Free online PES to CSV converter

Source format: PES

PES is a machine embroidery design format used mainly by Brother and Babylock embroidery machines and software. It stores stitch data, colors, and design information needed to sew a pattern automatically. PES files are commonly used by embroidery hobbyists, digitizers, and small businesses that create logos, monograms, patches, and decorative stitch designs.

PES is not a general-purpose document format. It is specialized for embroidery workflows, where the file is interpreted by embroidery software or transferred directly to a compatible machine.

Target format: CSV

CSV stands for comma-separated values. It is a plain-text table format used to store rows and columns of data in a simple, widely compatible way. CSV files are commonly opened in spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, and Google Sheets, as well as imported into databases, reporting tools, and scripting environments.

The main advantage of CSV is its simplicity and compatibility. It is easy to read, edit, and exchange between systems. However, CSV cannot preserve embroidery stitches, thread colors, or design geometry in a usable embroidery form.

How to perform the conversion

Converting PES to CSV is usually not a standard embroidery workflow, because these formats serve very different purposes. A PES file contains embroidery instructions, while CSV is a tabular data format. In practice, a conversion to CSV is only meaningful if you want to extract design metadata such as stitch counts, color changes, dimensions, or object lists into a spreadsheet-friendly table.

If your goal is to inspect or catalog PES files, the easiest option is to use the built-in converter on 101convert.com, where you can convert the file online for free without installing any software. Upload the PES file, choose CSV as the output format, and download the resulting file.

For desktop workflows, use embroidery software that can read PES and export design information, or a script/tool that parses PES metadata and writes it to CSV. The exact steps depend on the software, but the general process is:

1. Open the PES file in compatible embroidery software or a PES inspection tool.
2. Check whether the program can export design statistics, stitch lists, or object data.
3. Choose File → Export or File → Save As, then select CSV if available.
4. Save the exported file and open it in a spreadsheet application to verify the columns and values.

If the software does not offer CSV export, you may need a specialized converter or a custom script. In that case, the conversion is not a true format translation of the embroidery design itself, but rather an extraction of data from the PES file into tabular form.

Notes on quality, compatibility, or limitations

PES to CSV is not a lossless conversion of the embroidery design. CSV cannot store stitch paths, needle movements, or machine-readable embroidery instructions in a way that can be sewn back out as a PES file. Instead, it can only hold extracted information in rows and columns.

Compatibility depends on what the CSV contains. A CSV exported from one embroidery program may use different column names, delimiters, or decimal separators than another program expects. If you plan to open the file in Excel or Calc, verify that the delimiter is correct and that special characters are preserved.

If your real goal is to use the embroidery design on a machine, keep the original PES file or convert it to another embroidery format such as DST, EXP, or JEF instead of CSV. Use CSV only when you need a spreadsheet-readable summary or inventory record of the design.