Why should you use digital fabric printing media

A very poignant question that has many different answers and the revolution in digital fabric printing is fuelling this extraordinary growth. Perhaps the main reason for this is because the uses and applications are constantly expanding as more and more consumers of print become aware of the advantages.

The actual term digital printing can be associated to many different methods of printing but in the context of this article is in relation to digital fabric printing. One of the main reasons to use this method of printing is because it potentially has such great versatility in terms of print run sizes, options, fabric choices and the excellent results that are now possible.

Only a matter of a few years ago there were limited choices in terms of machines available that could truly print successfully onto fabrics. That has changed dramatically with machines available today at entry-level prices right up full-scale mass production systems. The versatility of fabrics with digital pre-treatments has also helped increase the use of fabrics on a wider choice of machine and ink types.

It was only a few years ago that polyester fabrics could only genuinely be digitally printed successfully if they were printed using dye-sublimation. In fact even then probably using paper-transfer technology that was expensive and even time consuming. That has now changed and dye-sublimation digital fabric printing systems that can print direct-to-textile with greater through put. In fact some systems can print paper-transfer and direct-to-textile increasing the printers versatility.

So who is actually using and consuming fabric that has been digitally printed? The simple answer is everybody from individuals to major blue chip corporations such is the variety and appetite for a broad range of demands and applications. At the lower end of the scale there are printers that are set up and highly adept specialising at printing one offs and low volume requirements. Whereas at the other end of the scale there are companies that are volume driven able to satisfy the much larger corporate consumers of print.

Examples of small-scale digital fabric printing includes items such as custom printed bags, or wall art, a deck chair, or a celebration banner where very low volumes of less than 10 would probably be typical. This would probably only use relatively small volumes of fabric. At the other end of the scale though a major retail campaign for window display graphics will often use in excess of several thousand square meters at a time. This really shows the diversity of volumes used that illustrates the flexibility of digital fabric printing.

The trend to use more and more digitally printed polyester textile is set to continue as its advantages become widely accepted and taken as the norm. It has already reached the point where, especially in the retail and exhibition sectors, polyesters are replacing traditional medias. The exhibition sector is using an ever-increasing amount of polyester textile primarily because of its genuine benefits. True is the same in the retail sector. These are just some of the reasons why you should use digital fabric printing to fulfil your requirements.

Article by Chris Drury