Introduction

The Embroidermodder 2 project is a collection of small software utilities for manipulating, converting and creating embroidery files in all major embroidery machine formats. The program Embroidermodder 2 itself is a larger graphical user interface (GUI) which is at the heart of the project.

This manual, the website (libembroidery.org), mobile embroidery format viewers and tools (iMobileViewer, MobileViewer), the core library of functions (libembroidery) and CLI (needle) are all tools to make the standard user experience of working with an embroidery machine better without expensive software which is locked to specific manufacturers and formats. But ultimately we hope that the core textit{Embroidermodder 2} is a practical, ever-present tool in larger workshops, small cottage industry workshops and personal hobbyist’s bedrooms.

Embroidermodder 2 is licensed under the zlib license and we aim to keep all of our tools open source and free of charge. If you would like to support the project check out our Open Collective group. If you would like to help, please join us on GitHub. This document is written as developer training as well helping new users (see the last sections) so this is the place to learn how to start changing the code.

The Embroidermodder Project and Team

The tools and associated documents are:

  1. The website https://www.libembroidery.org

  2. This reference manual covering the development of all these projects with the current, printable version available here: https://www.libembroidery.org/emrm_current.pdf

  3. The GUI Embroidermodder 2 covered in Chapter~ref{GUI}.

  4. The core library of low-level functions: libembroidery, covered in Chapter~ref{libembroidery}

  5. The CLI embroider, which is part of libembroidery

  6. Mobile embroidery format viewers and tools convered in Chapter~ref{Mobile}.

  7. Specs for an open source hardware embroidery machine extension called the Portable Embroidery Tool (PET) which is also part of libembroidery. See Chapter~ref{PET}.

The website, this manual and some scripts to construct the distribution are maintained in %citep{thewebsite}.

They all tools to make the standard user experience of working with an embroidery machine better without expensive software which is locked to specific manufacturers and formats. But ultimately we hope that the core Embroidermodder 2 is a practical, ever-present tool in larger workshops, small cottage industry workshops and personal hobbyist’s bedrooms.

Embroidermodder 2 is licensed under the zlib license and we aim to keep all of our tools open source and free of charge. If you would like to support the project check out our Open Collective (https://opencollective.com/embroidermodder) group. If you would like to help, please join us on GitHub. This document is written as developer training as well helping new users (see the last sections) so this is the place to learn how to start changing the code.

The Embroidermodder Team is the collection of people who’ve submitted patches, artwork and documentation to our three projects. The team was established by Jonathan Greig and Josh Varga. The full list is actively maintained below.

Core Development Team

Embroidermodder 2:

  1. Jonathan Greig (https://github.com/redteam316)

  2. Josh Varga (https://github.com/JoshVarga)

  3. Robin Swift (https://github.com/robin-swift)

Embroidermodder 1:

  1. Josh Varga (https://github.com/JoshVarga)

  2. Mark Pontius (http://sourceforge.net/u/mpontius/profile)