you to download, study, and manipulate their source code.

Most software work well with some embroidery file formats including DST, PES, PCS, and EXP. One of these software supports multiple other embroidery file formats to view, such as EXY, JEF, SEW, VP3, XXX, etc. You can view embroidery design with the help of tools like rotate, zoom, pan, thread color, change view mode, etc. Some software also provide basic editing functions that include delete point, add lettering, convert to normal stitch, and more. In one of these, you can even annotate an embroidery design using multiple shape tools.

Additionally, some software also support embroidery file conversion. Plus, you can save the view of an embroidery design to images like BMP, PNG, JPG, etc. All in all, these are great embroidery software using which you can view and perform other actions on embroidery files.

My Favorite Free Open Source Embroidery Software for Windows:

Embroidermodder is one of my favorites as it can be used for multiple purposes including embroidery visualization, editing, analysis, and conversion. Plus, it supports multiple commonly used embroidery formats.

If you want to annotate a PES embroidery design, then you can use Embroid-It.

You may also checkout lists of best free Embroidery Viewer Software, Pattern Design Software, and Cross Stitch Design Software for Windows.

Embroidermodder

Embroidermodder is a free, portable, open source embroidery software for Windows. This software helps you visualize embroidery of various formats. It offers all the required tools to view an embroidery design properly. Additionally, you can also analyze an embroidery file and related statistics. Some editing tools are also available in it to make some modifications to existing embroidery. It allows you to open multiple files in different tabs at a time.

Let’s have a look at its feature set:

Main Features:

• It is capable of reading files of embroidery formats including PES, KSM, HUS, EXP, and DST.
• It lets you view an embroidery design using various zoom options including zoom in/ out, zoom to fit, zoom to selection, and zoom to actual size.
• You can reduce or enlarge size of an embroidery, change view mode to lines or points mode, etc.
• It also provides a few editing features like delete point, convert jump to stitch, convert to normal stitch, etc.
• A handy Add Lettering feature to add lettering embroidery stitches to the existing design is also provided in it.

Additional Features:

• You can convert an embroidery file from one supported format to another using its Save As feature.
• It lets you checkout statistics of an embroidery file such as jump stitches, real stitches, maximum stitch length, minimum stitch length, center of design, design size, colors, total length of stitches, stitch length distribution, etc.
• An Analyze feature is also available in it that performs embroidery analysis and saves the results in a CSV file.

Conclusion:

It is a great free open source embroidery software using which you can view, edit, and analyze embroidery files.

Thred32

Thred32 is another free, portable, open source embroidery software for Windows. It is basically an embroidery digitizing software. You can use it to view a few embroidery design files. It offers some view modes and other features to visualize embroidery designs. In it, you can view multiple embroideries at a time as it has a multi-tab interface.

Main Features:

• It supports PCS and PES file formats to import and view embroidery design.
• You can view an embroidery in different visualization modes including Solid, Photo, Mountain, Hot Perforated, X-Ray, and Wireframe.
• It lets you use the Hand tool to pan the embroidery.
• If you want to look at the design closely, you can use its Zoom tool.

Conclusion:

It is a good open source embroidery viewer software that provides you all standard features to visualize PES and PCS embroidery files.

Embroid-It

Embroid-It is a Java-based open source embroidery software for Windows. It is basically used to view and edit PES embroidery files. Few basics tools to annotate an embroidery design are also provided in it. After adding annotations, you can save the embroidery in its native ‘PES’ format. Let’s checkout its primary functions now.

Main Features:

• It lets you add shapes to the embroidery design including rectangle, oval, and line.
• You can configure object (annotation) properties that are coordinates, width, height, etc.
• It lets you change object color as per your preference.
• If you want, you can view only added annotations.
• It also shows Shape List that you can view all added objects.

Conclusion:

It is a simple open source embroidery software that lets you visualize and annotate PES embroidery design.

Note: Its executable file is located at this location: \embroidit-master\embroidit-master\Embroid-It\dist

Embroidery Reader

Embroidery Reader is yet another free open source embroidery software for Windows. It is a dedicated software that is designed to view PES embroidery files. All standard viewing features to properly visualize an embroidery design are available in it. Let us have a look at its primary features in detail.

Main Features:

• It lets you rotate an embroidery to left or right.
• You can zoom a design up to a certain percentage.
• It allows you to view an embroidery with customized preferences like background color, transparent grid, grid size, grid color, remove ugly stitches, ugly length, thread thickness, etc.
• You can save an embroidery design as a BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, or TIFF image.
• You can also copy an embroidery and paste and use it in any photo editor.
• It also offers a handy Print feature.

Conclusion:

It is an easy to use open source embroidery viewer software that comes in a portable package.

html5-embroidery

html5-embroidery is a web-based open source embroidery software for Windows. It requires a web browser to work. You can use it to visualize embroidery designs. For that purpose, it supports a lot of embroidery file formats to open and read. You can browse and open an embroidery file or drag and drop a file onto it to visualize the design.

Main Features:

• In it, you can view embroideries of multiple formats that include EXP, PEC, PES, EXY, JEF, PCS, SEW, VP3, XXX, etc.
• You can save the embroidery file in image format using its Download option. It exports image in PNG format.

Conclusion:

It is a dedicated free open source embroidery viewer software that supports a wide number of embroidery formats.