By the term “Textile Printing” we mean the localized application of

dyes or pigments and chemicals by any method which can produce

particular effect of color on the fabric according to the design.
Printing is carried out after pretreatment of fabric or after dyeing of
the fabric. In printing, the color is firmly affixed to the fiber so that
it may not be affected by washing and friction.

The difference lies in the fact that in dyeing, the color is applied
uniformly to the whole fabric whereas in printing one or more
colors are applied to it in selected parts only, and in sharply defined
patterns
 Steps in Textile Printing
Grey textiles / raw materials

Preparation of textile materials (singeing, desizing , bleaching scouring)

Print design development & preparation the means of application


Preparation of printing paste

Printing (with a certain style and method)

Drying of the printed fabric (in the dryer)

Steaming or curing of the printed fabric

After treatment (Soaping or washing but not necessary for pigment printing)
 Colorant for Printing
90% of the textile printing is performed using three colorant classes namely
pigments (48%), Reactive dyes (24%) and Disperse Dyes (18%). Printing with
reactive and disperse dyes involves costly post processing steps such as
steaming for their fixation. Subsequent to printing, washing is necessary to
remove unfixed dye particles from the fabrics. In 1937pigment printing was first
introduced in the textile market. In pigment printing, a simple heat treatment,
known as curing, is the only post processing step required. Hence, pigment
printing dominates the market due to the ease of application and elimination of
costly post processing for printed fabrics. Colorant can be divided into two
category based on fiber type

1. Fiber dependent colorant

Reactive, Disperse, Vat, Azoic, Acid, Direct

2. Fiber Independent colorant

Pigment
 Print Ingredients & Printing Paste Preparation

Like dyeing recipe a composition of colorant & chemicals is

necessary to create a pattern on fabric which is known as printing
paste. The well-defined interaction between fiber & colorant
determines the best composition of printing paste. Printing pastes
are made up of four main components:

 The coloring matter used (dyes or pigments)

 The binding agent
 The solvent or Thickening agent
 The auxiliaries.
Generally, the auxiliaries used for printing are the same as those
used in dyeing with a dye bath. These types of auxiliaries
include:

 Oxidizing agents
 Reducing agents
 Wetting agents
 Discharging agents for discharge printing
 Hygroscopic agent (urea, glycerine, glycols)
 Carriers
 Retarders
 Resist agents
 Metal complexes
 Softeners
 Defoamers
 Resins
Two Types of Ink or paste are used in the Textile Industry

1) Water-based Ink: It is two types

a) Pigmented emulsion: it is suitable for all fiber types & white sprit is used as
solvent

b) Water based: where white sprit is replaced by water & used for all dye types

2) Plastisol Ink: Plastisol ink is PVC based system that contains no solvent.

» Plastisol is the choice for printing of finished goods such as T-shirts,

sweatshirts, jackets, and tote bags.

» Water-based ink is the ink of choice for the printing of yard goods; either in
piece form or on the roll.
Compares between water & Plastisol ink
Typical Printing recipe:
Printing of Cotton Fabric with Reactive Dye
Style of Printing:
Direct style of fabric.

Method of Printing:
Screen method.

Thickener Use:
Na-Alginate .
Gum tragacanth.
Guar Gum
British Gum etc.

Printing Paste Recipe:

Procion -M (Dye )------------------------------------10-80 parts
Urea --------------------------------------------50-75 parts
Na-Alginate thickener paste(6%)--------------------400 parts
Salt--------------------------------------- 10 parts
Sodium bicarbonate------------------------------- 25 parts
Hot water------------------------------------------ As required (to get optimum viscosity)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total = 1kg
 Color fixation in Printing
If a typical textile print is washed soon after printing and drying, a substantial
part of the color is removed. An appropriate fixation step is therefore
necessary.

The essential requirements in all print fixation processes using steam are:
 The pick-up of enough water to swell the thickener film, but not so much
as to cause the print to spread.
 Dispersion and solution of the dye, and production of a liquid medium
through which the dye can diffuse to the fiber surface.
 Absorption of water by fibers such as cotton, nylon and wool, which must
be swollen to allow penetration of dye.
 Raising the temperature to a level that accelerates the processes of
diffusion, especially into the fiber.

