Inkjet textile printing

Inkjet textile printing transfers digital designs directly onto textile fabric or finished garments via print heads — comparable to a paper inkjet printer but using dedicated textile inks. The main categories are roll-to-roll printers for piece goods and direct-to-garment (DTG) systems for finished shirts.

Different inks match different fibres: reactive inks for cotton and viscose, disperse inks for polyester (often via sublimation), acid inks for wool and silk, and pigment inks as a fibre-independent universal option. Fixation follows via steam, dry heat or UV. The process enables photorealistic designs with unlimited colours, extremely short setup times and runs starting at a single piece — with up to 90 % less water use than traditional screen printing.

• Economical from a single piece, no screens required
• Photorealistic designs with unlimited colour count
• Substantially lower water and chemical use than rotary screen
• Fixation by steam, heat or UV depending on ink