One hundred and twenty embroidered polos, and a logo that had lived on the company website for six years.
The HR officer sent what she had: a PNG saved from that website, four hundred pixels wide. The digital mockup came back looking exactly right — the wordmark crisp, the tagline beneath it legible, the small keyline around the crest intact. She approved it.
The sew-out told a different story. The tagline under the wordmark had closed into a dark smudge. The keyline had vanished entirely, swallowed by a single pass of thread. The soft blue-to-navy gradient in the crest had become one flat blue, because thread does not fade.
Nobody had done anything wrong. The file was fine for a website. The mockup was an honest picture of the artwork. The problem arrived at the only stage where the design stopped being an image and became a physical object.
An embroidery machine does not print your logo. It rebuilds it, stitch by stitch, at a size you choose — and what survives that rebuild is decided by the file you hand over, long before anyone threads a needle.
Your logo is a file before it is a design, and the file sets the limits
Most organisations have a logo. Rather fewer have the file that a manufacturer can actually use, and the difference between the two is the source of more uniform disappointment than fabric and pricing combined.
There are two kinds of artwork file, and the distinction is not a technicality.
Vector files — AI, EPS, SVG, and PDFs with live artwork inside them — store your logo as a set of shapes and instructions: this curve, that thickness, this colour, filled this way. Because the shapes are described rather than drawn, they can be rendered at any size, from a cap front to a tarpaulin, with edges that stay clean.
Raster files — JPEG, PNG, and anything screenshotted or downloaded from a social media page — store your logo as a fixed grid of coloured dots. At the size it was made, it looks correct. Enlarged, there are no extra dots to draw with, so edges go soft and stepped. A logo saved at four hundred pixels wide was never wrong; it was simply made for a screen, and a screen is the one place it will always look right.
Your supplier is not reproducing your logo. They are rebuilding it in thread or ink, at a size you specify, on a material with its own opinions. The file decides how much of the original survives that.
This matters more for uniforms than for almost any other application, because a garment is not one size. The same mark may be stitched three inches wide on a chest, an inch and a half on a cap, and printed eight inches across a back. Each of those is a separate rebuild, and each one asks a different question of the artwork.
The rule worth carrying: find out which kind of file you own before you brief anyone, because a raster logo is not a smaller version of a vector logo — it is a different starting point with different work attached.
Figure
What each decoration method actually needs from you
The three production methods read your artwork in three different ways, so "send us your logo" means three different things depending on how the design is going onto the garment. The decoration methods guide covers how the processes themselves differ; what follows is only what each one wants in your email.
Embroidery wants vector artwork, and then converts it into something else entirely. Your vector file is not what the machine reads. It is the reference from which a digitizer builds a stitch file — deciding every stitch path, the direction each area is filled, how dense the fill runs, and what underlay goes beneath it to stop the fabric distorting. That stitch file is specific to a size and, in practice, to a fabric. Send the cleanest vector you have, tell your supplier the finished width you want in inches or centimetres, and expect the stitch file to be built rather than converted.
DTF printing wants a high-resolution raster with a transparent background. A PNG at 300 dpi at the finished print size — not 300 dpi at thumbnail size — is the working standard. The transparent background matters: a logo on a white square prints as a logo on a white square. Vector is still welcome and still better, because it can be rasterised at whatever size is needed, but a genuinely high-resolution PNG is fit for purpose here in a way it is not for embroidery.
Sublimation wants the whole garment, not just the logo. Because the design is printed into the fabric across the full panel, sublimation artwork is usually a layout rather than a mark: placement, background, panels, names and numbers, all set out at garment scale. Vector is strongly preferred. This is the method where an under-resolution file is most visible, because the printed area is largest.
The rule worth carrying: ask your supplier which method they are quoting before you decide which file to send, because embroidery and printing want different things and only one of them can be fixed later.
When you do not have the original file
This is the ordinary situation, not the exception. Logos get made once, by someone who has since left, using software nobody in the office has, and what remains in circulation is whatever got pasted into a presentation.
Look in four places before concluding the file is gone.
