Opening files

How to open a DST file on Android

.dst is Tajima's format, and it is the lingua franca of machine embroidery: almost every commercial machine reads it, so almost every seller ships it.

Why DST turns up everywhere

DST is old, simple and universal. Each stitch is stored as a tiny relative movement — never more than 121 units, about 12 mm, in one step — plus a handful of commands for colour change, jump and end. That simplicity is exactly why commercial machines from different makers all accept it, and why designers hand it out as the safe default.

Opening one on a phone

Unzip the download if it arrived as an archive.
Install an app that reads DST — Hoopside does, free.
Choose the file in the app, or send it there with Open with.

Why your DST design has no colours

This surprises people, so it is worth being plain: a DST file usually stores no colour information at all. It records where the needle goes and when to stop for a thread change — not what thread to put in. Any colours you see when you open a DST have been chosen by the software showing it, not read out of the file.

What that means in practice

The colour blocks in a DST are real and the number of thread changes is real. The specific colours are a stand-in. If an app shows you a DST with confident thread names and catalogue numbers, treat them as a guess dressed up as a fact.

Hoopside gives each block a distinct colour so you can tell the blocks apart, and labels them honestly — it will not print a catalogue number the file never carried.

DST, PES or JEF: which do you need?

Machine	Format	Notes
Brother, Babylock	PES	Also reads PEC
Janome	JEF	MC series
Husqvarna, Pfaff	VP3
Melco, Bernina	EXP
Singer	XXX
Most commercial	DST	The universal fallback

If you bought a DST and own a home machine, you will need to convert it — see how to convert a DST to PES properly.

How DST stores a stitch, and why it matters to you

Each DST record is three bytes describing a move relative to the last position, capped at 121 units in any direction — roughly 12 mm. Anything longer has to be broken into several records.

That cap is the reason a conversion has to be a real conversion. A design made for VP3, where a single command may travel 255 units, can contain individual stitches that no single DST command can express. Software that ignores this either fails or quietly writes a shorter stitch, and a shortened stitch is a design that stitches wrongly.

Colour stops still work, even without colours

It is worth separating two things that sound the same. A DST records colour changes — the instruction to stop and let the operator rethread — but not colours. So a five-colour design in DST still stops five times in the right places; it simply does not say what to put in.

In practice that means your job with a DST is to decide the palette yourself, and to write it down before you start. Count the stops, pick your threads, note which spool goes with which stop number, and keep that note beside the machine.

Extended DST

Some software writes an "extended" DST that adds colour information in a way standard DST readers ignore. It is not part of the original specification, support varies, and you should not count on a machine honouring it. Treat any colour you see in a DST as a suggestion until you have checked it against the design's own preview.

Before you take a DST to the machine

Check the real size against your hoop, in millimetres.
Count the colour stops and lay out that many spools.
Look at where the jumps are, so the trimming afterwards is not a surprise.
If your machine wants PES, JEF, VP3, EXP or XXX, convert the file rather than renaming it.

How to convert a DST to PES — and why renaming the file fails — What a real format conversion does to the stitches, and why changing the extension produces a file the machine refuses.
Embroidery file formats explained — Which machine reads which format, what each one stores, and which of them carry colour at all.
Stitch count, size and hoop fit: reading a design before you stitch — What the numbers on a design mean, and which ones decide whether it is worth starting.

Open a DST design and see its real figures

Hoopside opens PES, DST, JEF, EXP, VP3, XXX and PEC designs on Android and shows each one the way it will stitch — real size, stitch count, numbered colour stops and the thread list. Viewing is free, with no ads and no account, and nothing leaves your phone.