I use a light box and regular pencil, and a non fusible interfacing which I baste onto my fabric after so that you don't see the connections through the fabric.
Made a mistake on my current embroidery - which I'll never do again - but it is too late for this one. I used a really good muslin which is too dense, and three threads of embroidery floss. It's really hard to pull through and the three threads makes the picture look coarse.