Janome embroidery format and software (.sew/.jan/.jef/.jef+) Which One..?

Janome started its life as the Pine sewing machine company and was founded in Japan in 1921, where it has remained ever since and continues to be the hard, robust and resiliant brand as we all know the Janome brand to stand for, even in times of great difficultly, the company has just soldiered on.

More recently in March 2011 a huge earthquake struck Japan not far from Hachioji where Janome HQ is based. Even though parts of the factory were damaged and deemed as unsafe, the workers carried on through the factory repairs to meet demand and the imminent deadline launch of the latest sewing and embroidery machine the Janome MC12000.

The Janome company might not be the oldest around but it is questionably one of the, if not the most important companies to have ever existed in the sewing industry today..! In 1935 the Pine Sewing Co, reinvented bobbin technology. The circular bobbins used in all machines today are their contribution to the sewing industry and the first step to a versatile zigzag machine. The round bobbin design was so successful that the Pine Company changed their name to "Snake's Eye" to represent the eye like design and what you see today in all modern machines, "Snake's Eye" in Japanese is pronounced (Jan-o-mee) or as we know it "JANOME".

In more recent times the Janome embroidery machine has came on considerably. Janome was the first to introduce home professional embroidery machines, a concept brought about by one Janome worker's fascination with robotic production machines used in their own factory. He thought he could scale down the robotics and squeeze them into a sewing machine to create images, after a conception and development period of 2 years. The Janome Memory Craft 8000 was born in 1990, and popularity has grown ever since.

It didn't stop there. Since the early 90's Janome has produced many machines with ground breaking technology. Here are a few (MC200e, MC300, MC350, MC9000, MC9500, MC9700, MC1000, MC1001, MC11000) and what we have today is a spectacle to behold. The Janome Horizon Memory Craft (MC) 12000 which brings great depth to all sewing enthusiasts, whatever your forte.

The Embroidery system is brand new as is the software. The embroidery arm works on a double bearing axel for much greater precision when embroidering and the larger hoops are magnetised for better control. Janome software too has evolved, from the basic embroidery software such as the Janome Customizer, Janome Digitizer Pro, Janome JR even the Janome MB software.

We now have the Janome MBX software integrated with CorelDRAW digitizing essentials for fantastic drawing capabilities and complete with over 700 clipart images and over 100 true type fonts. What's special about this software is the formats. Designs can be manipulated and changed as much as you like. Saved in multi formats for most machine brands but in particular more versatile with the Janome embroidery machine, which takes the .JEF format.

The MBX software can also be saved in the new .JEF+ and the new .JPX which is a Janome editing file format which uses a .jpeg image to be displayed on the screen whilst positioning the design for improved positioning accuracy on a background fabric image.

Designs are transferable in many different ways via a cd rom for the MC11000. Memory cards for the older machines MC300, MC8000, MC9000, MC9500-9700, USB stick for most modern machines post 2006 eg, MC200, MC350, MC11000, MC12000 and also direct to your PC.

The .JEF format is owned by Janome America Inc and is predominantly recognised with the NH10000 sewing machine.

As for which format to use on the new Janome Memory Craft range...! example
MC200
MC300
MC350
MC9500
MC9700
MC11000 all use .JEF embroidery format.
.SEW design format can be used, although it's an older version and some models with newer internal version software will not work with a .SEW file. Best stick to JEF..!

MC12000 uses the newest .JEF+ file format although usually it is happy using .JEF files.

Older models like the..
MC8000
MC9000 are happy using the oldest .SEW format.

And for reference: .JAN format is only used while creating patterens with Janome software series, this .SEW format can not be read by the machine, it's like the drawn plans to a building, nice to look at, but not usable with-out extra help and in this case the Janome software.