Printing is the oldest method of textile decoration. Color designs are produced on fabrics by printing with dyes in paste form or by positioning dyes on thefabric from especially designed machines.


Garment printing is one of most important fields where various techniques are being adopted for value addition of the garment. Over the last decade, textile printing sector has redefined itself as the contemporary fashion demand area,but also as driver of the further growth of the textile industry because of consumers.One of the factors to catalyze this is the rapidly transforming consumers.Emerging and changing consumer needs have forced companies to redefine their business approach. It is the diversity of ideas that is deciding the product lines. Explorations and experiments are continuously taking place and the real successful industry leaders are yet to emerge.


New techniques, materials and processes are being implemented to realize the consumer expectations and aspirations in much sophisticated manner. After 1980a number of unconventional printing processes were popularized to make printfabric for fashionable wear. Some of the printing processes, especially metallic printing, glitter printing, puff printing, foil printing, plastisolprinting are popularly used upon the garments.


Following are the different prints which are being used and preferred by consumers.


  1. Plastisol prints are certainly becoming more widely used. Plastisol ink is used in garment and clothing printing industry, popular for screen printing t0shirts. It can be used on all type of textile material and easy to print on a dark background. Screen printing with plastisol ink is probably the most common way to decorate garments. There are a few strong advantages to working with plastisol such as it doesnt dry out in the screens. It is also thick and therefore opaque, so it is ideal for printing on dark garments.


  1. Puff prints are these prints which are raised about one-eighth of an inch above the print surface. Once the design is printed and dried, the image rises. It is very much used in Kids wear and T-shirts.


  1. Foil prints are these prints with the foil on the fabric for shiny effect. The effects that can be created with foil can be quite stunning and appealing. In addition to shiny finishes such as gold and silver, gloss and matt foils are also available. It is very much used in fashion garments, kids garments and teen garments.


  1. 4-Gel prints gel ink is a clear ink that has a smooth or wet like appearance. This ink is usually put on another ink to get color, because the ink alone is colourless. This ink is also great for watermarks or raindrops, especially on swim team apparel. It is applied on dark garments for the best result.
  1. Glitter prints: glitter is made up of tiny pieces of aluminium foil, iron oxides, bismuth oxychloride, copolymer plastics, and other types of materials. Usually these materials are painted in neon, metallic, and iridescent colors, so they can reflect different types of light. Many different industries rely on glitter for sparkle and glam. Glue manufacturers add glitter to clear glue to create glitter glue, which can be used for crafts as well as fashion. The fashion industry flocks glitter into fabric for shimmering fabrics for glamorous accessories and garments.


  1. Suede prints: these prints are perfect for fashion wear, accessories like purse, car interiors, upholstery and more. The effects like casino, zebra and leopard are the more common which are used in fashion garments. They are not made from actual animals; suede ink is a raised ink with fuzzy texture. It is raised about 1/8 to to appear fuzzy.


  1. Thermo-chromic prints: These prints change color at different temperature and can produce an effect like variation of colors depending on the temperature. In this printing, finely ground liquid crystals are incorporated in the print paste. The property of these liquid crystals is that they change color with temperature.


  1. High density prints are raised prints. It is done through a process of adding layers of ink on top of one another to create depth with innovative, 3D graphics of any colour.


  1. Swarovski crystals prints: these are transparent colourful crystals give the garment rich look. They are cut into different shapes and sizes. These are applied onto the garment with hot wand which stick the crystal to the garment. It is then press with heat press for the final seal. They are very durable as long as appropriate care is taken. These are ideal for fashion garments.


  1. Fragrance prints: today, fragrances like lavender, rose, lime, etc have become available that can be readily added on the textile and after printing and fixation, they emit a pleasant fragrance.


  1. Photo chromic prints are almost completely invisible indoors; Photo chromic inks are inks which react to UV rays like those from UV lights or even sunlight. These are different to the UV light reactive products which only react by changing colors under a UV light. UV ink shows its colors when exposed to sunlight. The colors produced are not as bright as normal inks, but UV ink can be made in any color Photo chromic inks react to both UV light and sunlight.
  1. Iridescent prints: these prints give two tonal effect depending on the angle at which the prints are viewed. Light pink, green, blue iridescent pigments are available in the form of powder of a very low particles size which can be used directly like normal pigment colors for printing. It is suitable for both light and dark colour fabrics.


  1. Glow in dark printing: Glow in dark or photo luminous technology is the process of releasing and absorbing the light energy. These prints are visible in dark. Glow ink comes in a variety of colors, including yellow, orange, red, sky blue, aqua, violet and white. Its transparent but not completely, so itll show up very faintly in daylight. Glow ink works best on light coloured fabrics.


This article was originally published in the Textile Review magazine, August, 2012, published by Saket Projects Limited, Ahmedabad.


About the Author:


Bhawana Rawat is an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Mumbai.