1. Old print work. Letterheads, brochures, calling cards, and annual reports are frequently PDFs with live vector artwork sitting inside them. A designer can usually pull the logo straight out. This is the highest-yield place to look and the one most often skipped.
2. Whoever made something physical. Your signage, your tarpaulins, your delivery van lettering, your previous uniforms. Anyone who cut vinyl or printed large format for you needed a vector file to do it, and print shops keep job archives for years.
3. The original email thread. Search your organisation's mail for the month the logo was adopted. Final artwork is very often still attached to a message nobody thought to save anywhere else.
4. Any past embroidery supplier. If your logo has been stitched before, a digitized stitch file exists somewhere. It belongs to your organisation in every sense that matters, and it is worth asking for — a re-digitized logo is never bit-for-bit identical to the last one, which is exactly how a reorder stops matching the shirts already in the cabinet. Uniform programs live or die on held records, and your artwork files are the first record to secure.
If all four come up empty, the logo gets redrawn — traced and rebuilt as vector artwork by someone working from the best raster copy available. Two honest things about that. It is an interpretation, not a recovery: curves get re-struck and a careful redraw is very close but not the same file. And it is real work, which is why it is worth asking every supplier you canvass whether they charge for it, and settling that before you commit rather than discovering it on an invoice. When you are comparing several quotations, this is one of the one-time charges that never appears on the headline per-piece number.
The rule worth carrying: search old print files, your signage supplier, and the original email thread before paying anyone to redraw a logo you may already own.
What a needle does that a printer does not
Print reproduces a design. Embroidery translates it. Understanding the translation is what separates a logo that stitches beautifully from one that technically stitches.
Fine lines disappear. A stitch has a minimum practical width. A hairline keyline or a one-point rule in the original artwork has nowhere to go — it either thickens to the minimum the machine can lay down, or it is dropped. Either way it is not the line you drew.
Small text fills in. Letters below roughly 5mm tall start losing their counters — the enclosed spaces inside a, e, o, and g crowd shut as thread accumulates. On a standard left-chest logo around three inches wide, a tagline set beneath a wordmark is usually the first thing to go illegible.
Gradients become flat. Thread is a fixed colour. A gradient can be approximated with blending techniques, but it is a craft workaround, not a reproduction, and on a small mark it will read as one flat colour.
Dense fills distort fabric. A large solid area of stitching pulls the material in as it is sewn. Proper underlay and pull compensation are what stop a logo puckering, and they are decided at the digitizing stage — which is one reason the same artwork can come out clean from one supplier and warped from another. Fabric weight is the other half of that equation: heavier corporate fabrics hold dense embroidery far better than light ones.
Dark on dark vanishes. A navy mark on a navy polo is legible on screen and invisible at two metres. Stitched logos read by texture and contrast, so plan the garment colour and the thread colours together, not in sequence.
The practical answer to all five is the same, and it is not "use a simpler logo." It is to keep a stitch-friendly variant of your mark: the same identity, adapted for thread — tagline dropped or enlarged, hairlines thickened, gradient resolved to flat colours, detail reduced to what reads at three inches. Most organisations that embroider regularly end up with one, and the ones that plan it deliberately get a better result than the ones that arrive at it by accident after a disappointing first run.
The rule worth carrying: decide the finished stitch size first, then check whether every element of your logo still reads at that size — the size is the constraint, and the artwork adapts to it.
Figure
Colour changes four times between your screen and the garment
Colour is where confident buyers get caught, because everything looks settled until the first physical sample arrives.
Your logo's colour passes through four different systems on its way to a uniform, and none of them is a translation of the others:
- On screen it is light — an RGB value, and it shifts between your monitor, your phone, and the supplier's laptop.
- In print it is ink on paper, described by a Pantone code, and it cannot reproduce every colour a screen can display.
- In embroidery it is a thread, chosen from a manufacturer's physical thread card of a few hundred fixed shades.
- In a dyed or sublimated garment it is pigment in a fibre, and the same dye reads differently on different fabrics and weaves.
