Styles of textile printing

Styles Of Textile Printing

Printing can be classified into following styles;

1) Direct style of printing

2) Discharge style of printing
3) Resist style of printing
4) Burnout style of printing

➢ The description of these styles of printing are given

as following.

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Direct printing

• It is the most popular type of printing style.

• In this style the print paste is applied directly at the required places of the
fabric, leaving the other portion white, by any printing method like block
printing, screen printing etc. So this style is called the direct style of
printing.
• Direct printing is the most important type of printing. It may even take
place on a uniformly dyed fabric to produce a particular color effect.
• Printing can be done by using block printing, roller printing, screen
printing, stencil printing etc methods.
➢ In direct style of printing, the required class of dye along with
suitable thickener and other fixation additives are directly applied
to the fabric by suitable means.
➢ In this style the final effect is produced in one operation.
➢ Originally the term direct means that no prior step of mordanting
or following step of dyeing is required.
➢ Direct style may be defined as the style in which the prints are
directly transferred onto the fabric.
➢ Examples of direct styles are;
pigment printing,, Disperse printing, Reactive printing, Vat
printing etc. The printed cloth is dried, colours are fixed by
steaming (or) dry heat and washed if necessary.
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 Advantages

➢Simple, direct and ease of reproducibility.

➢No. of operations is less. All colors are applied

and fixed simultaneously.

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Discharge printing
• In this discharge style printing, the fabric is first dyed to a solid shade and
then printed with a paste containing chemicals capable of destroying the
color.
• It is essential to the printing style that the background colour is produced
from dyestuffs that can be ‘discharged’, that is, destroyed by chemical
reduction in order for the pattern to be displayed after printing of the
discharge paste.
• Common discharging chemicals are based on:
• Formaldehyde sulphoxylates such as sodium formaldehyde sulphoxylate
• Thiourea dioxide
• This allows the printing of white designs on a ground color.
• For example, White polka dot on a blue background can be made by
“White discharge print”. In this process first fabric is dyed with a blue
color, then appropriate dots are printed with the print paste
containing discharging chemical which removes the blue color form
the background of fabric. Finally, washing leaves a white polka dot
design on the blue colored fabric.
 Discharge Style of Printing
➢ It is the production of a printed pattern on a pre-dyed cloth, with
a paste containing a suitable reducing agent, which destroys
(strips) the ground colour dye during subsequent steaming at the
printed portions.

➢ Thus discharge style is nothing but a localized stripping.

➢ There are two types of discharge printing;

1) White discharge
2) Color discharge

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 Discharge Style of Printing
➢ In White Discharge the pattern, after discharging of
the ground color appears white. Thus it is called
white discharge.
➢ In this discharge printing, no other illuminating dye
or discharge-resistant dye is added into the
discharging paste.
➢ In short, the style of printing in which the ground of
fabric after discharge appears white is known as
white discharge.

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 Discharge Style of Printing
• In Color Discharge, the ground of the fabric after discharging
appears in an other color. This color is added in the discharging
paste.
• The selection of dyes for color discharge printing is very critical.
The dyes should be resistant to reduction and not effected by the
discharging agent.
• Dyestuff which is strongly resistant to the discharging agents are
included in the printing paste along with the discharging agent.
• During steaming the ground colour is destroyed by the reducing
agent, whereas the non-dischargeable dye in the print paste get
fixed to the ground.
• The discharge resistant dye added to the print paste is also called
as an illuminating dye. 1
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 Print Pastes For Discharge Printing….
➢ The amount of the reducing agent used should also be
optimum. Because insufficient reducing agent will give
incomplete discharge where as too much amount of reducing
agent will give haloing during steaming.

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 Print Pastes For Discharge Printing….

• Thickeners:
➢ In discharge printing the correct choice of thickener is of
even greater importance than in direct printing. The
thickener used must have good stability to the reducing
agent which is used.
➢ The thickener must be compatible with the reducing agent.
Thus nonionic thickeners are necessary and anionic
thickeners should be avoided.

