I tried to use the Brother software that the previous owner used and found it to be cumbersome and limiting.
Any software written from a company that also makes the machines is going to be more focused on their machines then they are anything else. It's not as limiting as you would think though. It does require that you know a little bit more in order to "workaround" a few thing, but you can actually do effects that would have required the higher priced modules from 3rd party software to do.
If the lower level programs give you enough tools to work with, you can do a lot of advanced digitizing with those less expensive programs, however, you do have have to think ahead and do it without the automation (which in my mind, people should learn to do first).
I agree whole heartedly though with the cumbersome part. That does take a lot of getting used to. 2 tools to do what some software have as one tool (right or left mouse click is how you get the different action from the single tool) etc.
Tried out several othersoftware packages and found them to be very difficult to learn and/or RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE.
There is a reason for that. Trust me, I have a small fortune invested in digitizing software over the years and have used everything from open source (I'm a huge Linux user here myself (some are probably rolling their eyes and tired of reading that out of me by now) to the full version of Wilcom (which is what I use currently as my main software). If you play the trade in - trade up game or wait for the discounts (which are quite a huge) you don't have to pay what they list for.
Then I came across Embird. It is sold in modules. I bought the basic program ($165) and the design Studio (digitizing) module ($150). Later, I added the font conversion program ($145) but I started out by buying their pre-digitized alphabets (which cost $15 each and work with the Studio module). They have a Sfumato module which digitizes photos and a cross-stitch module. (I haven't used either of these yet.)
Photorealism digitizing should be done manually and done to the size that you need it for. Every single module that tried to automate that process has yielded less then desirable results, if known how to do it manually. Some are better then others, but none are perfect. Post conversion cleanup is often worse then just flat out digitizing it from the start.
DrawStitch (people that make the Creative DRAWings (home) and Wings Module (commercial) software has the best auto conversion TTF/OTF to stitch, however, I'm old school and it's best to use the semi auto digitizing tools.
Now with regard to the "pre-digitized alphabets", this is probably going to show my digitizing age here. Fonts v. Alphabets with regard to embroidery. If you can use your keyboard and make changes on the fly, it's a font. If you have an embroidery file (DST etc) that just happens to look like a letter(s), then that's an alphabet. It drives me up the wall reading Monogram Wizards site all the time when they use those 2 terms interchangeable. They might be interchangeable by how people use the terms now, but they shouldn't be.
They also have nice tutorials for free and a free forum.The other thing I did was to buy the book "Digitizing Made Easy" by John Deere. He is considered an expert digitizer and the book was very informative but an easy read.
That was right when John Deer made the jump from digitizing for the commercial operations to doing Adorable Ideas and doing more the classes for the home users. Not much difference in digitizing theory, just less focus on production digitizing. I have the old videos from the 90s to early 2000s that he did with Steve Wilson, very different in approach between pre Adorable Ideas and post Adorable Ideas.
The problem with buying online embroidery designs is that you need to know whether they were digitized for HOME SEW embroidery machines or COMMERCIAL embroidery machines. Designs for home sew machines have stitching that is a lot less dense as compared to commercial machine designs.
That's not quite true. I've never known a home machine that couldn't take commercially digitized file, even the cheap walmart special ones, unless the only version of it was in a DST file.
If a file is overly dense for what it is, it's probably not going to be good for any machine. Some machines with higher tolerances, might be able to handle it (most of the time that is commercial machines), but no digitizer that knows what they are doing (and I've been a digitizer for a looooonnnnngggg time and started when I was really young) will consciously digitize a heavier stitch file for commercial machines and a less dense one for home machines (if they placate to both markets). A well made file will work on both without issue, if not a well made file, no bueno no matter what machine it goes on. I have seen cheap files ruin machines (even commercial ones), so be careful when going on price alone.
Now, some differences you do have among home machines versus commercial are some don't have the wide availability to tweak tension settings (some can't tweak them at all) and satin stitch widths also seem to be less then commercial machines on your mid to lower end home machines. Both of these vary by brand as well though.
Tension settings, or lack thereof, would make it harder for a home machine to compensate for an overlay dense design, but if you are creating a file that is going to have layering of what could be dense stitching, you vary your density settings or what stitch tools you use. Which is what you should do, rather or not you it's going on a commercial or home machine. I've attached a file that I digitized based on one of my pictures, not only is fairly heavy in stitches, but also small and that file has also worked on home machines. Although not fun to do, because of the extensive color changes (and that's where a file like this might get a home embroidery machine user not to get it, that doesn't have anything to do with rather a pattern is stitch heavy or not). That's actually an issue with going over the normal 15 colors that most commercial machines can do as well. Not fun having to set those up, remember what needle gets what after the stop function is used, but I've done 23 colors on a 15 needle (well technically 14, because one needle has a sequin pressure foot and that's not really good for regular embroidery, it can be done, just doesn't look good) and it's just about as "fun" as doing it on a home machine.
just send stuff out for digitizing until you have enough practice to do it yourself. Start with text only, then start using stock designs and just add text to them and work your way into the more complex stuff. Hope this info is of some help to you. Feel free to contact me if I can help further. (And NO I don't work for or get any compensation from any of the companies mentioned, they are just my own personal preferences.)
I agree to start with text, but I'll add to that by not using the lettering module. I believe in using the semi-manual to manual tools first.
Start with lettering and how to break down each individual component of a letter. Different sizes require you to break down (or not break down) depending on the font.
Do outsource your digitizing from a quality source, but also watch how it stitches. Watch the path that it takes, try to digitize your version of that same logo and work you way on up from there.
Once you know how to use the semi-manual and manual digitizing tools, it will make it a lot easier to know when and how to leverage the auto conversion aspects of software. You don't want to use it all the time. I actually very rarely use it, but it does have it's pros as well. To me, the cheaper software should be all about the old fashioned digitizing tools and as you get more expensive, you get into more of the automation. Unfortunately, it's the reverse that's true.
