PE “Lite”

For quite some while now, I’ve recieved email upon email asking me about Brother’s latest software: PE Lite. The software is a “baby” version of the full blown PE Design software. As I do not use PED for anything but a few things now and then I turned to a good friend and the absolute guru of PEDesign…Carol Price. Carol has been teaching the software for a long while now and her tutorials are extremely well thought out and understandable…even for the newbies who have no idea of the “lingo” used in the ME world.

Well…so ofcourse I turned to Carol to explain me the finer points of the new software. What can I say about the lady..she is quite ahead of me everytime…LOL. I returned home to find her extremely lengthy email explaining the ins and outs of the software as well as a copy of her newly created tutorial on PE Lite. Wow is all I can say after viewing the tutorial cd. The software is not the complete version of PE Design but rather it is intended for those who want to dabble in creating their embroidery designs without spending a fortune on software. Here are a few comparisons of the software to PED.

• The software only caters to the 4×4 and the 5×7 hoop. One cannot save a design larger than that area…well, you can if you want to create a split design but only two hoop sizes are given.
• One can import files of all ME formats except ART but one can only export or save in PES format.
• Unlike the full version, only one application is given to create designs. There is no Design center or Programmable fills etc.
• Built in fonts- 35. One can only use these to create lettering. Unlike the full version, one cannot convert the lettering to appliques etc, just what the software creates.
• Saved designs can only be opened in PE Lite or PED version 7. Older versions cannot read the file. 
• Auto punch is the only way to create designs, no digitizing tools like in PED.
• Only options of fill or satin to objects. As programmable fill option is not available, the setting is basic.

The question is why would someone purchase PE Lite? Well, I can see many friends who want to digitize for family and friends and would rather first take a much less expensive method of doing it. PE Lite offers that capability but looking at Carol’s tutorial…well, lets just say one can do a lot more following her lead. I started my career with PED and although it is still a wonderful and excellent software, I opted for Embird Studio. In my personal opinion, it is one of the most stable stitch generator software next to Masterworks (ooops….I did not say that now did I…Dusan did you hear that? LOL). Btw, while at Carol’s site, do have a look at her other tutorials for PE Design. They are all excellent.