STYLES OF PRINTING

DR. SAPTARSHI MAITI

DEPARTMENT OF FIBRES & TEXTILE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
(ICT, formerly UDCT)
(Deemed University under Section-3 of UGC ACT 1956)
Elite Status & Centre of Excellence – Govt. of Maharashtra MUMBAI, INDIA.
Introduction
• Styles refer to the manner in which a particular action is
performed.
• In printing, style means the manner in which a printed
effect is produced as distinct from the method which
involves the means (like a block or screen) by which the
pattern is produced.
• Style of printing involves certain mechanical operations
and chemical reactions.
• Thus when a pattern effect is produced by say, removing
dye from certain portions of a dyed fabric by chemical
agents, i.e., the manner in which the effect is brought
about is called style; in this case, it is called the discharge
style.
Contd…
Three basic styles of Printing are;

1. Direct style
2. Discharge style
3. Resist style
Direct Style
• This style is also referred to as “Steam Style” because in most of the
cases, the printed fabric is steamed to fix the colour in this style.

• The colour is applied directly to the fabric in the form of a paste

containing the colouring matter, thickener or binder and other
required ingredients and after printing and drying, the colour is fixed
by steaming or curing or thermo-fixing or treatment with chemicals.

• Most classes of dyestuffs are printed on the fabric by the direct

style.

• The printed effects produced by Flock printing, Damask printing,

Foam printing and Bubble printing are all obtained by the direct
style.
Contd…
Printing Sequence:
White or pale shade dyed fabric  Print  Dry  Fix 
wash  Soap wash  dry

The limitations of Direct style of Printing:

• Coloured blotches with sharp outlines and free of
specks are difficult to produce by the direct style.
• It is difficult to incorporate small coloured motifs on
dark ground by this style.
• It is difficult to print knitted goods in fine designs with
sharp outlines by this style.
Discharge Style
• A classical discharge print is obtained when a fully dyed fabric
is printed with an agent which will chemically destroy the
ground shade and produce a white discharge.

• If dyes stable to the discharging agent are incorporated in the

discharge paste, then coloured (illuminated) discharges are
produced by simultaneously destroying the ground shade and
fixing the stable illuminating colour.

• The discharging agents may vary from oxidizing substances

such as potassium chlorate or potassium dichromate for
discharging Indigo, to the more usual reducing agents such as
sodium bisulphate, stannous chloride, sodium hydrosulphite
and its stabilised compounds such as Rongalite C (sodium
sulphoxylate formaldehyde).
Contd…
Requirements of discharging agent:
In discharge style of printing discharging agent is
used. The discharging agent should meet two
requirements,
• Under steaming conditions it should destroy the
dye at the printed portion.
• The discharging agent itself should not
decompose during printing and drying
operation.
Contd…
Requirements of dye to be used in dyeing for
ground shade:
• The dye should be decomposed by the
discharging agent during steaming operation. In
other words dye should be sensitive towards
discharging agent.
• The decomposition products should be water
soluble and colourless.
Contd…
Suitable discharging agents:
There are two discharging agents which are very commonly used in
commercial practice and these are:
• Sodium sulphoxylate formaldehyde
• Zinc sulphoxylate formaldehyde

There are many other discharging agents available but these two are
more popular on commercial scale.

 Chemical property: thermally stable, strong reducing agent.

 Thermally stable: they do not decompose during the process of

printing and during the process of steaming. So the discharging
agent is nothing but a reducing agent which decomposes during
steaming.
Contd…
Suitable dyes:
• The dyes which are selected for the dyeing of fabric before printing
in discharge style of printing have to be dischargeable dyes and
obviously are sensitive to the discharging agents.
• The discharge dyes have azo group in their structure and the
property of azo group is that in presence of reducing agent they get
decomposed with the formation of primary amines which are water
soluble so this azo dyes or azo structure are easily affected by
reducing agent and the decomposition products are water soluble
amines.
• So azo dyes are more commonly used as dischargeable dyes.
• Now according to the dischargeability characteristic, the dyes used
for printing can be put in three categories;
 Dischargeable dyes
 Partially dischargeable dyes
 Non–dischargeable dyes
Contd…
Colour discharge:
• Colour discharge is also known as Illuminated
Discharge and the effect obtained is colour print
against coloured background.

