Effects of Pretreatments on Print Qualities of Digital Textile Printing

Abstract

Research presented in this paper addresses some preliminary attempts to establish the relationship between the pretreatment and the digital printing quality by the use of digital image analysis and optical microscopy. As in traditional textile printing, miss color, out of fit patterns, mottle, and color defects due to poor ink surface coverage can occur in digital printing. More specifically, defects in the digital printing of textile fabrics can be categorized into color-related issues (color gamut, color matching, light fastness, wash fastness and uniformity) and appearance-related issues (line definition, dot geometry, penetration, intensity and color registration). Woven and knitted cotton fabrics were treated with twelve formulations including ingredients like alginate, silicone and silica. Printed patterns were analyzed using an optical microscope and a digital image analysis to quantify the print qualities in terms of color-related metrics (L*a*b*) and appearance-related metrics (line width). Results show that digital textile printing quality on cotton fabrics can be optimized with appropriate pretreatments.