How Is Printed Fabric Made and What Does Your Factory Need to Know?

Time to read: 19 minutes

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Mart Production, Pexels

In the process of creating your fashion line, once you've determined your target demographic, color palette, and overall design strategy, it's time to move on to the next major step: selecting your printed fabric.

At times, you will notice that solid colors don’t do your garments justice, which is when to create something with more visual interest. There are many ways to go about this, like purchasing ready-made printed fabric from a shop (like Moda Fabrics), from independent designers (see Spoonflower, My Fabric Designs), or creating custom printed fabric yourself. For inspiration, check out Patternbank, the Pattern Library, and Pattern Observer. 

Whichever option you choose, it’s a good idea to know how and why certain fabrics are decorated in a specific technique, as well as what technology is out there to bring your ideas to life.

This article will look at the various ways prints may be applied to the fabric and will answer some common questions to help you decide what works best for your collection and how to communicate your ideas to your team and factory.

How Fabric Prints Are Made and the Types of Prints You Need to Know About

First things first, let’s go over the types of prints you can use. The two main classifications are repeat prints and placement prints.

Repeat Prints

As a fashion designer, you have a lot to gain by learning to create repeat patterns in order to build a seamless design on a length of cloth. The most widely used software for creating repeats is Adobe Illustrator (they have a number of tutorials if you need guidance).

The most common repeat print formats are:

How printed fabric is made with repeats. Canva, Unsplash, Freepik

The square / full drop / block pattern repeat – this is the simplest type of drop. It is rarely used in retail fabrics because it’s not the most aesthetically appealing, but it can serve as a starting point for a more intricate print;

1. The half-drop repeat print – it’s the most popular way of repeating motifs as it’s simple to make but has a nice flow and balance;

2. The brick repeat print – it’s the same as the half-drop, in principle, but the offset is horizontal instead of vertical;

3. Mirror repeat – the motifs are arranged so that the print tile has two lines of symmetry;

4. Diamond/lozenge repeat – by rotating the square pattern at 45°, you can obtain a basic diamond repeat;

5. Ogee repeat – it’s similar to a diamond pattern, but the motif’s side is more rounded;

6. Stripe repeat – can be made up of simple lines or a motif that is multiplied along a straight or wavy line;

7. Random repeat – it’s used to create organic designs like floral or paisley patterns.

Any other types of print repeats are usually iterations of the ones mentioned above, and they can be made into rather complex designs.

Other considerations for printing include the spacing and scale of the motif inside a tile, which should be determined by the desired outcome.

Maksim Goncharenok, Pexels

• Spacing is a purely aesthetic choice — it's up to you to decide how much of the fabric print’s background you want to reveal through the motifs.

• The scale, however, is strongly related to the end use of the fabric. There are small-scale patterns (with ½ sq in motifs), medium-scale patterns (½ – 4 sq in motifs), and large-scale patterns (motifs greater than 4 sq in). To help you better understand the concept, here's a quick YouTube tutorial that explains how to choose the correct scale of a fabric print for a dress.

Placement Prints

Full front placement print on a T-shirt. Klara Kulikova, Unsplash

Placement prints (also known as engineered prints) are extremely popular with T-shirts and comprise a single image or a block of text. They are usually made after the garment is sewed.

According to printing standards, the positions of the designs are usually:

• Left chest

• Center chest

• Full front

• Oversize front

• Back collar

• Upper back

• Full back

• Sleeve

• All-over placement

You can get as creative as you want to with placement; just remember to keep it commercial and in line with your audience. Printing over seams should be avoided unless you deliberately want to achieve a distressed look. When communicating with your factory about the design for placement prints, keep in mind the following:

• Prepare a technical sketch of the print's position and note the placement measurements (e.g., 5 cm down from the center front neck);

• Note the dimensions of the print: the height and width;

• Note the type of print you want;

• If you are using spot colors, provide Pantone references for each color;

• Optionally, add additional notes on the quality and feel you want to achieve;

• Always send a separate source file containing your artwork;

• If you have multiple prints for the same garment, send them in separate appropriately named files rather than grouping them all together; to keep things easy to understand.

How to Print Designs on Fabric — Available Technology

Preparing a T-shirt for printing. Deniz Demirci, Unsplash

Did you know that one of the earliest examples of printed fabric dates back to the fourth century C.E. in China? Carved block printing (or xylography) is believed to have originated there.

The textile business has seen significant changes over the years, and we are now in the midst of the digital age. Printing technology is becoming more affordable while also improving quality and durability. With all the resources available, fashion designers can develop a fashion line by themselves if they wish to work independently.

On that account, let’s look at some of the most popular printing methods today.

1. Flatbed Screen Printing

This technique is an automated variation of traditional silkscreen printing. It puts different colors on fabric with a machine that supports ten or more rectangular screens — one screen for each color of the design.

The fabric is moved along a wide rubber belt while the squeegees slide from side to side, pressing the ink into the material.

Manufacturers typically offer printing in up to 12 colors, but it's a good idea to ask about the color and size limit.

Here is a video of a flatbed screen printing machine producing a repeat pattern in multiple colors (skip to the seventh minute of the video).