• In this case the sequence of printing is same as

used in white discharge printing, however in
addition to discharging agent we incorporate
suitable non-dischargeable dye.
Contd…
Requirements for non-dischargeable dye:
• Should be stable to discharging agent i.e., it should not
be decomposed by discharging agent. Dye for dyeing
should be affected while dye for getting print effect
should not be affected by the discharging agent.

• During steaming the dye which is incorporated in the

print paste should get fixed at the printed portion. Thus
the discharging agent is playing two roles simultaneously.
First it is destroying the dye which is applied during the
dyeing operation and second, it is allowing the fixation of
dye which is incorporated in the print paste.
Contd…
Advantages of Discharge Style of Printing:
• It allows white and coloured patterns being produced on dyed grounds.
• Ability to print upon dyed cloth a substance which will destroy the colour
from printed parts.
• It enables production of coloured blotches with sharp outlines, generally
difficult to obtain by the direct style, employing low coverage printing of
discharge paste.
• The process produces almost the same white or coloured discharge effect
on both sides of the cloth so much so that it becomes difficult to distinguish
the printed side from the other.

Limitations of Discharge Style of Printing:

• The main limitation of this style is that only those colours which can be
discharged have to be used since all colours are not dischargeable. Hence
selection of dyes for dyeing as well as illuminant for this style is critical.
• The process sequence is quite elaborate and costly.
Resist/Reserve Style
• The resist style, like the discharge style, relates to the production of
white and coloured patterns on variously coloured grounds but the
difference between the two is that in the case of discharge style, the
discharging agent is applied to the cloth after it has been dyed (or
mordanted) whereas in the resist style, the resist is applied to the
cloth before it undergoes any dyeing (or Mordanting).

• Thus in resist printing, the printed portions are so treated that dyes
will no longer “take” on them and a white pattern will be formed on
the background of the dye.

• The resisting agents may either be mechanical or chemical or both

Printing sequence:
White fabric  print with resisting agent  dry  nip pad through dye
solution  fixation  wash  dry
Contd…
Properties of Resisting agent:
• Resisting agent is a chemical which will not allow
the fixation of dye at the portion where it has
been printed.

