DST, PES, EXP? Embroidery File Formats Explained

Embroidery machines speak different languages. Here is a quick guide to the most common file formats you will encounter.

DST (Tajima)

The industry standard. It stores stitch commands (move, trim, stop) but not color information. It works on almost all commercial machines (Tajima, Barudan, SWF, Happy).

PES (Brother)

Very common for home embroidery machines like Brother, Babylock, and Deco. Unlike DST, it saves color information, so your machine knows which thread to ask for.

EXP (Melco/Bernina)

Used by Melco commercial machines and Bernina home machines. It is a simple and reliable format.

JEF (Janome)

The standard for Janome machines. Known for having strict hoop size limits encoded in the file.