stitch-peek-rs

A Nautilus/GNOME thumbnailer for embroidery files. Browse your embroidery designs in the file manager with automatic thumbnail previews.

Supported formats: PES, DST, EXP, JEF, VP3

Built as two crates:

Crate	Description
rustitch	Library for parsing embroidery files and rendering stitch data to images
stitch-peek	CLI thumbnailer that integrates with GNOME/Nautilus

Installation

From .deb (Debian/Ubuntu)

Download the latest .deb from the Releases page:

sudo dpkg -i stitch-peek_*_amd64.deb

This installs the binary, thumbnailer entry, and MIME type definition. Restart Nautilus to pick up the changes:

nautilus -q

From crates.io

cargo install stitch-peek

Then install the data files:

sudo install -Dm644 data/stitch-peek.thumbnailer /usr/share/thumbnailers/stitch-peek.thumbnailer
sudo install -Dm644 data/pes.xml /usr/share/mime/packages/pes.xml
sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
nautilus -q

From source

Requires Rust 1.85+.

git clone https://git.narl.io/nvrl/stitch-peek-rs.git
cd stitch-peek-rs
cargo build --release

sudo install -Dm755 target/release/stitch-peek /usr/local/bin/stitch-peek
sudo install -Dm644 data/stitch-peek.thumbnailer /usr/share/thumbnailers/stitch-peek.thumbnailer
sudo install -Dm644 data/pes.xml /usr/share/mime/packages/pes.xml
sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
nautilus -q

Usage

As a thumbnailer

Once installed, Nautilus will automatically generate thumbnails for embroidery files. No manual action needed -- just open a folder containing .pes, .dst, .exp, .jef, or .vp3 files.

Standalone CLI

Generate a thumbnail manually:

stitch-peek -i design.pes -o preview.png -s 256
stitch-peek -i pattern.dst -o preview.png -s 256

Flag	Description	Default
-i	Input embroidery file	required
-o	Output PNG path	required
-s	Thumbnail size (pixels)	128

As a library

Add rustitch to your project:

[dependencies]
rustitch = "0.1"

// PES (auto-detected)
let pes_data = std::fs::read("design.pes")?;
let png_bytes = rustitch::thumbnail(&pes_data, 256)?;

// Any supported format (explicit)
let dst_data = std::fs::read("pattern.dst")?;
let png_bytes = rustitch::thumbnail_format(&dst_data, 256, rustitch::Format::Dst)?;

See the rustitch README for more API examples.

Supported formats

Format	Manufacturer	Colors	Notes
PES	Brother PE-Design	Embedded (PEC palette)	Versions 1-10
DST	Tajima	Default palette	3-byte bit-packed records
EXP	Melco/Bernina	Default palette	Simple 2-byte encoding
JEF	Janome	Embedded (Janome palette)	Structured header with color table
VP3	Pfaff/Viking	Embedded (RGB)	Hierarchical format with per-section colors

Project structure

stitch-peek-rs/
├── rustitch/              # Library crate
│   └── src/
│       ├── lib.rs         # Public API
│       ├── types.rs       # Shared types (StitchCommand, ResolvedDesign, ...)
│       ├── error.rs       # Error types
│       ├── format.rs      # Format detection (magic bytes, extension)
│       ├── palette.rs     # Thread color palettes (PEC, default)
│       ├── resolve.rs     # Stitch command to segment resolver
│       ├── render.rs      # tiny-skia renderer
│       ├── pes/           # PES (Brother) parser
│       ├── dst/           # DST (Tajima) parser
│       ├── exp.rs         # EXP (Melco) parser
│       ├── jef/           # JEF (Janome) parser
│       └── vp3.rs         # VP3 (Pfaff/Viking) parser
├── stitch-peek/           # Binary crate (CLI thumbnailer)
│   └── src/main.rs
└── data/
    ├── stitch-peek.thumbnailer  # Nautilus integration
    └── pes.xml                  # MIME type definitions

Development

cargo test          # run all tests
cargo clippy        # lint
cargo fmt --check   # check formatting

Pull requests must bump the version in stitch-peek/Cargo.toml -- CI will reject merges without a version bump.

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-change)
3. Make your changes and add tests where appropriate
4. Ensure cargo test && cargo clippy && cargo fmt --check pass
5. Bump the version in stitch-peek/Cargo.toml
6. Open a pull request

License

MIT