• This is the property of resisting agent and to

meet this requirement it needs the condition
exactly opposite to those required for dye
fixation.
Contd…
Colour Resist:
• The print and background both will be coloured.
• It is needed to incorporate a colour which is compatible with the
resisting agent and then nip padding with reactive dye solution.
• Resist conditions are acidic so the selected colour should fix under
acidic conditions.
• Pigment fix under acidic conditions.
• At the time of steaming, citric acid which is used as a resisting agent
has two functions.
(i) It will prevent the fixation of reactive dye at printed portions.
(ii) It will allow the fixation of pigment onto the printed portion.
• After steaming, soaping and washing, it is seen that pigment is fixed
and reactive dye is not fixed and a colour print effect on coloured
background is obtained. This is called as coloured resist.
Contd…
Advantages of Resist Style of Printing:
• It allows off-white and coloured patterns being
produced on dyed grounds.
• We can, therefore, obtain depth of shade and
fullness and richness of colour unapproachable
by any process of printing.
• It is, therefore, of great advantage to be able to
print upon white cloth, a resist which will
prevent fixation of colour in subsequent dyeing
operations.
 Comparison between Discharge and
Resist Style
Discharge Printing Resist Printing
i) Discharge prints are always sharp in outline, i) Resist prints are generally subdued and the
bright in appearance and give perfect and colours are less bright: the outlines of the
sparkling whites due to the bleaching effect printed motifs are less sharp
of the discharging agent.
ii) Since the fabric to be discharged is fully ii) In resist printing, the ground is not dyed
dyed, drastic chemical action is required to before printing therefore, little or no chemical
destroy the colour. action is involved to prevent fixation of colour.
iii) The cost of a discharge printing paste is iii) The cost of resist printing paste is lower
higher and the ingredients have to be requiring less chemicals and auxiliaries, e.g. in
selected carefully to facilitate complete Bandhani printing only cotton thread is
destruction of colour. required to tie the portions which are to be
kept undyed.
iv) This method is applicable only to those iv) This method is effective in all cases as almost
colours which can be discharged and has all colours are capable of being resisted
limitations; also it is generally difficult to get
reproducible results in all operations.
v) In this method, the percentage of rejects is v) In this method, the percentage of rejects is
higher as compared to the resist method lower than that in the discharge method.
Conversion Style
• This is actually a classical discharge or discharge-cum-resist style
which essentially involves the use of two or more colours one of
which will be destroyed by the discharging agent while the other will
remain unaffected.
• Thus, if a ground shade is produced from a combination of red dye
(non-dischargeable) and blue dye (dischargeable) and is then
overprinted with a white discharge paste, the result will be a red
illuminant print on a violet ground, the violet colour in the pattern
being converted into red by destroying mixture of Naphthol AS-G
and Naphthol AS-D and developed with Fast red RC salt giving a red
shade (superimposed on yellow).
• When this cloth is overprinted with a white discharge paste, the red
colour (obtained with napthol AS-D combination) will be destroyed
whereas the yellow colour (obtained with naphthol AS-G
combination) will remain unaffected, thus producing a yellow print
on a red ground (since yellow is non-dischargeable).
Dyed Style
• The terms ‘dyed style’, ‘dyed work’, and ‘dyed way’ were formerly
applied exclusively to goods mordanted with iron and aluminium
and dyed up afterwards in Madder, Logwood or other vegetable
dyestuffs.
• The dyed style now comprises all classes of work in which any
mordant whatsoever is first applied to cloth and subsequently
combined in the dyebath with a colouring matter capable of forming
an insoluble coloured lake or compound with it.
The essential operations in the dyed style are;
- printing of the cloth with a thickened mordant;
- fixing of the mordant;
- washing out the excess of the fixing agent;
- dyeing; and
- washing and soaping of the dyed cloth to remove all loosely adhering
colour and to clear the white parts of the pattern.
Discharge-cum-Resist Style
• A discharge-cum-resist style is one which avoids the use of fully fixed (or
fully dyed) grounds and relies on the simultaneous fixation of ground
shade where no agent is present, destruction of the ground shade where
the agent is used and development of any illuminating colours.
• This style of printing has assumed great importance particularly in the
printing of polyester fabric for producing white or coloured discharges.
• When printing polyester by this style, the fabric is first padded with a
dispersion of the disperse dye and dried carefully at a low temperature
(100°C) when the dye is in the unfixed state.
• It is then printed with a paste containing a discharging agent such as
safolin (zinc sulphoxylate formaldehyde); for coloured discharge, a paste
containing stannous chloride and a non-dischargeable illuminating colour
is used.
• The fabric is then dried and steamed at 180°C with super heated steam for
8 minutes; during steaming, the ground colour gets fixed. At the printed
portions, the colour gets destroyed and illuminant colour, if used, gets
fixed.
 Crimp or Crepon Style
• Crimp or crepon style envisages the production
of crepe effect without the use of highly twisted
yarns in the fabric by chemical means.

• In this style, the object is to shrink the goods at

some parts giving a sort of shriveled or crimped
appearance. The best illustration of this type of
shrinkage is by use of caustic soda solution of
mercerizing strength without tension, on cotton
goods.

