Brother MacBroidery„ Embroidery Lettering Software for... User manual

MacBroidery™
Embroidery Lettering Software
for Mac
Instruction Manual

ii MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Copyright
© Copyright 2012 Pulse Microsystems Ltd. All rights reserved.
This instruction manual and software are copyrighted by the
developer of the software, Pulse Microsystems Ltd. All rights
reserved. US Patent Nos. 5 270 939; 5 343 401; 5 430 658; 5 506
784; 5 510 994; 5 541 847; 5 668 730; 5 771 173; 5 809 921; 6 196
146; 6 216 618; 6 390 005; 6 968 255. European Patent Nos.
0545773. Other patents pending.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
The software described in this document is furnished under a license
agreement and/or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be
used or copied only in accordance with the terms of those
agreements. No part of this publication and the software may be
copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any
electronic medium or machine-readable form without the
manufacturer’s written permission.
Apple®, Macintosh®, Mac OSX Leopard® Mac OSX Lion® and Mac
OSX Mountain Lion® are all registered trademarks of Apple
Corporation.
Commercial or industrial use of trademark and copyrighted works
(For example, books, paintings, drawings, photos, fanciful
characters, and so forth) owned by other companies or persons, for
creation of embroidery patterns without permission is illegal and may
result in either criminal or civil liability.

Table of Contents
Learning about the Workspace...........................................3
Parts of the Workspace ...................................................................4
Templates Window ...................................................................5
Toolbar Buttons ........................................................................6
Customizing the Toolbar...........................................................7
Tabs.................................................................................................8
Properties Tab ..........................................................................8
Edit Tab ..................................................................................10
Garments Tab......................................................................... 11
Object List ..............................................................................12
Redraw Bar ............................................................................13
Workspace Viewing tools...............................................................14
Pan Tool .................................................................................14
Zoom Tool...............................................................................14
Fit to Screen...........................................................................14
View Actual Size.....................................................................15
Grid Tool.................................................................................15
View in 3D ..............................................................................15
Garment Preview....................................................................15
Printing a Design....................................................................15
Status Line..............................................................................16
Preferences ...................................................................................17
Recipe Setting........................................................................18
Machine Format Setting.........................................................19
Selecting the Hoop.................................................................19
Creating a Custom Hoop........................................................20
Units of Measurement ............................................................21
Background Settings .....................................................................22
Changing the Background Color ............................................22
Changing the Background to a Fabric Sample.......................23
Creating your own Background from a Scanned
Image .....................................................................................24
Grid Settings..................................................................................25

2MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Creating and Editing New Designs...................................27
Creating New Designs...................................................................28
Creating a Design from a Template........................................28
Opening from a File................................................................30
Saving Designs..............................................................................30
Text and Design Tools on the Toolbar............................................32
Add New Text .........................................................................32
Adding Embroidery Designs...................................................33
Properties Tab - an Overview ........................................................36
Properties of Text Segments..........................................................37
Envelope Shapes ...................................................................37
Font ........................................................................................38
Available Characters ..............................................................38
Height.....................................................................................39
Text Spacing...........................................................................39
Sewing Order .........................................................................39
Choosing a Fill Pattern...........................................................39
Density Setting .......................................................................40
Adding Slant to Text ...............................................................40
Pull Compensation .................................................................41
Drop Caps ..............................................................................41
Color Change .........................................................................42
Kerning Text Segments ..........................................................43
Adding Color Changes within Text Segments ........................44
Changing a Design.................................................................46
Functions of the Edit Tab...............................................................47
Align Tools..............................................................................47
Resizing in the Edit Tab..........................................................48
Edit and Arrange Tools...........................................................49
Index....................................................................................51

Before you start using the MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering
Software, we recommend that you learn the basic arrangement of
the design workspace.
This section covers:
• The different parts of the workspace environment.
• An introduction to the functions each of the tabs, and what tools
each one features.
• Setting design preferences.
• Configuring the toolbars.
CHAPTER 1:
Learning about the Workspace

4MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Parts of the Workspace
The MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software workspace
contains a number of different areas which have distinct functions.
The sections that follow give an overview of what each of these areas
does, and the kinds of information about the design that they contain.
There is also a guide to each of the tools in the toolbar, explaining the
basic function of each; for more specific details on these tools,
however, please refer to the next chapter, “Creating and Editing New
Designs.”
The MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software workspace
For information on customer support and software updates, please
see “Updating your Software” in the Installation Guide.
Please be sure to register the software with Brother support;
registration ensures that you will receive notification about software
updates. For more information, see “Registering the Software” in the
Installation Guide.

Learning about the Workspace 5
Templates Window
Use the templates to set up new designs. Templates are displayed in a
separate window each time you open MacBroidery™ Embroidery
Lettering Software; you can also open this window by selecting the
New design button.
The templates window
The templates contain a generic text string or strings, plus (depending
on the specific template) a placeholder design. There is a wide variety
of different arrangements of templates that can be selected to base the
design on. For more information on modifying the text or other
elements of a template, please refer to the “Design Editing” section of
this manual.

6MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Toolbar Buttons
The MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software toolbar is located
at the top of the design window. It contains a number of useful tools
that apply to the workspace as a whole.
Tool What it does
New: Click New to open the template dialog design in the
workspace.
Open Design: Displays an “Open” dialog box, which allows to open
a new design.
Save: Saves a the current design to disk
Reset Template: If you load a Template into the workspace and
modify it, this button will restore it to its original configuration.
Add new text: Automatically places a new, default text segment
into the current design. Change the content, font, and other
properties of this text using the settings on the Properties tab.
Add Design: Use to add pre-existing design (e.g. Accents,
Borders, or appliqués) or browse for embroidery files to add to the
current design.
Select: Selects objects in the design window.
Zoom: Used to increase and decrease the scale of the design in
the workspace.
Pan: Allows you to move the design around in the workspace.
Fit to Screen: Scales the current design, up or down, so that it
completely fills the design window.
Actual Size: Zooms the design preview to show the design in its
real linear dimensions.
3D: Displays a three-dimensional preview of the stitches.
Show Grid: Shows and hides the gridlines in the workspace.

Learning about the Workspace 7
Customizing the Toolbar
In MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software, you can customize
the toolbars to contain the tools that you use most often. To open the
Customize panel, select View—Customize from the Menu bar. This will
open a panel with all the tool icons and toolbars displayed on it. Drag
individual tools from the Customize panel onto the toolbar to add them;
or, to remove tools (or groups of tools) from the toolbar, click and drag
them onto the Customize panel.
The Customize panel has another option, allowing you to choose to
display the toolbar icons either as small or large icons; you can also
choose to display the tool icons with the name attached, with no name,
or the name only.
Rulers: Shows and hides the rulers along the top and side of the
workspace window.
Display hoop: Shows an image of the selected hoop in your design
workspace.
Show Garment: Shows and hides a graphic representation of the
garment in the current setup in the workspace.
Background: Open the background tool, which adds a color or
fabric background to the design workspace.
Object list: Toggles the Object list on and off.
Preferences: Opens the preference dialog.
Print: Creates a printable image of the current design, including a
preview of the thread colors used, and the number of stitches.
Choosing large orsmall icons only applies to those tools which appear
individuallyin the Customizedialog, with a name attached, e.g. Select,
3D, Preferences, etc.
Tool What it does

8MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Tabs
The tabs are found on the left side of the workspace. In the tabs, you
will find tools and settings for setting up, editing, and transforming
design objects (lettering and designs). The sections that follow present
a general view of the functions of each tab.
Properties Tab
The Properties tab displays the properties of the currently selected
object. The tab will display different properties depending on whether
the selected object is a design or a text segment. If an embroidery
design object is selected, you can use the “Change” button to swap
out this design object, and put another in the same place.
If the selection is a text object the Properties tab shows a number of
different properties of the text itself - such as its font, color, letter
height, slant, pull-compensation, and so on. You can use the fields to
make changes to these properties; the effect of your changes will be
displayed in the workspace when you click the Apply button.

Learning about the Workspace 9
Properties tab, showing settings available when a text segment is selected.

10 MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Edit Tab
The Edit tab is where you will find the tools that you can use to modify
the design, or individual objects in the design.
Tools in the Edit tab are grouped into categories: the Align tools, Edit
tools, and the Resize tool.
For more information, see “Functions of the Edit Tab.’
Tools on the Edit Tab
Tool What it does
Center: Centers all selected objects in the Workspace.
Horizontal Center: All selected objects are moved so that they are
centered left-to-right with respect to each other, but are not moved
up or down.
Vertical Center: All selected objects are moved so that they are
centered top-to-bottom with respect to each other, but are not
moved left or right.
Align Left: Aligns all selected objects to the left-most item selected.
Align Right: Aligns all selected objects to the right-most item
selected.

Learning about the Workspace 11
Garments Tab
The Garments tab displays a wide variety of garment images, which
you can display in the MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
workspace view. These garments come in various styles (e.g. cap, T-
shirt, jersey, etc.) and colors, and can be used as backgrounds when
previewing designs.
To choose a garment for the Garment preview:
1Select the Garments tab.
Align Top: Aligns all selected objects to the top-most item selected.
Align Bottom: Aligns all selected objects to the bottom-most item
selected.
Rotate Left: Rotates the selected object 90º counter-clockwise.
Rotate Right: Rotates the selected object 90º clockwise.
Flip Horizontally: Flips one or more selected objects horizontally.
Flip Vertically: Flips one or more selected objects vertically.
Send to back: The selected object is moved behind all the other
objects in the design.
Bring to front: The selected object is moved up to the front of the
design.
Center Design in Frame: Moves the entire design, so that it is
centered in the design window.
Delete: Removes the selected design object (text or embroidery
design) completely from the design.
Tool What it does

