![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fashioninsiders.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/woodblock-printing.jpg\")
Woodblock Printing Technique<\/h3>\n
Woodblock printing is one of the earliest printing techniques. It creates a natural, almost vintage effect on natural fabrics such as cotton, linen and silk.<\/p>\n
William Morris used this method, to great effect, for some of his materials. For every colour used in the design, a separate wooden block must be carved. The larger, heavier designs are carved first while the more intricate detailing is left till last.<\/p>\n
In some instances, a method, called coppering<\/strong>, in which strips of brass or copper are driven into the blocks to represent finer design details, is also used. The colour is applied to the block and pressed firmly onto the cloth. This process is then repeated until the full length of fabric is printed.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n Fabric and dye costs are relatively affordable. The carving of the wood block can be labour intensive depending on the intricacy of the design. Therefore, the costs could be quite high.<\/p>\n Cylinder Printing in the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0Century the technique of roller or cylinder printing was developed, supplanting woodblock printing on textiles in industrialised countries.<\/p>\n Cylinder printing is the process by which the fabric is carried along a rotating central cylinder and pressed by a series of rollers, each of which is engraved with the design. Each roller is fed a different colour through feed rollers, and some roller printing machines were even able to print 6 colours at once, making them much faster than the block printing process. The printed cloth is then passed through a drying chamber, followed by a steam chamber where the moisture and heat set the dye.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n Screen printing is one of the most popular forms of printing. The technique uses a screen made from nylon which is mounted onto a metal frame and is taut. A stencil is formed by blocking off parts of the screen where the ink will appear on the material.<\/p>\n It is particularly good for printing onto pre-made items such as tee shirts and canvas bags. The inks used for screen printing contain a fixative which renders them fairly thick.<\/p>\n The large variety of inks form the basis for the application of specialist effects. These include expanding ink; added to plastisol inks to create a puffed effect on garments, flocking; a glue printed onto the fabric and flock material is applied for a velvet touch and caviar beads; a glue that is printed in the shape of the design to which small plastic beads are applied. It works well with solid block areas as it creates an interesting tactile surface.<\/p>\n Should you wish to print lighter colours onto darker materials then a discharge ink would be used.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n As the name suggests, this printing technique uses heat and pressure to inscribe the design on the garment. An average heat press machine consists of a hot plate, temperature and pressure controller, a clam-like handle to press down on, a timer and a soft rubber pad onto which a t-shirt or a garment goes.<\/p>\n You set the temperature to 180-190 degree Celsius, place the garment on the rubber pad, design\/print your pattern that you want to print, on a transfer paper. Place the paper face-down and press the clam handle for 13 seconds (or until the timer runs off).<\/p>\n Lift the handle, stretch the garment so that you can peel off the transfer paper easily. You will see that the design has been printed on the garment now.<\/p>\n If you want to do the same at the back, just put silicone paper on the design you’ve just printed (for its safety and to avoid cracks) and print on the backside as you did above.<\/p>\n Remove the transfer paper from the back and silicone paper from the front. Stretch the fabric a little and you’re good to go.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong> Easy and quick to do. It allows a variety of colours in one go.<\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong> Good for smaller businesses\/quantities as this is entirely manual labour. Also, Prints can fade after several washes.<\/p>\n Cost:<\/strong> Moderate<\/p>\n Dye-sublimation printing is a digital printing technology (part of heat press) using full-colour artwork that works with polyester and polymer-coated fabrics.<\/p>\n Also referred to as digital sublimation, the process is commonly used for decorating apparel, and other items with sublimation-friendly surfaces.<\/p>\n The process uses the science of\u00a0sublimation, in which heat and pressure are applied to a solid, turning it into a gas through an endothermic reaction without passing through the liquid phase.<\/p>\n In sublimation printing, unique dyes are transferred to sheets of \u201ctransfer\u201d paper, via liquid gel ink, through a\u00a0piezoelectric\u00a0print head.<\/p>\n The ink is deposited on these high-release inkjet papers, which are used for the next step of the sublimation printing process.<\/p>\n After the digital design is printed onto sublimation transfer sheets, it is placed on a heat press along with the material to be sublimated.<\/p>\n In order to transfer the image from the paper to the material, it requires a\u00a0heat press\u00a0process that is a combination of time, temperature and pressure. The heat press applies this special combination, which can change depending on the material used, to \u201ctransfer\u201d the sublimation dyes at the molecular level into the material.<\/p>\n The end result of the sublimation process is a nearly permanent, high resolution, full colour print. Because the dyes are infused into the material at the\u00a0molecular<\/a>\u00a0level, rather than applied at a topical level (such as with\u00a0screen printing<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0direct to garment printing<\/a>), the prints will not crack, fade or peel from the material under normal conditions.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Costs:<\/strong> These are dependent on the size and type of material selected.<\/p>\n Often referred to as direct-to-garment printing, DTG printing, or digital garment printing. It is a process of printing reactive ink onto textiles and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology which penetrates the fabric, unlike screen-printing which sits on top of the cloth.<\/p>\n This printing method is perfect for long lengths of fabric as a repeat image is created through the Adobe suite and sent to the printer as a file.<\/p>\n The inks, unlike those used for screen-printing, are very thin and do not contain a fixative. The fabrics that are used for DTG are pre-treated with a fixative.<\/p>\n These fabrics include<\/strong> silk, cotton, rayon, wool and linen as well as mixes of the aforementioned. Inkjet printing on fabric is also possible with an inkjet printer by using fabric sheets with a removable paper backing.<\/p>\n Today, major inkjet technology manufacturers can offer specialized products designed for direct printing on textiles, not only for sampling but also for bulk production. Printing onto nylon and silk can be done by using acid ink.<\/p>\n Reactive ink is used for cellulose-based fibres such as cotton and linen. Inkjet technology in digital textile printing allows for single pieces, mid-run production and even long-run alternatives to screen printed fabric.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fashioninsiders.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/design-infographic-bundle-fashion-insiders.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\n
Cylinder Printing Technique<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
![\"screen](\"https:\/\/fashioninsiders.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/screen-printing-techniques.jpg\")
Screen Printing Technique<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Heat Press Printing Technique<\/h3>\n
Dye-sublimation Printing Technique<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fashioninsiders.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/digital-printing.jpg\")
Digital Printing Technique<\/h3>\n