• The fabric is printed with thickened caustic soda

solution of 55° to 60° Tw in a striped pattern
covering about 50% of the surface of the fabric.
On immersing in water, the cloth shrinks in the
printed portions thus giving a ‘crimped’ or
‘cockled’ effect.
 Carbonized style or Burnt-out Style
• Carbonizing or ‘burning-out’ is a process
in which the cellulose portion of any
polyester-cellulose blended fabric is
completely removed or chemically
destroyed leaving a cent percent
polyester fabric with the desired resilient
and silky handle.

• The fabric is treated with 70% Sulphuric

acid for about 45 minutes at room
temperature on a jigger or for 2 hours by
using a padding mangle whereby the
cellulosic portion is destroyed; the
degraded cellulose is then removed
during washing.
 Brasso Style
• This style is associated with the
carbonized style.
• In carbonized style, the entire
cellulosic portion of the blended
fabric is destroyed and removed
whereas in this style, only a
portion of the cellulosic
component which is printed is
removed by using an acid
liberating agent in the printing
paste.
Contd…

Multicolored brasso effect

Karara brasso effect
 Raised Style
• The term ‘Raised’ signifies that the colour is
made visible on cloth by a wet treatment.

• Colourless lead salt is thickened with gum and

printed on white cloth and is then passed
through a solution of sodium dichromate, a
beautiful yellow colour of lead chromate
develops on cloth as if the colour ‘Rises’ at
those parts; hence the term ‘Raised’ style.

• Since the advent of azoic colours and

solubilized vat colours, the raised style has lost
its importance and is almost obsolete.
 Batik Style
• The special feature of Batik printing is
that fine lines of colour can be seen
running irregularly across the resisted
parts of the pattern in the fabric.

• This artistic effect is brought about by

wax which is used as a resist.

• In the actual process, a mixture of one

part of bees wax and 4 parts of paraffin
wax is taken.
 Foam Printing
• In foam printing, the foam
generated is worked as a
thickener; all the other ingredients
are incorporated in the paste as
usual.
• In preparing the paste for foam
printing, foam is generated from a
solution of the dye itself by means
of a foaming agent by
incorporating air in the system.
• Sodium dodecyl sulphate is
normally used as a foaming agent.
Contd…
Advantages of Foam Printing:
• Owing to absence of thickeners, more efficient use of dyes and
chemicals is achieved.
• Since a part of water present in the dye solution is replaced by air,
there is saving in energy required for drying and consumption of
water.
• Because of lower water consumption, the drying time is reduced
and the production rate is increased.

Limitations of Foam Printing:

• Foam does not remain stable for more than a few hours without
breaking.
• Uneven results are obtained if the foam does not collapse evenly
on the fabric.
Flock/Velvet Printing
• Flock printing is a process in which a ‘flock’ i.e., a mass of short
fibres or fibre dust is fixed on to a cloth by means of an adhesive to
form a printed pattern. It produces a pile or velvety effect on the
fabric. The process is also called ‘velvet printing’.

• The fabric is first printed with an adhesive paste containing a

synthetic polymer which is self-reacting i.e., containing reactive
monomers which cross link to form a three dimensional network
within the polymer film besides anti-foaming agent, a plasticizer, a
thickener, a catalyst and glycerin to prevent the adhesive from
drying prematurely.

• The polymers commonly used as binders contain the monomers,

Acryl amide (CH=CH-CONH2) and N-methylol acryl amide.
Contd…
Two methods which are used currently are as;
Beater bar Method:
• In this method, the coated fabric is held
tight on a conveyor belt; the flock is fed
onto the cloth by means of hoppers. The
cloth is rapidly beaten by beater bars and
vibrated to make the fibres stand on ends
and become firmly fixed in the adhesive.

• The beater bars below the cloth rotate

rapidly and rub against the backing material
thereby generating static electricity which
makes the fibres stand on ends.

• After the fabric is printed with flock, it is

dried and then cured in a hot-flue oven or
chamber at 150°C for 5 minutes.
Contd…
Electrostatic Method:
• In this method, tiny particles of
flock are charged with high
voltage electricity while the
surface of the fabric is earthed
thus forming two electrodes
having a high electrical potential
difference between them.