2. Rotary Screen Printing

Manual screen printing. emarts emarts, Unsplash

This is one of the oldest techniques (dating back to 1963), yet it is still the most commonly used for repeat prints today. As opposed to flatbed printing, rotary screen printing introduces the novelty of continuous printing through the use of metal cylinders that replace the flat screen.

As the screen rotates, it releases the ink through perforations inside it and onto the fabric. The cylinder has the same number of screens as the number of colors used in the design.

It’s the fastest method we have so far, but it only makes sense for high-volume manufacturing because creating custom screens can be quite expensive.

3. Heat Transfer Printing

Heat press, Wikipedia

In this procedure, an image is printed on a piece of paper with special dyes and then sealed into the fabric using a press. This is another time-saving option, and as you might expect, it’s great for placement prints such as T-shirt graphics, logos, and writing. It is also one of the most economical printing methods.

4. Cool Transfer Printing

This printing process also transfers an image from paper to fabric, but it does it at room temperature.

It is one of the most environmentally friendly solutions because it uses less WECh (water, energy, and chemicals) than rotary screens. Furthermore, when used on cotton and other natural fibers, it maintains its soft texture.

The drawbacks are the costs, as it is a relatively new technology, and it's also incompatible with metallic or glittery inks, as well as with some synthetic fabrics.

5. Digital Printing

It is a game-changer in custom printed fabric, as it requires a compact set-up (no heavy-duty cylinder screens here!). This makes it highly flexible and ideal for small orders and sampling — which, if you are at the beginning of your design journey, can come as a big plus. It also gives you the freedom to scale your placement prints based on the size of the clothes (extremely useful for T-shirts that require decorations in different sizes).

This agile, design-on-demand printing method can be desirable from an environmental consideration as it can reduce waste in production. However, as with all sustainability discussions, the answer is not clear-cut. The treatments that the fabric needs before and after printing require toxic chemicals, so this type of print may not be suitable for brands that use organic fabrics or have a “no chemicals” ethos.

Digital printing can be done in two ways:

• Through heat transfer (also referred to as dye-sublimation transfer or thermal transfer) – If you’re more of a visual learner, you can watch a video of the process of heat transfer printing and discover how simple it is.

• With inkjet printing – the technology is comparable to that of a home or office inkjet printer. It can use an endless variety of colors and repeat sizes for highly detailed and vivid designs. A few disadvantages, however, are the high cost, the requirement to prep the fabric and protect the colors from smearing, as well as the extra care needed to avoid damaging the print heads.

6. Discharge Printing

If you have to print a delicate design on a dark-colored material, you might want to try discharge printing.

Also called extract printing, it is used in screen printing to selectively remove color on pre-dyed fabrics — usually made of organic fibers. So, instead of adding color to your textiles, you use a special water-based formula containing a dye remover.

You can also obtain different colored prints instead of simply bleaching the base color.

It is more expensive than other techniques but can achieve results that other methods cannot. For example, when used on cotton garments, it doesn’t alter their naturally soft texture. However, you’ll need to take care with your quality control that this process doesn’t cause damage to the fabric — which is known as a “tender spot”.

Using Ink on Printed Fabric

Fabric inks. Kyle Van Horn, Flickr

Let's move on to the types of fabric ink that can be used with the methods presented above.

While there are many options available, the most frequently used in the industry are plastisol and water-based inks.

Plastisol Ink

Plastisol is a synthetic, polymer-based fabric ink that is most commonly used in garment decoration, particularly screen printing, because it requires a high temperature to cure (260-350 °F) so that it does not wash out.

A decoration made of plastisol ink doesn’t penetrate the fabric so much, giving the design a plasticized and rigid texture. However, it’s cost effective and doesn’t come out in the wash.

Water-based Ink

This type of fabric ink is thinner than plastisol and seeps into the fabric giving it a more natural feel. To ‘seal’ a design, first, you need to evaporate the water in the ink with a gas dryer, and then cure the ink layer at 320 °F.

Even though it is less user-friendly (it dries quickly when exposed to air), you may opt for water-based ink if you are attempting to decrease plastic waste. After all, garment production is responsible for a fifth of the plastic produced globally every year, so every small step toward a more sustainable industry counts.

When it comes to color choice, we have spot color printing and CMYK or process color printing.

Spot Color Printing

Spot color ink (where ‘spot’ simply refers to a solid color) consists of pre-mixed colors—usually Pantone. This option is ideal for maintaining a consistent design across your collection and communicating with your team and factory by using the same color codes.

It’s a common technique for both screen and litho printing.

If this method is used, your tech pack or artwork spec must list each and every Pantone reference used in your design.

CMYK (Process Color) Printing

Microscopic view of a cerulean print made with the CMYK technique, Wikipedia

CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key/black) inks are transparent and make up solid colors through layering. When it comes to screen printing, the garment requires four separate ink applications as opposed to just one in spot color printing, in order to recreate the image.

This method is more often used in creating stationery (cards, notebooks) rather than custom printed fabrics—unless you opt for inkjet printing.

Final Thoughts

If you've ever wondered how printed fabric is made, we hope this overview of print types, printing technology, and textile inks has helped. We also hope you now have a clear direction for your fashion line and can confidently pursue your goals.

Should you need further support in creating your fashion collection, check out our online workshops. You can also download the free templates in our store if you’ve reached the development stage and need a little bit of guidance to start production. Alternatively, if you would like to work with us directly, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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