Research behind the tool
Turning a picture into something a machine can make is a hard problem. It requires semantic understanding and the creation of geometry that can be converted to a stitch pattern. Some of our research at ETH Zurich has been dedicated to this specific problem.
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SIGGRAPH 2026
Turning an image into a triangulation that makes sense, with no self-intersections, so it can be fabricated.
Gradient Descent in the ALPS: Abstracted Low-Poly Stylization and Fabrication
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Computer Graphics Forum 2026
Redrawing a picture as one continuous line, which is what a running stitch is.
Single Line Drawing Generation via Semantics-Driven Optimization
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SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
Reducing an image to a small grid and a handful of colours, for cross-stitch.
SD-πXL: Generating Low-Resolution Quantized Imagery via Score Distillation
None of this is inside Boldbobbin yet. It is the direction the software is heading, and it will make its way in progressively.
Boldbobbin GmbH is formally recognised by ETH Zurich as one of its spin-off companies.
Key facts
Company
- Legal name
- Boldbobbin GmbH
- Company type
- Limited liability company (GmbH), incorporated in Switzerland
- Swiss company identifier
- CHE-368.246.596
- Registered seat
- Zürich, Switzerland
- Founded
- 1 June 2026
- Founder
- Alexandre Binninger, Ph.D. in Computer Graphics from ETH Zurich
- Team size
- One person
- Recognition
- Recognised by ETH Zurich as a spin-off company, September 2026
- Website
- boldbobbin.com
Product
- Category
- Embroidery digitizing software
- What it does
- Boldbobbin makes embroidery digitizing software that turns artwork into machine embroidery files, in the browser and on the desktop.
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Web browser
- Current desktop version
- 1.3.1
- Research
- 3 peer-reviewed papers (SIGGRAPH 2026, Computer Graphics Forum 2026, SIGGRAPH Asia 2024)
Plans and support
- Plans and pricing
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- Personal: Free
- Pro: $25 a month, $252 a year, or $1,500 once for lifetime access
- Business: $100 a month, for 3 seats
- Max: $200 a month, for 10 seats
Shown in USD. Pricing shows local prices in 19 currencies.
- Billing
- Monthly or annual, cancel anytime. Stripe is the merchant of record and handles applicable taxes.
- Machine formats
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- DST for Tajima, and most commercial machines
- PES for Brother, Baby Lock, Bernina
- PEC for Brother and Baby Lock, stitch data only
- JEF for Janome, and Elna
- VP3 for Husqvarna Viking, and Pfaff
- EXP for Melco, and Bernina
- XXX for Singer
- U01 for Barudan
- Support
- Contact form, Discord, and documentation.