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 Print Pastes For Discharge Printing….
➢ The choice of dyes is facilitated by the dye manufacturers, who
usually classify their products on a dischargeability scale ranging
from 1 to 5.

➢ A dye which is classified as 5 or 4–5 on this scale are easily

dischargeable and would be suitable for a white discharge.

➢ For a coloured discharge, a dye classified as 4 would be acceptable

or even 3–4 with very deep illuminating colours.

➢ Those dyes which have a dischargeability of only 1 are virtually

undischargeable and, therefore, are suitable as the illuminating
colours in coloured discharge styles.

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• For example, the color-destroying chemical does not affect on vat
dyes so that “Color discharge Print” can also be produced. For color
discharge, these two substances (the color removing chemical and vat
dye) may be mixed together in the same print paste and applied in a
similar fashion.
• When printing with this mixture, the color removing chemical
removes the previously dyed background color while the vat dye color
is simultaneously printed on the fabric. A yellow polka dot on a blue
background can be made by first dyeing the fabric “Blue” then
printing with a yellow vat dye mixed with the color-removing
chemical.
Color Discharge Printed Shirts

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 Advantages of Discharge Printing
1) It enables light, brighter colours to be obtained on a dark ground.
2) Printed materials with large areas of ground color can be
produced.
3) Level ground shades are best obtained by dyeing than blotch
printing.
4) Very sharp features like fine outlines, dots, motifs etc., can be
produced with total clarity, without any smudging (due to
overlapping of contact colours) or outfitting problems normally
faced by direct style of printing.
5) The extra processes required and the additional costs of
discharge pastes mean that production costs are higher, but the
aesthetically superior results give the product a higher value and
enable profit margins to be improved. 1
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 Disadvantages of Discharge
Printing
➢It is an expensive process.

➢Two stage application involved in dyeing or

padding and discharge printing.

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 Resist Printing
• Resist or reserve printing is related to discharge printing in that
the end-results are often indistinguishable because there is not
much difference in the final appearance of prints being printed
by discharge or resist style. However the main difference lies in
the technique used.
• Resist means to hinder. Resist printing, also known as reserve
printing, involves printing the white fabric first with a paste
known as a resist paste.
• resist paste resists either dye penetration or dye fixation.

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Discharge Vs
Resist Style of
printing

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• In resist printing, the resisting agent is printed on the fabric and
afterwards dyed with appropriate dye. The printed area effectively
prevents the fixation or development of the applied color.
• The resist style offers the advantage that dyes of great chemical
stability, which could not be discharged, can be resisted to give
prints of high fastness standards.
 Resist Printing
• The resist printing is of two types;
1. Mechanical resist
2. Chemical resist

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 Mechanical Resist
➢ The mechanical resisting agents include waxes, fats, resins,
thickeners and pigments, such as china clay, the oxides of zinc and
titanium, and sulphates of lead and barium.

➢ Such mechanical resisting agents simply form a physical barrier

between the fabric and the colorant. They are mainly used for the
older, coarser and more decorative styles .

➢ A mechanical resist is usually used in conjunction with a

chemical resist, so improving the overall effect.

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 Chemical Resist
➢ Chemical-resisting agents include a wide variety of chemical
compounds, such as acids, alkalis, various salts, and oxidizing
and reducing agents.

➢ They prevent fixation or development of the ground color by

chemically reacting with the dye or with the reagents
necessary for its fixation or formation.

➢ The actual choice of chemical-resisting agent depends on the

chemistry of the dye being used and its fixation mechanism.

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 Color resist printing
➢ In color resist printing, firstly the background of the fabric is
printed with pigment printing, binder, thickener and ammonia
catalyst.

➢ Then the pigment printed fabric is dyed with appropriate dye,

the pigment will resist the application of dye to the pigment
printed area.