• Fabrics like mulls, voiles, and

organdie are flock printed on
both side to give a velvety effect.
Damask Effect
 Damask effect is nothing but a contrasting
patterned effect produced on cloth by
chemical means, showing a matt pattern on a
lustrous background and vice versa
resembling a woven damask fabric.
Contd…
Damask or mask effect can be produced by printing a
lustrous fabric in three different ways as under:
• By printing a fully lustrous fabric with a paste containing TiO2.

• By printing a lustrous fabric with a resist and then after drying

and steaming, treating it with a solution of chemicals which
would precipitate an insoluble pigment on the un-resisted
portions of the fabric thus producing brilliant lustrous patterns
on a dull matt ground. This process is known as “luster
printing”.

• By printing a lustrous fabric with a paste containing a chemical

reagent which will destroy the luster wherever it is printed.

Fabrics mainly used are: viscose rayon or acetate rayon

 Kalamkari Printing

• The word ‘Kalamkari’ is

derived from two Hindi
words ‘Kalam’ and ‘Kari’ (or
Karigari), ‘Kalam’ meaning
pen and ‘kari’ meaning hard
work.
• Nowadays Kalamkari printing
is done not only by pen but
also by means of blocks.
Contd…
• It involves pre-treatment of cloth and preparation of
colours most of which are vegetable dyes.

• In the preparation of cloth for printing, the fabric is

scoured, bleached and mordanted by country
methods which require more than a week to
complete the operations.

• Preparation of colours also takes a considerable

time. The whole process is, therefore, lengthy
extending over days together and is also
cumbersome.
 Bubble Printing/Bubble Dyeing
• It is different from foam printing. In foam
printing the foam produced is used as a
thickener in the print paste whereas here
bubbles which are produced by means of
a perforated pipe are deposited and fixed
on the fabric to give a novel, intricate and
non-reproducible printed effect.
• A simple three-bowl padding mangle is all
that is required for printing. No blocks or
screens or other printing machines are
needed.
• This technique is to cover up faulty
dyeings, stained goods etc., by over
printing them and thus avoid stripping
and re-dyeing operations which are very
expensive.
Multi-colour Speck Printing
• Various colours in the from of specks can be printed
simultaneously with the help of one screen or one roller
only as against a number of rollers or screens required
in conventional methods.

• The effect is produced by encapsulation of dye

molecules which do not mix with each other in printing
paste because they are encapsulated.

• They are then printed on the fabric in speck form, the

prints are fixed by suitable after-treatment
recommended for particular type of colour. Super-
heated steaming in the case of disperse dyes on
polyester gives better appearance of specks.
Colloresin Process
• Colloresin is methyl cellulose used as a thickener in printing vat dyes.
• Its special property is that when it is boiled in water, it gets
precipitated but dissolves again in water when it is cooled.
• Also it coagulates i.e., becomes insoluble in alkali but when the
precipitate is washed free from alkali, it dissolves again in cold water.
• The practical value of this property is that when a dyestuff thickened
with Colloresin is printed on the fabric and the printed fabric is
subsequently passed through a hot alkaline solution of a reducing
agent for developing the dye, the dye does not bleed or mark-off in
the developing bath because alkali coagulates Colloresin which
encloses the colouring matter in an insoluble envelope and prevents
it from spreading beyond the boundaries of the pattern and holds it
firmly in its place until it is fully developed and fixed.
• The Colloresin is then removed from the printed cloth by a thorough
wash in cold water in which it re-dissolves readily.
Contd…
The advantages of the process are as under:
 The printing paste is perfectly stable and any number of pieces may
be printed and stored for any length of time as the undeveloped and
un-steamed goods do not undergo any change during storage.
 The printed goods can be steamed and developed at any time at the
printer’s convenience.
 The paste does not contain any alkali or reducing agent; therefore
the printed goods can be dried at any temperature (not injurious to
the goods) over heating does not affect the colours.
 It is a quick process (referred to as flash–aging process) for printing
vat dyes producing high quality prints with excellent fastness in a
short time and requires simple equipment resulting in saving in time;
steam and labour.
 Vat resists free from halo effect under Aniline black can be produced
by this process.
Melange (Vigoureaux) Printing
• The word melange means varied mixture; melange
printing therefore, means printing which produces a
varied mixture of colour effect.
• It is process of printing only wool silvers by a special type
of printing machine called the Vigoureaux printing
machine invented by Vigoureaux, a French chemist.
• The design is printed on the wool slivers in the form of
thin and thick diagonal lines or cross-wise lines by rollers
having raised ribs (not by engraved rollers) on their
surface; when the printed silvers are spun into yarn, these
designs disappear and produced by blending dyed and
undyed woolen fibres.
• The yarn so produced is called mélange yarn which is
then used in making fabrics.
Contd…

