Textile printing is the process of applying colour to fabric in definite patterns or designs. In printing, wooden blocks, stencils, engraved plates, rollers, or silkscreens can be used to place colours on the fabric.

Hand block printing is a centuries old Indian art form that utilizes a hand carved teak wood block that is dipped in dye and stamped by hand onto cotton or silk.

The design for the block is usually a traditional Indian motif. The motif is traced onto a block by a master craftsman who then chips away at the block to create a stamp.

 

This process was patented by Bell in 1785, fifteen years after his use of an engraved plate to print textiles. Roller Printing also called engrave roller printing. It is a modern continuous printing technique. In this method, a heavy copper cylinder (roller) is engraved with the print design by carving the design into the copper. Copper is soft, so once the design is engraved, the roller is electroplated with chrome for durability. This printing technique developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Until the development of rotary screen printing; it was the only continuous technique. Designs with up to 16 colors present no problem in Roller Printing.

 

Screen printing is by far the most common technology today. Two types exist: rotary screen printing and flat (bed) screen printing. A blade (squeegee) squeezes the printing paste through openings in the screen onto the fabric.

 

Digital textile printing is often referred to as direct-to-garment printing, DTG printing, or digital garment printing. It is a process of printing on textiles and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology.In this form of printing micro-sized droplets of dye are placed onto the fabric through an inkjet printhead. The print system software interprets the data supplied by a cademic_Textiledigital image file. The digital image file has the data to control the droplet output so that the image quality and color control may be achieved. This is the latest development in textile printing and is expanding very fast. Digital Textile Printing

It is the most common approach to apply a colour pattern on fabric. It can be done on white or a coloured fabric. If done on coloured fabric, it is known as overprinting. The desired pattern is produced by imprinting dye on the fabric in a paste form. To prepare the print paste, a thickening agent is added to a limited amount of water and dye is dissolved in it. Earlier corn starch was preferred as a thickening agent for cotton printing.

Nowadays gums or alginates derived from seaweed are preferred because they are easier to wash out, do not themselves absorb any colour and allow better penetration of colour. Most pigment printing is done without thickeners as the mixing up of resins, solvents and water itself produces thickening.

In this approach, the fabric is dyed in piece and then it is printed with a chemical that destroys the colour in the designed areas. Sometimes, the base colour is removed and another colour is printed in its place. The printed fabric is steamed and then thoroughly washed. This approach is on decline these days.

In this technique, a resist paste is imprinted on the fabric and then it is dyed. The dye affects only those parts that are not covered by the resist paste. After dyeing, the resist paste is removed leaving a pattern on a dark background.

There are various methods of printing in which one of the above three techniques is used - Block Printing, Roller Printing, Duplex Printing, Stencil Printing, Screen Printing, Transfer Printing, Blotch Printing, Jet Spray Printing, Electrostatic Printing, Photo Printing, Differential Printing, Warp Printing, Batik Dyeing, Tie Dyeing, Airbrush (Spray) Painting and Digital printing. 

Printing is done on both sides of the fabric either through roller printing machine in two operations or a duplex printing machine in a single operation.

The design is first cut in cardboard, wood or metal. The stencils may have fine delicate designs or large spaces through which colour is applied on the fabric. Its use is limited due to high costs involved.

The design on a paper is transferred to a fabric by vaporization. There are two main processes for this- Dry Heat Transfer Printing and Wet Heat Transfer Printing. In Conventional Heat Transfer Printing, an electrically heated cylinder is used that presses a fabric against a printed paper placed on a heat resistant blanket. In Infrared Heat Vacuum Transfer Printing, the transfer paper and fabric are passed between infrared heaters and a perforated cylinder which are protected from excessive heat by a shield. The Wet Heat Transfer Printing uses heat in a wet atmosphere for vaporizing the dye pattern from paper to fabric. 

It is a direct printing technique where the background colour and the design are both printed onto a white fabric usually in a one operation. Any of the methods like block, roller or screen may be used. 

Designs may be hand painted on fabric or the dye may be applied with a mechanized airbrush which blows or sprays colour on the fabric.

A dye- resin mixture is spread on a screen bearing the design and the fabric is passed into an electrostatic field under the screen. The dye- resin mixture is pulled by the electrostatic field through the pattern area onto the fabric.

The fabric is coated with a chemical that is sensitive to light and then any photograph may be printed on it.

It is a technique of printing tufted material made of yarns having different dyeing properties such as carpets. Upto a ten colour effect is possible by careful selection of yarns, dyestuffs and pattern.

It is roller printing applied to warp yarns before they are woven into fabric. 

Firm knots are tied in the cloth before it is immersed in a dye. The outside of the immersed portion is dyed but the inside is not penetrated. There are various forms of Tie dyeing like Ikat Dyeing where bundles of warp and/ or weft yarns are tie dyed prior to their weaving. In Plangi Dyeing the gathered, folded or rolled fabric is usually held with stitching to form specific patterns.

It is a resist dyeing process. Designs are made with wax on a fabric which is then immersed in a dye. The unwaxed portion absorbs the colour.