For Pigment (Curing)

High temp during curing cause binder to be cross-linked & make a layer on
fiber surface under which pigment particles are trap & fixed. High temp also
cause solvent to volatile which eliminate washing steps.
 Styles of Printing
Style of printing means the manner in which a printed effect is produced. It
involves certain chemical reactions and operations. There are three different
styles of printing. Such as:

• Direct style of printing

• Discharge style of printing:
1. White discharge
2. Color discharge
• Resist style of printing:
1. White resist
2. Color resist
• Raised style of printing.
• Azoic style of printing.
• Metal style of printing.
• Lock style of printing.
• Crepe style of printing.
• Lining style of printing.
 Methods of Printing
1. Block Printing 2. Burn-out Printing
3. Blotch Printing 4. Digital printing
5. Duplex Printing 6. Engraved Roller Printing
7. Electrostatic Printing 8. Flock Printing
9. Ink-jet Printing 10. Jet Spray Printing
11. Photo Printing 12. Rotary Screen Printing
13. Screen Printing (Flat Screen) 14. Stencil Printing
15. Spray Printing 16. Transfer Printing
17. Warp Printing 18. Special Methods (Tie dyeing and Batik
Printing)

At the initial stage of printing, this printing work was done by hand but day by day this
style is changing by utilizing different modern techniques. Now different types of
critical printing is done very easily by the bless of modern science. Most of the printing
machines are controlled by the computer. Graphics design is mostly use in printing
process
 Direct Printing
 It is the most common approach to apply a color pattern onto a fabric.
 If done on colored fabric, it is known as overprinting.
 The desired pattern is produced by pressing dye on the fabric in a paste
form.
 Example:-Block Printing, Roller Printing, Screen Printing etc.
 Discharge style of printing
Fabrics are dyed a solid color prior to printing. When printing is done, the design
is applied by screen or roller with a chemical which removes the color of the
originally dyed fabric. Sometimes, the base color is removed and other color is
printed in its place. It consists of four steps

1st step: Dyeing: Fabric is dyed firstly with a easily reducible dye.
2nd step: Printing: The fabric is printed with a thickened soln of discharging agent.
3rd Step: Steaming.
4th Step: washing.
Types of discharge styles:
I) White discharge:
After dyeing and printing, the discharging agent discharges the dye of printed
areas and leaves the dye present on the unprinted area unaffected.
A white design is produced on color ground.
II) Color Discharge:
The colored printing paste removes the initial value from the colored ground. At
the same time deposit color on the original ground.
 Resist Print
It involves a two steps procedure:

(1) printing a pattern design on a white fabric with a chemical that will prevent
penetration of dyes; and
(2) (2) piece dyeing the fabric. The result is a dyed background with a white patterned
area.

Types of Resist printing:

 White Resist: No color is added to the print paste solution with resist salt after
dyeing the printed area remains white.

 Color resist: Coloring material is added to the print past with resist salt. The printed
area contains the color added to print paste and the remaining areas will contain
the color of dye solution.
 Print with resist Salt Print with green + resist
Salt

After dyeing with Red After dyeing with Red

White Green

Red Red

White Resist Color Resist

 Screen Printing
A process where ink is mechanically applied to a substrate with
the use of a screen and squeegee. It involves the application of
the printing paste through a fine screen placed in contact with
the fabric to be printed
 Basic equipment & Chemical need for screen print
 Frames: There are two types of screen frames, metal and wood. The most
commonly used types of wood are cedar and pine. Metal screens are made
out of aluminum or steel.
 Screen: It is one kind of fabric made from cotton, silk, polyester or nylon.
Screen mesh refers to the number of threads per inch of fabric. More
threads per inch, the finer the screen. Finer mesh will deposit a thinner ink.
 Photo Emulsion: It is a light sensitive chemical which cover the non-printed
area & helps to transfer the image to the screen.
 Light chamber or curing system: It cause the photo sensitive chemical to
fixed on to the screen.
 Squeezer: Helps to pass the print paste over the screen & forced the paste
pass through the mesh on to the fabric.
 Emulsion remover: If we wish to recycle the screen, it removes the
emulsions
 Basic equipment & Chemical need for screen print

 Print paste and its ingredients

 Dyestuff or pigments: To produce color effect

 Thickeners: To give required viscosity to print paste

 Chemicals and waters: The main types of chemicals used for

textile printing are wetting agents, solvents, solution acids,
dispersing agents, hygroscopic agents, oxidizing & reducing
agents, defoamers, acids, alkalis, catalyst & carriers, swelling
agents etc.
 Basic steps in screen Printing
Tech pack received from buyer/ A theme or idea made by
designer in the form of soft copy or garment swatch

Designer convert art work into film by doing necessary editing &
set the measurement

Final edited designs are print in trace paper or different types of

film for ease of application

Selecting frame size according print area & separation of color

according to design

Mesh fabric are attached with frame & adhesive are applied to
fix screen in frame
 Basic steps in screen Printing
Prepare the light sensitive emulsion & apply it on both side of
the screen

