The biggest benefit of venturing into the textile business is the plethora of options it provides when it comes to customisation and making your product line unique. From embroidery and handwork to dye options, embellishments, textures and prints, there are a lot of ways to make your clothing stand out. Of all these creative methods, we as a wholesale printed t-shirts supplier have always been fascinated by textile printing and its various means.
Cotton Monk has been in the business of textile manufacturing for a good 40 years now. With this experience, we have been able to understand the art of fabric printing and the means to meet client expectations through our quality and services. We try to offer a complete textile manufacturing experience with our clients being involved in every stage and being given the space to customise and create for themselves a brand identity.
Wholesale printed t-shirt suppliers are basically into the business of manufacturing and selling printed fabric clothing. Fabric printing just like the name suggests is the art of creating beautiful designs and patterns on cloth surfaces. Although it can be perceived to be an easy process because of how commonly we see printed fabrics in our daily life, it is anything but that.
Wholesale printed t-shirt suppliers have to follow a procedural execution to ensure that the printing is precise, durable and vibrant. But the process of fabric printing isn’t restricted to one method. Textiles can be printed using 5 broad methods, each one with its own unique benefit and means. Here’s a brief about all the 5 methods for us to better understand the process of Textile Printing.
Block printing
The most authentic painting styles and intricate designs are achieved through this method of fabric printing. Due to its intricate history, there are many techniques to execute this process but it all trickles down to covering a carved material with ink or dye and then transferring the image by pressing it down on the fabric. Although the materials used can be wood, linoleum or rubber, woodblock printing is the most authentic of them all. It’s one of the earliest, slower and simpler methods of printing. Block printing by hand often yields the best, most authentic results and can be commonly noticed in most ethnic wears like Kurtis and sarees.
Roller printing
Also known as machine printing, this is the more mechanical method which is invented by Thomas Bell to make fabric printing easier. In this method, coloured pattern is applied on clothes by transferring dye pastes on designs engraved in metal rollers and then running them on the cloth using machines. Most common patterns like strip motifs and recurring dot patterns are printed on fabrics using this method. Since it is more mechanical, the technique can be used with almost any textile fabric.
Screen printing
This technique follows a slightly different process where a mesh, as opposed to a carved 3D structure, is used to transfer the prints. The mesh is placed on a cloth above which a blocking stencil with the design is placed. Dye paints and Inks of the respective colour are then transferred onto the mesh which only seeps through the places that aren’t blocked by the stencil. A blade is used to swipe down the dye paste allowing it to pass through the open areas of the mesh. This way a particular design can be imprinted on fabrics. Only one colour can be printed at a time so several screens have to be used to produce a multicolour image. It is a slightly more expensive method with small factors like the quality and the size of the mesh having the power to alter the outcome of the finished design on the material.
Heat transfer printing
A relatively more recent innovation, this process is also known as thermal printing. Using heat and pressure a wax image is transferred to a garment. One can either use pre-painted images from a wax sheet or it can be done by layering wax dye onto an object through either vinyl or digital printing methods. This process requires special kinds of inks to work. Because it is inducing a chemical change, the process is more durable, heat and water-resistant. But as it is a little complicated, it is more ideal for small orders as opposed to bulk fabric printing.
Digital Fabric Printing
The most common, feasible and millennial method of printing fabrics, digital printing is the process of transferring colourants to fabric using inkjet technologies. Think of it as the same mechanism as printing paper but into textiles. Most graphic tees and promotional merchandise are printed using this method.
With fashion and digital seeing a growing dependency, more textile businesses and wholesale printed t-shirt suppliers have started investing in digital printing technologies. In India, the textile industry has advanced tremendously in the recent past catering to about 1% of the global demand for printed textiles.
Understanding this demand, we at Cotton Monk have constantly been evolving and updating ourselves as a wholesale printed t-shirts supplier to be able to cater to global requirements and trends. Our client testimonials are a result of our fine quality products and our manufacturing standards. Do get in touch to test some of our samples for printed t-shirts and cotton clothing.