What Is a DST File? The Complete Guide to Tajima Embroidery Format

What Is a DST File?

A DST file (Data Stitch Tajima) is the industry-standard embroidery machine file format, originally developed by Tajima Industries in Japan. It is the most widely supported embroidery format in the world — virtually every commercial embroidery machine can read it.

DST files encode a complete set of needle movement instructions as a sequence of binary records. Each 3-byte record describes a relative X/Y displacement and a command flag (normal stitch, jump stitch, color change, or end of design).

The DST File Structure

A DST file has two sections:

1. The 512-byte ASCII header

The header contains human-readable metadata:

LA: — Design name (up to 12 characters)

ST: — Total stitch count

CO: — Number of color changes

+X: / -X: / +Y: / -Y: — Design extents in 0.1mm units

AX: / AY: — Absolute end position

PD: — Peripheral device code

2. Stitch records (3 bytes each)

Each stitch record encodes:

A delta X movement (-121mm to +121mm in 0.1mm steps)

A delta Y movement (-121mm to +121mm in 0.1mm steps)

A command type (stitch, jump, color change, end)

The end of the file is marked by the sequence 0x00 0x00 0xF3.

Why Is DST So Dominant?

DST's dominance comes from its age and simplicity. Tajima introduced the format in the 1980s and it spread because Tajima machines were (and remain) the gold standard for commercial multi-needle embroidery. By the time competing formats emerged, DST was already embedded in every factory workflow.

Today, Tajima, Ricoma, Barudan, Happy, SWF, and Melco machines all read DST natively. Most embroidery software can export it. If you only output one format, it should be DST.

DST Limitations

DST's simplicity is also its weakness:

No thread color information — color changes are recorded as events, but the actual thread color is defined on the machine, not in the file

Coordinate precision is limited to 0.1mm

Maximum design area is constrained by the 3-byte record size

No support for advanced features like appliqué commands or presser foot height

For these reasons, machine-specific formats like PES (Brother) and JEF (Janome) were developed — they carry richer metadata. But for raw compatibility, DST remains unbeaten.

How to Open a DST File

To preview a DST file on your computer, you can use:

Wilcom TrueSizer (free viewer)

Embird (trial available)

SewArt (free limited version)

Ink/Stitch (free, Inkscape plugin)

To open it on your machine, transfer it to a USB drive formatted as FAT32 and load it through the machine's file manager.

Converting Images to DST

The fastest way to get a DST file from a PNG, JPG, or SVG is to use image2embroidery.com — our free browser-based converter that generates authentic Tajima DST binary output with no software installation required.

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