• Two types of machine are used for printing the silvers viz., (i) Single Roller Vigoureaux Printing machine
and (ii) Double Roller Vigoureaux Printing machine.
• The single roller machine consists of one printing roller with elevated ribs whereas the double roller
machine consists of two printing rollers with elevated ribs which is the main difference between the
two.
• Just below the printing roller is a rubber roller are the two rotate in contact with each other.
• Thin sheet of wool silver passes between these two rollers.
• The rubber roller rotates in contact with another roller a wooden roller-below it which is partly
immersed in the printing paste placed in a colour box.
• The wooden roller transfers its colour paste to the rubber roller and excess of the paste is removed by a
doctor blade.
• The colour paste is transferred to the silver by the pressure of the ribs of the printing roller; each rib is
about 2.5 cm in width.
Azoic Style
• The terms “azoic” signifies
insoluble azo colour produced on
the fibre itself by combination of
naphthol and a diazotized organic
primary base.

• It requires two bath for the

precipitating the colour on the
fibre. First one known as the
naptholating or impregnating bath
and the second is called the
developing bath.
 Tie and Dye
• Tie-dye is another form of resist
printing in which dye penetration in the
fabric is restricted by folding, knotting
plaiting, tying, stitching or otherwise.

• In India the name given to it is

Bandhani/Lahariyat/Ikat.

• The multi-coloured effects obtained

with tie-dye are achieved in basically
the same way as it is obtained for batik,
using a resist and dyeing it from lighter
to darker shades.
 Contd…

Bandhani turban bandhej

 Marble Printing
• The method which is used to
produce marbled pattern on paper
can also be used on fabric.

• It involves the use of very dilute

solution of waterproof inks or dyes
or enamel paint which will float on
water.

• The pattern made by the inks on the

surface of water is transferred to
the fabric when it is laid on the
water and dried.
Contd…
Spray Printing

• Spray printing is a form of hand painting in which

colour is blown through a nozzle under air
pressure which is generated by a compressor.

• Large spray guns can be used to cover broad

areas with a dense liquid(like dye solution or
pigment pastes).
 Khadi Printing
• In India there has been a similar method in
vogue for printing pigments, metallic powders
or foil, since age. This method known as “Khadi”
or “Tinsel printing”.

• In this method white or coloured pigments or

gold and silver powders or foils are printed on
white or generally dyed grounds with the help
of a thickened oil known as Rogan to intimate
brocade cloth .

• This printing is carried out with the help of

brass blocks.
Contd…

Gold khadi print on saree

White khadi print

Plastisol Printing
• It is intended mostly for hosiery & knit goods.

• Bright & soft stretch prints can be obtained on dark

dyed fabric.

• A typical recipe consist of titanic dioxide, high

performance binder, elasticized homo polymer of
polyvinyl acetate or polyvinyl chloride & additive for
gloss, raise, shine & softener.

• Following printing, each colour requires immediate flash

curing in case of oil base.