So a Pantone code does not guarantee an exact thread, and a hex code does not guarantee a dye. What the codes do is get everyone to the right neighbourhood and give you something objective to point at. What closes the remaining gap is physical: a thread number confirmed against a card, or a fabric swatch you have actually seen.
Describing a colour in words closes nothing at all. "Our blue," "maroon," and "corporate green" mean whatever the person reading them already pictures. Send the code, ask which thread number or fabric they have matched it to, and — for a colour that genuinely matters, like a school seal or a club's official blue — ask to see it physically before the run.
One thing worth knowing on repeat orders: fabric is dyed in batches, and batches vary slightly. A supplier who made your originals and kept your records can manage that variance. It is another reason the quality check on delivery should compare against your retained sample, not against your memory.
The rule worth carrying: send a Pantone or hex code for every colour in your logo, then confirm the physical thread or swatch — the code starts the conversation and the swatch ends it.
What file work costs, and what it should not
This is the section with the money in it. The figures below are what BNC Customs charges; the industry figure is given so the comparison means something.
Digitizing and vectorization. Turning a logo into an embroidery file is real work. Somebody rebuilds it stitch by stitch, decides how dense the fill runs, and tests it on the actual fabric before a single garment is made. Across the Philippine industry it is billed at ₱500 to ₱1,000 per design, more for complicated artwork, and that price is fair for what it takes. Redrawing a raster logo as vector artwork is usually charged the same way.
We do not charge either one. Not on a first order, not above some quantity, not as a promotion with an end date.
The reason is plain enough. A setup fee is the last thing standing between a careful buyer and finding out whether a supplier is any good — you are asked to pay before you have held anything we made. We would rather you spend nothing to see the stitching and decide from there. It is worth asking every supplier you approach the same question directly, because this is a one-time charge that never appears on a per-piece number and therefore falls hardest on the smallest orders.
Embroidery is priced by what the file asks for. A name or single-colour mark is ₱60. A logo around 3×3 inches is ₱100. A large logo is ₱200 and up. Each additional embroidery position beyond the first — a sleeve, a back — is +₱40, and each additional DTF print position is +₱50. Individual name embroidery is +₱50 per piece. This is the practical reason the finished size and the number of positions belong in your brief: they are not styling decisions, they are the price.
What a sample costs. If the design has fine detail or a colour that has to be right, a single sample piece runs at the same per-unit list price as the production item, with no surcharge, and takes three to five days. On a design you are unsure about, that is the cheapest information you will buy all project.
Pricing verified: September 2026.
The rule worth carrying: ask every supplier whether digitizing and vectorization are charged, and get the answer in writing — it is a one-time cost that a per-piece quote will never show you.
Before you send, and what you should get back
Two short lists. The first is what leaves your side; the second is what should come back and stay with you.
Before you send, confirm you have:
- The best file you own, in vector form if it exists, and an honest note if it does not. "This is a PNG from our website, we cannot find the original" saves everyone a day.
- The finished size, in inches or centimetres, for each position you want decorated.
- Every colour as a code — Pantone or hex — including the garment colour you intend to put the logo on.
- Every version of the mark you use, if you have more than one. A horizontal lockup, a stacked version, and an icon-only mark solve different placements, and a supplier who can see all three will choose better than one guessing from a single file.
- Who approves it. One named person. Artwork with three approvers is the most reliable way to lose a week, and the production clock does not start until approval lands.
What should come back to you:
- A digital mockup, free, within 24 hours of a complete enquiry — confirming layout, placement, and scale.
- A sew-out on the actual fabric, for embroidery on anything with fine detail, before the run. The mockup confirms the plan; the sew-out confirms the result. They are different approvals and only one of them is made of thread.
- The digitized stitch file itself, or at minimum a clear answer about who holds it and whether you can have a copy. This is the record that makes next year's reorder match this year's shirts, and the moment to ask about it is now, while everyone is being helpful — not in eighteen months when you are ordering again.
A complete artwork handover takes a morning. It replaces the version of this project where the tagline turns to mush on a hundred and twenty polos and nobody can say whose fault it was.
