Textile Printing
Techniques

What is digital fabric printing?

As the name suggests, digital fabric printing uses inkjet technology (printers) to print on fabric or garments. With this technology we can print colourful and complicated designs on fabric with high precision.

Compared to screen printing techniques, it has many advantages. It is appropriate for smaller size productions, since it is more cost-effective and less demanding than screen printing. Nevertheless, it is gaining popularity also in large and mass production scale fabric printing, as an alternative to rotary screen printing.

The digital fabric printing process consists of 3 steps:

• Pre-treatment – using special liquid solutions to prepare the fabric to accept and absorb the ink into its fibres
• Printing – placing tiny droplets of ink on to fabric, using fabric inkjet printers
• Post-treatment – fixing the colour in the fabric (closing the fibres), to assure the durability of the design. This can be done with steam, dry-heat or pressure or a combination of two or more fixing techniques.

Depending on the material composition of the fabric that we would like to print on, there are different inks to use for when printing on fabric digitally. Each ink works best with a specific fabric type.

Reactive Fabric Printing

Reactive inks are used for natural fibres, such as cotton, rayon/viscose, silk, bamboo, hemp. On the other hand, it is not suitable for poly-based and synthetic fibres.

During the whole process, that consists of proper pre-treatment, printing and steaming on high temperatures, there is a chemical reaction, that causes the dye to merge and permanently lock the colour in the fibres.

After steaming and softening, the fabric is washed to remove the remains of the ink on the fabric. The result are vibrant colours, long-lasting prints with great wash and rub fastness.

Pigment Fabric Printing

Pigment fabric printing is one of the most versatile digital textile printing methods. It can be used on natural and synthetic fibres. With pigment inks you can print on cotton, silk, rayon, cotton-poly blends, and 100% polyester.

To achieve the best end-results in terms of colour brilliance, it is recommendable to pre-treat the fabric, with special solutions, to prepare the fibres for dye application.

The difference between pigment and reactive printing is, that in pigment print, the colours are “placed” on the fabrics’ surface, through adhesive, so the ink does not penetrate in to the fibres.

After printing fabric with pigment inks, the fabric goes through dry heating machine to heat the glue in the pigment inks and fix the colours on the fabrics’ surface.

Although the glue in the pigment inks may create a stiffer touch & feel of your fabric and the colours may be less vibrant, compared to fabric, printed with reactive inks, it still has many other advantages. The whole process and the inks used in pigment printing are way more environmentally friendly, with less water and energy consumption, and the turnaround time is shorter.

With the proper pre-treatment and post-treatment process, the colours of the fabric, printed with pigment inks can turn out brilliant, with an extremely intricate level of detail and the fabric is soft on touch.

Acid Fabric Printing

Printing with acid inks is a perfect option for natural materials such as wool, silk, leather, materials that do not retain colour easily. But also, for synthetic materials such as nylon and polyamides.

Printing with acid inks results in vibrant fabric colours and is often used when the ink is required to penetrate through to the reverse side of the material. It gives good colour penetration on stretch, delivers high colour brilliance, and has a high tolerance for chlorine and salt water.

The whole process is very similar to reactive printing. The pre-treatment of the fabric is required to achieve sharpness of the print and fastness of the colour. After printing, the fabric must be steamed at 100 to 102 degrees Celsius for 35 to 40 minutes, which is a time-consuming process, that requires a purpose-built steamer. A post wash process is also needed to remove remains of the ink and pre-treatment chemicals.

Fabric printing with acid inks is a time-consuming process that requires experiences and investment in proper machinery. However, if you want to print on fine fabrics like silk, you will achieve glorious colours and softness. And when used with synthetic fibres, such as nylon, the fabric will be durable and appropriate for extreme conditions.

Sublimation or Dye-Sublimation Fabric Printing

Sublimation or dye-sublimation fabric printing is one of the latest fabric printing techniques. It delivers excellent results when printing on synthetic fabrics – polyester, spandex, polyester blends with minimum of 85% of polyester in the fabric. On the other hand, it is not appropriate for printing on natural materials (cotton, silk, viscose, etc.).

Sublimation fabric printing consists of a chemical process where the dye transforms its state from solid to gas directly and permanently bonds with fabrics’ fibres.

Firstly, the design is printed on a special transfer paper, using dye-sublimation inks, which are environmentally friendly, water-based inks. After that, the design is transferred to the fabric, with the help of a heating and pressing machine. In this phase the inks transition from solid to gas state, penetrate to the fibres and create a permanent print on fabrics.

This printing method usually reproduces brilliant colours, that are extremely fade-resistant and after the process, the fabric remains soft.

Which fabric printing method is the best?

To conclude, a single fabric printing technique that works best for all types of fabrics does not exist.

We always have to consider the following factors:

• Which fabric material would you like to print on? Does it have natural or synthetic fibres?
• How much fabric would you like to print? Will you print smaller or larger volumes?
• How are we going to use the printed fabrics?
• Do you need the printed fabric fast, or can you wait a bit longer for it?

At TISKA Fabrics store we have decided to use a more sustainable printing method and print our fabrics with pigment inks.

Here is why we have chosen to use pigment fabric printing:

• The broadest options of fabric materials to print on (natural or synthetic) – check out our fabrics offer here,
• Offering faster turnaround time (3-5 working days), because there is no need for steaming, washing, softening, and drying the fabric after printing,
• Consuming less energy and water during the production process,
• Using environmentally friendly, water-based inks.

Read more about our sustainability efforts here.