Apply the design on front side of the screen & place it on light chamber for
curing where emulsion interact with light & block the mesh of the screen but
leave the area where design are attached

Washing the screen which removes unfixed emulsion & the

design is visible

Print the fabric with this prepared screen. Front side of screen
placed over fabric & paste is forced by squeezer

Drying the print to allow the paste get little harder

 Basic steps in screen Printing
Steaming the printed fabric to fix the color on design area. For
pigment printing curing is done

Washing the fabric to remove unfixed dye thickener & residual

chemical. For pigment printing it is optional
 Basic steps in screen Printing
Color separation in screen printing

In order to screen print a design on a t-shirt or other

garment, the design must be broken down to the
individual color components. The process of isolating
each color is called color separation. Generally

No of different color = No of screen

Three different color = 3 screens where design are break down into below

1st Screen 2nd Screen 3rd Screen

 Digital Textile Printing
Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital-based
image directly to a variety of media. Digital textile printing
mainly indicate textile ink-jet printing where a design is kept on a
computer in the form of electronic file & the computer is linked
with a printer machine. The design and color management
software (such as Raster Image Processing or RIP) provides the
interface between the design software and the printer & convert
electronic design data in the form of analog image with the help
of dots or pixels.
Digital Textile Printing

Digital Printing
 Digital Textile Printing
COMPONENTS OF DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING

 The Computer with specified software

 Interpreter to convert image into printable format
 Ink (made from Dye or pigment)
 Hardware like Printing machine with specified print head
 Textile

Types of ink-jet printers

There are two general designs of ink jet printers:

 Continuous inkjet (CIJ)

 Drop-on-demand (DOD)
 Digital Textile Printing
Why Digital Printing
 Analysts predict that within 5-years 15% of globally printed textiles will be made
digitally as The fashion seasons are becoming shorter resulting in 5-6 fashion
forecasts in a year & Customers are demanding great variety of colors and unique
designs.
 Digital is replacing flat -screen printing machines due to similar action costs and
production speeds.
 Garment T-Shirt printing is growing via online businesses.
 Digital Technology, Easily to operate, low manpower & friendly working environment.
 Inkjet printing has lower initial cost. Although consume high ink cost but in long run
it will consume cost as traditional printing process.
 Quick response to customer demand within shortest time. Time is money & ink jet
printing offers quick sampling & adjustment according to buyer requirement where
screen requires long time to do so.
 Ink-jet printing is environmental friendly by consuming 30% less water, 45% less
electricity & reducing waste of water.
 Ink-jet printing technology require less dye or pigment & it also less waste dye.
 No need to store large no of screen. Design data can be store digitally. Print area also
less than screen. No need for large table.
 No limitation in design & no of color & repeat size. No color kitchen is required & no
contact with fabric.
 Transfer Printing
Transfer printing is the term used to describe textile and related
printing processes in which the design is first printed on to a
flexible non-textile substrate and later transferred by a separate
process to a textile. Transfer printing also known as thermo
printing, dry printing or sublimation printing.

Transfer Transfer
Printing paste\ink ------------> printing paper --------------> Textile
materials
 Transfer Printing
Basic Principle:

Transfer printing technology is done by two steps-

• At first step, the definite design is printed on transfer paper by sublime able dyestuff
paste.
• Then the printed design is transferred to the fabric from transfer paper under the
condition of time, temperature and pressure.

In this method cut piece fabric or garments are printed in flat bed machine and long
fabric is printed by continuous transfer printing machine.

Methods of transfer Print

 Sublimation transfer
 Melt transfer
 Film release
 Wet transfer
 Transfer Printing
Dye transfer in Transfer Printing:

In transfer printing first paper is printed with sublimable dye where dye stay in ink layer
of paper. When heat is applied from the back of the paper dye is transfer by the
following Mechanism.

 Firstly dye is sublime on heating & diffusion from the ink layer into the vapor.
 Dye is diffused across the gap between paper and fabric. Initially there is a
temperature gradient across the gap, which leads to dye condensing on the fiber
surface.
 Dye is adsorbed on fiber surface from vapor due to difference in dye concentration
& this is rapid.
 From the surface of the fiber dye is slowly diffused into fiber mass.

Three considerations are paramount in transfer prints by sublimation. First, conditions

have to be established that will lead to the rapid sublimation of the dyes and their
diffusion into the fibers. Secondly, the gap between the paper and the fabric to be
printed has to be minimized. Thirdly, the process must result in a fabric with
substantially unchanged textile properties.