The rule worth carrying: approve the sew-out, not just the mockup, and ask who keeps the stitch file before you place the order rather than before your next one.
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Frequently asked questions
What file format do I need to send for embroidery in the Philippines? A vector file — AI, EPS, SVG, or a PDF with live vector artwork inside it. Vector artwork is drawn as shapes and can be scaled to any size without losing edge quality, which matters because your logo will be rebuilt at a specific stitch size. A high-resolution PNG can be worked from, but it has to be redrawn first, and redrawing is an interpretation of your logo rather than a copy of it.
What can I do if I only have a JPEG of my logo? It is workable and it is extremely common. Look first for the original in three places: an old letterhead or brochure PDF, whoever made your signage or tarpaulins, and the email thread with whoever designed it. If none of those turn it up, the logo gets redrawn as vector artwork — ask your supplier whether they charge for that, because some do and some do not.
What is logo digitizing and do I have to pay for it? Digitizing is rebuilding your logo as an embroidery stitch file: someone decides every stitch path, direction, and density, then tests it on the actual fabric. It is skilled work and most of the Philippine industry bills it per design. It is worth asking each supplier directly, because it is a one-time charge that does not appear on a per-piece quote and therefore weighs most on smaller orders.
Why does my logo look different when it is embroidered? Because embroidery rebuilds the design in thread instead of reproducing it in ink. Gradients become flat blocks of colour, hairline rules disappear under a single stitch width, and small text fills in as the thread crowds. None of this is a mistake — it is what a needle does. Well-prepared artwork anticipates it, usually with a simplified variant of the logo kept specifically for stitching.
How small can an embroidered logo be before the text stops being readable? As a working rule, letters below about 5mm tall begin to lose their counters — the enclosed spaces in letters like a, e, and o fill with thread. A standard left-chest logo is roughly 3 inches wide, and a tagline set under a wordmark at that width is usually the first casualty. If the tagline matters, either enlarge the whole mark or drop the tagline for the stitched version.
Do I need a Pantone code, or is a hex code enough? Send both if you have them, and expect neither to be exact. A hex code describes light on a screen; a Pantone code describes ink on paper; thread and dyed fabric are two more systems again. The codes get your supplier to the right neighbourhood, and a physical match against a thread card or fabric swatch closes the gap. Describing a colour in words closes nothing.
Should I approve a sew-out before the full production run? Yes, whenever the design has fine detail, small text, or a colour you care about precisely. A sew-out is the logo actually stitched on the actual fabric, and it is the only place where a digitizing problem is cheap to fix. Approving a digital mockup confirms the layout; approving a sew-out confirms the result. They are not the same approval.
Continue your research
Get the rest of the brief right:
- How to brief a uniform supplier — the eight elements a complete brief contains, of which artwork is one.
- How to compare uniform quotations — where setup and digitizing charges hide, and how to bring several quotes onto one basis.
- Custom uniform production timeline — why the clock starts at artwork approval, and what the sew-out costs you in days.
Choose what the artwork is going onto:
- Embroidery, DTF, and sublimation compared — the three methods, and why each reads your file differently.
- Fabric options for Philippine conditions — why fabric weight decides how much stitching a garment can carry.
- Corporate polo shirts: a complete buying guide — where backing and pull compensation show up on a finished garment.
Keep your files, and your colours, across years:
- Corporate uniform best practices — running a program where the artwork, colour, and fit survive a change of staff.
- School and institutional uniform sourcing — why the digitized seal is the institution's asset, whoever paid to create it.
- Quality control before you accept delivery — checking the stitched result against the sample you approved.
Buying for a specific occasion:
- Rotary installation polos — club logos, official colours, and a date that does not move.
- Tournament jerseys — names, numbers, and sponsor marks laid out at garment scale.
A logo is an idea until somebody has to make it out of thread. The organisations whose uniforms look right year after year are rarely the ones with the best design — they are the ones who kept the file, wrote down the colour, and asked what it would look like at three inches before anyone started sewing.