Machine format · JEF
JEF embroidery files for Janome machines.
JEF is Janome’s embroidery format, with Janome’s thread numbers inside. Make a JEF from any logo with Motifab, checked against the artwork before it is saved.
No card, nothing charged when it ends · then €149 a year
Founding price: €99 your first year, then €149 a year for as long as you stay subscribed. Ends 31 January 2027.
What is a JEF file?
JEF is Janome’s embroidery format, the file Janome’s machines read, the 7-needle MB-7 among them. It keeps Janome’s own colour number for each thread with the needle points, jumps and colour changes. Motifab writes it for Janome machines and reads every file back before it is saved.
- Motifab’s Janome profile follows the MB-7: 7 needles and three hoops, M1 24 × 20 cm, M2 12.6 × 11 cm and M3 5 × 5 cm, each with the field Janome publishes.
- SEW, Janome’s older format, opens in Motifab; JEF is what it writes.
How to make a JEF file from a logo
Open the logo
PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, PDF or AI. Motifab grades the file first: Good file, OK file or Poor file, with the reason.
Pick the machine
Choose Janome in the machine chip, and Motifab uses its needles and hoops. JEF is the machine’s own file there, or one click away under Export.
Set the size, garment and colours
Left chest, cap front, sleeve, full back or your own size in millimetres; ten garments, each with its own underlay, density and pull compensation.
Digitize and check
The Auto Digitizer makes the stitches. Quality scores them against the artwork out of 100, and Fix all corrects what is safe to correct.
Export JEF
Motifab writes the file, reads it back and compares every needle point with the screen. A file that doesn’t match is never saved, and the old one stays.
Convert PES to JEF
Open the PES file, or one in any of the 40 formats Motifab opens: it opens stitched as the file has it, to recolour, move or add a name to. Export writes the JEF and checks it like any other file. A machine file has no shapes to stitch again, so resizing it by more than 10 % changes its density: for a new size, digitize from the logo.
What Motifab compares before a JEF is saved
- Every needle point, each within 0.06 mm of the screen
- Every thread change and needle
- Every trim and stop
- The header the machine reads: stitch count, colours, extents and label
- The thread names, where the format keeps them
Machines Motifab writes JEF for
Also read by
The models named read JEF, as their makers’ own pages say; the maker pages list more, with sources.
Questions
- What is a JEF file?
- Janome’s embroidery format: the needle points, jumps and colour changes, with Janome’s colour number for each thread. Janome machines read it.
- How large can a JEF design be?
- Motifab notes when a design passes JEF’s 200 × 200 mm limit, so you know before the machine does.
- Can I convert a PES to JEF?
- Yes. Open the PES in Motifab: it opens stitched as the file has it. Export JEF, and Motifab writes it and reads it back.
The other formats Motifab writes
Your next JEF file, made and checked in Motifab.
Open a customer’s logo, export the JEF for your Janome and embroider it within the 15 free days, with export included and no card. Every file is read back before it is saved, and every file you make is yours.
No card, nothing charged when it ends · then €149 a year
Founding price: €99 your first year, then €149 a year for as long as you stay subscribed. Ends 31 January 2027.
- No card needed
- Download Motifab and sign in with your e-mail. Nothing is charged when the 15 days end.
- Export included
- Embroider Motifab’s files on your own machine before you pay; the files you make stay yours. The trial has 300 AI credits.
- Mac and Windows
- A Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 13 Ventura or later, or a PC with Windows 10 (64-bit) or later.