Glossary

Printed Fabric This is a fabric on which a pattern is printed with an ink or dye.

A printed fabric has a pattern printed on it either with ink or dye. It is usually a flat fabric woven from a variety of threads such as acrylics, nylons, cottons and polyesters cotton. The fabric is tightly woven with rich woven designs and patterns. It adds color and glamour to the fabrics with bright printed floral or subtle replicating patterns, simple earth tones or fake fur fluorescent.

Printed fabric is a traditional choice for upholstered furniture. The printed designs are usually associated with thinner and delicate fabrics. It is the mainstay of the garment and soft furnishings industries.

Types of Printing

Block printing - It was first developed in China. In this type of printing the carvers use to carve fine work on wooden block and then cover it with ink. The wood is pressed upon the fabric to create duplicate pattern of the original.

Roller printing - In this type of printing, the fabric is fed into a giant set of rollers where a one of the rollers continually imparted a design on the fabric as it rolled past. Usually vertical lines are created on the fabric by this process.

Pigment printing - This is the process where pigment is used for printing.

Copperplate printing - This process was used on silk which is a pattern printed by disposition. Pen is available in fabric stores that is used to draw on paper and then set the paper over the fabric and press it with hot iron. New technique use paper that is run through an inkjet printer and then ironed on to fabric.

Dye sublimation - In this process, an image is digitally printed in reverse with a special type of dye sublimation toners or inks onto regular media. The image is placed on top of polyester. In scientific terms, a material is directly converted into a gaseous state from solid dying the threads.

Direct printing - This is a type of digital printing to fabric which accepts the ink from inkjet coated printer similar to inkjet paper.