I try to build the clips into the embroidery process for 2 reasons: 1) I'm usually doing something while the machine is going and I'm not pressed for speed and 2) it ensures lock stitches are in place [I've had embroidery come out after manually trimming because I failed to put lock stitches in place]. But to answer your questions, I would manually trim. I have on occasion (rarely) used fabric markers to color white (or light) thread on colored fabric rather than trim but you can't do that very well on red thread on a white fabric. :-) Dorothy Compton Bee Embroidered _www.BeeEmbroidered.com_ (http://www.beeembroidered.com/) (916) 635-7467 Rancho Cordova, CA In a message dated 2/8/2005 10:29:41 AM Pacific Standard Time, springer37@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes: Out of curiosity, how many of the jump stitches are most of you clipping? I am working on a bunch of aprons with 4 lengthy words and a design. The font is about .25 in size. There is a total of 27 jump stitches to clip if I clip all of them. To date, I try to do this because they show (white lettering on red aprons)--do you all do the same or am I spending too much time? Sharon