Digital Fabric Printing
Several months ago posted a question concerning green printers for digitally printed fabric for discussion in a LinkedIn group.
I got a comment back a few days ago. The question seems like I asked it light years ago. Good to see the progress I've made in this area. I thought it would be good to share my reply with you.
"I ordered several yards of fabric in different patterns from the most advertised of the small digital printers in the US. I took a quick glance at the fabric when it arrived and then put it up. The fabrics were organic cotton sateen and organic cotton jersey knit. I used the information from two online tutorials to actually get the hang of ordering fabric online.
From Mamma Made Designs http://blog.mammamadedesigns.com/archive/2008/06/11/spoonflower-fabric-development-series-ndash-part-1.aspx
From Vectortuts Plus http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-tips/a-beginners-guide-to-digital-textile-printing/
This book is an excellent digital design resource Digital Textile Design - Melanie Bowles and Ceri Issac (Amazon Link) http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Textile-Design-Portfolio-Textiles/dp/1856695867 Melanie's website and her blog http://www.melaniebowles.co.uk/Melanie_Bowles/Hello.html http://makeitdigital.blogspot.com/
Once I mastered design, color, and formatting the design for uploading, I was pleased with the color matching of the fabric (still a little brighter than I thought it would be, but there are so many variables to take into consideration. For example, organic fabrics are not bleached, so the base fabric color is not white.)
The hand of these pigment printed fabrics was great. Organic cotton sateen and organic cotton jersey knit are yummy fabrics. The quality of the base fabrics was outstanding.
Big issue when I finally cut the fabric for a line of organic pillow covers I was planning to introduce in November. The printing was so skewed, it was impossible to cut a straight line following the grain. I asked for and received a refund.
This may have been an exceptional situation. I have seen blog posts relating to this same issue in the past, but Mamma Made Designs (whose work and craftsmanship I admire), among others running businesses and requiring a quality fabric product continue to use this printer and appear satisfied with this product.
I am sending two designs to KarmaKraft this week for printing with fiber reactive dyes.
So far, my experience with Scott and Susan has been a good one.
Based on my previous experience I asked a lot of questions up front. The replies were a clear response to all of my questions, received promptly and written in a courteous and customer friendly manner.
I did have trouble downloading my designs on the KarmaKraft.com site. The images are in a TIF format. Scott and Susan suggest just sending the images attached to an email.
I strongly suggest ordering a color blanket/palette from any service you are thinking about using. Getting acquainted with the color palette of any dye takes time in my experience. I don't think working with digital printers will be any different. So if you need exact color matches, expect to have to go through several samples as you familiarize yourself with the palette and make the necessary adjustments to your computer monitor, swatch palettes and for the base color of the fabric you are having your design printed on.
For larger runs of fabric, Melanie Bowles suggests First2Print in LA and NYC. I haven't had any success in getting a response to emails or phone calls from this company.
Keep in mind, when planning projects, that digital printing requires extra room at the selvedge of the fabric for printing. Expect to lose at least one inch in addition to the selvedge. For me this has an impact on cost when I am cutting 23 X 23 inch pillow covers. "
I got a comment back a few days ago. The question seems like I asked it light years ago. Good to see the progress I've made in this area. I thought it would be good to share my reply with you.
"I ordered several yards of fabric in different patterns from the most advertised of the small digital printers in the US. I took a quick glance at the fabric when it arrived and then put it up. The fabrics were organic cotton sateen and organic cotton jersey knit. I used the information from two online tutorials to actually get the hang of ordering fabric online.
From Mamma Made Designs http://blog.mammamadedesigns.com/archive/2008/06/11/spoonflower-fabric-development-series-ndash-part-1.aspx
From Vectortuts Plus http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-tips/a-beginners-guide-to-digital-textile-printing/
This book is an excellent digital design resource Digital Textile Design - Melanie Bowles and Ceri Issac (Amazon Link) http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Textile-Design-Portfolio-Textiles/dp/1856695867 Melanie's website and her blog http://www.melaniebowles.co.uk/Melanie_Bowles/Hello.html http://makeitdigital.blogspot.com/
Once I mastered design, color, and formatting the design for uploading, I was pleased with the color matching of the fabric (still a little brighter than I thought it would be, but there are so many variables to take into consideration. For example, organic fabrics are not bleached, so the base fabric color is not white.)
The hand of these pigment printed fabrics was great. Organic cotton sateen and organic cotton jersey knit are yummy fabrics. The quality of the base fabrics was outstanding.
Big issue when I finally cut the fabric for a line of organic pillow covers I was planning to introduce in November. The printing was so skewed, it was impossible to cut a straight line following the grain. I asked for and received a refund.
This may have been an exceptional situation. I have seen blog posts relating to this same issue in the past, but Mamma Made Designs (whose work and craftsmanship I admire), among others running businesses and requiring a quality fabric product continue to use this printer and appear satisfied with this product.
I am sending two designs to KarmaKraft this week for printing with fiber reactive dyes.
So far, my experience with Scott and Susan has been a good one.
Based on my previous experience I asked a lot of questions up front. The replies were a clear response to all of my questions, received promptly and written in a courteous and customer friendly manner.
I did have trouble downloading my designs on the KarmaKraft.com site. The images are in a TIF format. Scott and Susan suggest just sending the images attached to an email.
I strongly suggest ordering a color blanket/palette from any service you are thinking about using. Getting acquainted with the color palette of any dye takes time in my experience. I don't think working with digital printers will be any different. So if you need exact color matches, expect to have to go through several samples as you familiarize yourself with the palette and make the necessary adjustments to your computer monitor, swatch palettes and for the base color of the fabric you are having your design printed on.
For larger runs of fabric, Melanie Bowles suggests First2Print in LA and NYC. I haven't had any success in getting a response to emails or phone calls from this company.
Keep in mind, when planning projects, that digital printing requires extra room at the selvedge of the fabric for printing. Expect to lose at least one inch in addition to the selvedge. For me this has an impact on cost when I am cutting 23 X 23 inch pillow covers. "
Eco friendly printing has come off the age of being costly and time consuming. To become an active eco -partner and cater to the growing demand, printing industry has adopted technology that made green printing more sustainable, faster and affordable even at smaller level.
ReplyDeleteRecycled Paper Printing
Digital printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset printing methods but this price is usually offset by the cost saving in avoiding all the technical steps in between needed to make printing plates.
ReplyDeleteFantastic blog, Thanks for sharing. Keep posting like this.
ReplyDeleteDigital Printing on Fabric NYC
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