I don't have an embroidery program as such. I can manipulate designs within my machine such as combining designs, enlarging, density, etc. so have not purchased that kind of software. I do have photo editors. I can try to see if they will print them out but I really doubt that it is possible. As I see it, my template will be an actual stitch out on scrap, awkward but usable.
Thanks for this question. It's often confusing as a newbie to understand how viewing designs works. A photo editor won't be able to view the pattern.
The lowest cost way to VIEW files is with "SewIconz". It's available at the following website and a picture of what it does is at the bottom of this article. Website = http://sandscomputing.com/page5.html and the program is just $20.
The lowest cost program that will allow you to view, edit, convert, and print out design files is called "Sew What" and is $50. They have a 30-day free trial and you can learn more about the program at this webpage... http://sandscomputing.com/page2.html
The most popular program for editing is called "Embird". It's been around longer than "Sew What" and so many people use it that it's easy to find someone that can answer your questions about how to do something with the software. It's available at http://www.embird.com and costs about $99 for the basic program which is what you would need for viewing and printing out designs. It also has a 30-day free trial offer.
There are two programs available from http://www.BuzzTools.com as well. BuzzTools is $99 and BuzzXplore is $169. Both allow you to see the design but "Xplore" has better cataloging features than BuzzTools.
There are also programs from the various embroidery machine manufacturers. Their programs are available at your local dealer and typically are from $200 to $900. Most of them don't do much more than the $99 programs, but they do support your local dealer and machine manufacturer.
The $900 program I am referring to is for owners of Bernina Artista machines. Their format (ART) is proprietary, meaning the Bernina company won't allow other software makers to sell software that converts to the ART format. So if you have a Bernina Artista and want to convert designs from other formats to the ART format, your only choice is THEIR software.
I recommend that you download a free trial copy of SewWhat and use it a lot for 30 days to see if you like it. Then download a copy of Embird and use it a lot for 30 days. Then download a 21-day free trial of BuzzTools. Then a 21 day trial of BuzzXplore. After you've tried the programs out to see which one you like best, buy it. If you're going to be in the machine embroidery hobby then having good software is a necessity.