12 MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
2Click on the desired garment image in the Garment panel.
The selected garment will appear in the design workspace.
Object List
The Object List displays the each individual embroidery segment in the
current design, separated by color. Open the Object list by clicking on
the Object list button on the toolbar.
Each segment is shown in a thumbnail image, along with the its color
(i.e. thread name), and the number of stitches it contains. The
segments are shown in the order of sewing, with the first segment on
the top of the list, and the last segment at the bottom of the list.
On the toolbar, click on the Show Garment button to show and
hide the garment preview in the design workspace

Learning about the Workspace 13
Redraw Bar
The Redraw bar gives you a preview of how the current design will
sew out. It controls which parts of the design will be shown in the
design window.
You can move the slider by dragging the round button, to see a design
as it will look sewn to a particular point; as you drag it from left to right,
more of the design will show in the design workspace.

14 MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
You can navigate through the design using the controls on Redraw bar,
as follows:
Workspace Viewing tools
The viewing tools are located on the Toolbar, which is located along
the top of the of the workspace window. Use these tools to change
your view of the design in the Workspace view.
Pan Tool
Sometimes you may want to work at a high level of magnification; in
these cases, the design may not fit in the workspace. In these
situations, use the Pan tool to change your view of the project.
•To use panning, select the Pan tool, and click and drag the mouse
in the workspace.
Zoom Tool
Use Zoom to magnify or reduce parts of your design. When you select
Zoom, the cursor changes to a small magnifying glass . To use the
Zoom tool, click in the workspace to zoom in, or click and drag to
select the area that you would like to zoom in on.
Fit to Screen
The Fit to screen tool an entire design and fill the maximum size
of the design window.
Press: To do the following:
Right arrow Move forward by one stitch
Left arrow Move back by one stitch
+ sign Move forward by one color
- sign Move backward by one color

Learning about the Workspace 15
View Actual Size
Click the Back to 1:1 tool to have the design appear with its true
measurements: that is, 1 centimeter equals 1 centimeter on-screen.
Back to 1:1 is useful when you have used Zoom and want to go back
and view the design based on its measurements.
Grid Tool
Click the Show Grid tool to display grid lines in the workspace. To
hide the grid lines again, simply press Show Grid again.
View in 3D
The View in 3D tool is used to display a realistic three-dimensional
view of the design’s stitches. To show the 3D preview, click the
tool; to hide the 3D stitches again, press the 3D tool again.
Garment Preview
Use the Show Garment button to show or hide a preview of a
sample garment in the workspace; the garment preview image is
selected from the list of images in the Garments tab.
Printing a Design
If you wish to see a printed version of the design, use the Print
function on the toolbar. This will open up a Print dialog, from which you
can output to any attached or networked printer on your computer.
You can change the spacing of the lines in the grid by way of
the Properties panel; for more information, see “Grid settings.”
You can also use the PDF button on the print dialog to create a portable
document of your design worksheet. This can be a very useful for
sending to customers.

16 MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
In addition to displaying a preview image of the design, the Print-out
also gives you information about each thread used – its color name,
code, the chart it belongs to, plus the number of stitches and
estimated thread length for each.
An example of the thread break-down from a MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering
Software design worksheet
Status Line
Along the bottom of the MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
workspace, you see the status line. The status line gives some useful
information about the current design. For example, the status line
allows you to keep track of the overall stitch count, and the actual size
of the design. This is automatically updated as you make changes to
the design.
The following design information is displayed in the status line:
• Zoom - the percentage magnification of the design in the
workspace
• Dimensions - overall width and height of the design
• Text lines - number of lines of text in the whole design
• Characters - number of characters in all the text segments in the
design
• Designs - number of non-text designs (e.g. Accents, Frames, or
Appliqués) in the overall design
• Stitches - total number of stitches in the whole design

Learning about the Workspace 17
Preferences
Use the Preferences dialog to choose global settings that apply to the
workspace and the current design. You can open the preferences
dialog by selecting the Preferences button on the toolbar.

18 MacBroidery™ Embroidery Lettering Software
Recipe Setting
Recipes contain fabric settings that are applied to the text created in
your design. These settings will vary, depending on the type of fabric,
or type of garment the design will be sewn on. For example, the “Cap”
recipe contains special underlay, pull-compensation, and density
settings appropriate for designs that will be sewn on baseball caps.
You can set the default to a specific recipe through the Preferences
dialog box. The recipe you choose then becomes the default for all
subsequent design files that you create, and the fabric settings of the
selected recipe will be applied to all the lettering your create in the
design.
To choose the recipe:
1Open the Preferences dialog.
2Click the arrows button next to the Recipe field.
You see the list of available recipes.
3Select a Recipe appropriate to the garment or fabric will be sewing
on.
4Click the Apply button.
5Choose the New tool.
The templates dialog opens; you can now create a design based on
the selected recipe.
For more information, see “Creating New Designs.”
For more information about the settings in each recipe, see the Recipe
Information.pdf file.
In order to have the recipe apply to a design, the recipe change must
be applied before selecting the template.