Thread brands and matching

Embroidery thread comes in brands and lines. Each has its own colour names and codes. Lilo has a catalogue of tens of thousands of real thread colours across many brands.

How matching works#

Pictures have millions of colours. Thread has a few hundred per brand. When Lilo digitizes a picture, it finds the nearest real thread for each colour in the picture. It compares them the way the eye does, using a colour difference measure called CIEDE2000.

Choose a brand#

Before you digitize, use Thread brand in the Auto digitize panel. Pick the range you own or can buy. The number in brackets is how many colours it holds.

Change a colour afterwards#

1. Select a shape.
2. In the left panel, open Colour.
3. Search or browse the picker, then click a thread.

The picker lists the Brother, Country and Brothread ranges first. Every change is one undo step.

Swap or merge colours#

Open the Colours tab in the sequencer on the right.

• Swap replaces a thread with another everywhere it is used.
• Merge into folds one colour into another. Use it to cut down colour changes.
• Select selects every object in that colour.
• Group by colour reorders objects so each colour is sewn in one go.

Read Fewer colour changes.

Your own spools#

My Threads keeps the spools you own. Tick Use my threads in Auto digitize to match to them first. Read My Threads.

Colours in the machine file#

Some file formats keep thread colours (PES, JEF, VP3, XXX). Others do not (DST, EXP, U01). Without colours, your machine shows "colour 1, colour 2". Read File formats.

Colours on screen are close, not exact#

Screens cannot show thread exactly. A thread chart or the real spool is the final judge. Many brands have printed or online charts.