Trends in the textile printing have tilted favorably towards metal embellished designs, which is evident through the growth in number of interested buyers across the globe. Textile printers often opt for foil stamping to produce finished products decorated with metal embellishment. The foil stamping process involves the printing of custom-designed patterns onto cotton and linen fabrics followed by hot stamping using silver, gold and other color foils.
Hemanshu Desai, proprietor of Venus Infotech, a solution provider for textile prints, shares two popular methods for printing on fabrics. He says, “The print on polyester-based garments is done using a sublimation process. However, for cotton, the toner or inkjet-based printers are used to print on special paper and then the image is transferred onto the garment, using heat and pressure. This process is similar to the sublimation process, the only difference being that the ink doesn’t merge with the fabric but stays on the surface of the garment, giving a rubbery feel on top.” Venus Infotech provides two easy solutions for printing on cotton T-shirts to avoid the rubbery feel.
Solutions
According to Desai, only a few developments are happening in fabric print to prevent the rubbery feel after the print process. Using a white toner LED printer, Desai printed a full-color artwork onto a transparent foil paper and with the application of pressure, the paper was pressed against a second paper. The second paper left a white glue coating on the toner behind the printed artwork. “In foil printing, the quality of the adhesive is critical. With the heat transfer, the artwork on the transparent foil paper is transferred onto the given textile product. As a result of high temperature and pressure, the foil leaves an impression of designed caricature onto the relocated base,” shares Desai. Using this methodology, velvet and fluorescent print, various metallic colors can be achieved on the fabric. The new solution can also reduce the pain of printers who currently face the issue of using different papers to print on darkand light-colored fabrics. The only limitation of this process is its ability to print on only A3 size.
The second solution developed by Venus Infotech addresses the most common problem of printing on dark colored fabrics. Meanwhile, through cotton sublimation process, they can print on light colored fabric using special ink and paper.
According to Desai, the demand for customized shirts is rising. The application varies in this case and depending on the application, one can choose the printing method. For instance, a printed shirt for a short-term event is acceptable if color comes off after two to three washes or if there is a rubbery feel to it. However, shirts with customized pictures and names are expected to last longer.
Today’s retail competition is fierce, leaving brands to look for innovative ways to keep shoppers engaged and coming back for more. Personalized shopping experiences are enabling retailers and brands to create an edge in the market by curating superior shopping experience based on the shopper’s unique and individual traits. This solution allows the fashion brand to make relevant new product recommendations based on individual customer browsing behaviors within the same product category.
