State of digital print on cotton fabric

Another method of printing on cotton tee shirts is digital printing.

Digital printing on cotton can only achieved with large specialty printers which use special inks and dyes.  

The key challenge with digital printing on cotton is consistency of colour and coverage of ink over the fabric. Below is a list of typical issues with digital printing:

Uncoloured pigments. This results in small white spots where there is no colour.

• Poor colour penetration. This results in areas where it looks like the colour has faded.
• This is especially an issue with bright and loud colours, which will appear mode dull.

Below are examples of our screen-printed designs on the left and experimental digital versions on the right.

The digital printed version resulted in an inconsistent background colour with large areas where the colour failed to fully print.

 

 

The above shows a faded colour as well as a distinct area where no colour was applied (circled red).

The key advantage of screen printing is the consistent quality of print.