WTiN’s senior editor and digital textiles lead, Joseph Link, examines the complexities of pigment inks in digital garment decoration.
Pigment inks did not make a seamless transition from analogue to inkjet, but the ink category is still key to the success of digital direct-to-film (DTF) and direct-to-garment (DTG) printing today.
Both DTG and DTF pigment inks have similar characteristics and share a common purpose. They are often water-based for environmental reasons, and cure into a flexible, rubber-like layer that sits on top of the fabric rather than penetrating the fibre. Many pigment inks achieve a high wash fastness, but the strength of the binder is key to a textile print’s durability.
While DTG and DTF pigment inks originate from the same chemistry, each printing process has evolved over time. The emergence of DTF technology as a leading garment decoration process has accelerated the advancement of pigment inks.
Technological innovation
DTF printing’s versatility and low cost resulted in soaring hardware sales in the first half of the 2020s. China catalysed the technology's growth before exporting it overseas, but DTF’s rapid expansion caught many ink and consumable manufacturers off guard. Only now are research and development (R&D) projects being completed, resulting in a wave of DTF innovations that facilitate growth that is focused on strategy rather than scale as the market
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