Types of ink for digital textile printing

For each fabric its dye

The main types of ink for digital textile printing are thus divided according to the type of fiber:

• Dyes for cellulosic fibers: pigments, reactives.
• Dyes for polyester fibers: disperse, pigments, dye sublimation.
• Dyes for wool, silk and animal hair (protein fibers): acids, reactives.
• Dyes for acrylic fibers: disperse.
• Dyes for polyamide fibers: acids, disperse.

There are five types of inks used for digital textile printing and we can summarize them as follows:

• Reactive: they are used on natural or artificial fabrics of plant origin (cotton and viscose), more rarely also on silk
• Acids: used on natural fabrics of animal origin (silk, wool) or synthetic (nylon) with characteristics similar to animal fibers
• Disperse: used mainly on synthetic fibers
• Pigments: they can be used on natural and artificial fibers
• Dye Sublimation: this type of ink can only be used on synthetic fibers