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Flock style of printing
• Flock is branch of short fiber. Flock printing
or flocking is a printing process in which
short fibers (1/10” – 1/4”) of rayon, cotton,
wool or other natural or synthetic fibres are
applied to an adhesive-coated surface
(accordance with a particular design) to
create a textured or raised design. This
adds a pile like texture to the surface. Since
the fibers can be dyed, flocking can also
add color to a printed area.
Crepon or Crimp Style of Printing
• This style is characterized by the appearance of alternate plain and
crinkle stripes in the fabric itself. This effect can be brought about by
localized fabric shrinkage with appropriate swelling agent.
• For example, if cotton fabric is printed in a striped pattern with strong
caustic soda and a thickening agent, it shrinks in the printed areas and
thus causes the to crimp. The greater the shrinkage or contraction of
the printed areas, the more pronounced the effect becomes.
Emboss Style of Printing
• Textile embossing is generally done on smooth
surfaces. This is done by pressing the fabric under high
pressure, and at high temperature, creating a three-
dimensional effect giving a unique look to the
garment.
• Embossing in textiles is mainly used in non- wovens
such as napkins, diapers, tissue papers etc.
• Embossing uses a metal-engraved die/roller along
with pressure, temperature and time to press into the
fabric a design mark that will not fade or wash away.
 Puff Print
• Puff print is another common print in the fashion
industry. Sometimes it is called emboss print also.
• Puff printing technique uses a heat-activated foaming
agent to create a raised, three-dimensional effect
• In this method when the paste is printed and dries it
looks like normal printed textile but once it is cured
the prints get raised or expands from the surface of
the fabric when exposed to high temperature creating
a 3D feel.
 Burn-out Printing
• Burn-out print is a print technique that removes part of
the fabric or
• It is carried out on blended fabric specially for those
blends which have a high percentage of cotton, linen,
viscose.
• A print paste containing highly strong mineral acid is
screen printed onto the fabric that burns out the
cellulosic fibres leaving the protein (wool or silk) or
synthetic fibres (polyester or nylon).
• This process is very corrosive and requires special care in
supervision
Transfer Printing
• Transfer printing involves the transfer of colour from one
surface to another surface, generally from a paper to a
textile material.
• Here, in the transfer paper on which the patterns are
printed with dyestuff having suitability for dry heat
drying.
• They are treated for 15 – 40 sec at around 200°C.

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• The required design with suitable dye are printed on a glazed strong
paper.
• Then it is coated with an adhesive resin to have better tack with fabric.
There are basically four techniques available for transfer printing.
• Types of Transfer Printing
1) Wet – transfer printing
2) Film – release transfer printing
3) Sublimation – transfer printing
4) Melt transfer printing

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 Wet –transfer printing
• In this dyes printed on paper migrate to fabric
having fixing chemicals, which is fed in wet condition.
• This process was developed by Trans prints Ltd. for transfer
printing of nylon and acrylic.
• It uses transfer paper printed with acid dye or cationic dye. In
transfer printing, cloth to be printed is first padded with the
treating liquor.
• Then transfer paper is fed along with wet state fabric, both
are sandwiched in between a cylinder & an endless blanket
for transfer printing at 100° – 120°C and the printed cloth is
washed.

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 Film – release transfer printing (Cont…)
• In this system, the paper is printed with highly flexible
polymeric film containing dyes & dye fixing gents.
• The fabric and papers are passed through the nip of a heated
Roller under pressure.
• The coloring matter & the thermoplastic binder are
transferred to the fabric under heat & pressure.
• After the release of the film, paper is removed when the
design is completely transferred to the fabric.

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 Sublimation transfer printing

• The vapour phase transfer takes place by heating under pressure at

180–220 °C for 20 seconds.

• The dye sublimes under heat from the paper and is absorbed by
thermoplastic substrates (PET).

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 Melt transfer printing
• Here, the paper is printed with printing ink
containing wax and thickener.

• When the printed design is placed down on the

fabric and pressed by hot iron.

• The wax melts and the impression is transferred to

the fabric.

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Thank you