A Guide to Selecting the Right Ink and Fabric Combination for Digital Printing

Digital textile printing is an interesting concept which has evolved greatly over all these years. It has gained great ground and market acceptance. It is being experimented on a variety of fabrics and is being spanning across diverse markets all inclusive of home furnishings, apparel, flag and banner, tradeshow graphics, swimwear, and point of purchase displays. Surprisingly, with the adaptation of this concept, it has shown rapid growth.

Digital Printing is gaining popularity as compared to analog techniques. The entire cycle of printing ranges from design conception to the actual production which has thus reduced the cost by a significant amount using digital printing. There is a mix of factors that result in high quality of image quality in digital textile printing. These are enlisted below:

• Preprocessing and post-processing of textiles
• Fabric and ink selection
• Printing equipment used
• Color software

Below given are details on distinct pretreatment/coating of the fabrics, ink and fabric types, and post processing in digital textile printing along with tips to optimize these elements for great results:

Ink Selection
The market endows great variety in inks which has 4 types, which are available to digitally print on a variety of textile substrates. There are specific ink types that go along well with specific type of textile fiber/fabric. Thus, selection must be made in accordance with same along with considering the printer choice since all ink chemistries go well with every printer system. Users must also choose system which is compatibility with different ink chemistries to facilitate extensive selection of fabrics.

Digital Textile Printing Process
In this type of printing on textiles, dye based inks undergo pretreatment and post treatment on the printed fabric in order to endure absolute color quality and durability. Once it is dried finally, drying additional treatments are applied to the printed fabric which includes flame retardant, waterproofing, and so forth.

Selection of Fabrics
This is a crucial aspect of selection which is categorized into 3 basic types.

• Woven fabrics: This type has 2 sets of yarns called warp and weft which run parallel and perpendicular to the selvage. Such type of fabrics is reviewed as dimensionally quite stable.
• Knitted fabrics: This type of fabric is designed by interlooping of yarns in order to form loops. It is also referred to as stitches; vertical ones are known as wales and horizontal ones are known as courses. These are dimensionally less stable as compared to woven fabrics.
• Non-woven fabrics: This type of fabric is also termed as intermingled fibers that is stuck together by thermal bonding, adhesive, spun bonding, and so on.

Before beginning with the printing process, fabrics should be checked for the following surface defects:

• It should be free of any lint and broken fibers or filaments
• Fabric roll must be wound with uniform tension spanning across its width and length
• It should be free from wrinkles or creases

Embroidery Types– They Await to Get Explored

Embroidery designs are available in a plethora of options these days. The distinct types of embroideries and a range of breathtaking designs available online has given a vast selection to the designers. The selection of these embroideries depends on a range of factors like individual tastes, preferences, styles, and materials.

Some of these embroidery designs which are timeless and popular are listed below:

• Household Embroidery: All these designs can be related to household garments, which are created by professionals. They work on designing the upholstery items such as carpets, mats, bed-sheets, cushion covers of varied sizes, colors boasting varied intricate designs. These prints are loved by household owners.

• Clothing Embroidery: This is the most popular type of embroidery which is available in plenty of designs. The choice is massive which ranges from hiring a designer who knows the art or purchasing designs from internet. The purchase from online design shops displays plenty of options ranging from digitized versions that are easy to be downloaded from several websites. It can be then sewn on various garments making use of computerized embroidery machines. Some of the common clothing embroidery designs such as men’s wear embroidery, trouser embroidery, fashion garments embroidery, kids wear embroidery, dinner suit embroidery, women’s wear embroidery, etc.

• Logo Embroidery Designs: This category of designs is related to logos which are embroidered onto Sweatshirts, T-shirts, Jackets etc. These are designed by specialized artists and professionals and can be customized as per the customer’s specifications. What makes this work stands distinct from the rest of the embroidery designs is that the texts, size, outlines, and artwork imbibed are given added attention at the time of designing.

• Embroidery Designs for General Products: Clothing items like shoes, baseball caps, gloves, along with other apparels are embroidered using distinct as well as suitable designs and patterns. All the designs available for these items can be customized as per individual’s tastes and preferences or can be ordered from online designer stores.

In case you are an enthusiastic professional, making your design can be interesting as well as challenging too. However, experts share some useful tips that can be remembered before setting up the machine. Taking up a large scale embroidery project should be promised and backed up by great skill and expertise. As a step in this direction you should always follow:

• Stitch out your design on a rough fabric to test the quality of embroidery. It will also give you an idea about the overall look and feel of a particular design

• Next step is to make a selection of right color combination of the threads in order to ensure that the entire piece looks complementing on the fabric

• Third important aspect to choose in this regard is a hoop, which can capably hold the fabric in place

• Last but not the least is to make a quick check at all the tools required to execute this particular tasks; before you fix a place and begin your work, it is important to ensure your tools are in a perfect state to create the actual embroidery designs

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