Fiber
Fiber properties have an impact on printing because dye is fiber specific. Therefore dyes are chosen based on the fibers which compose the textile fabric. For example, 100% cotton fabric can be printed with reactive dyes, vat dyes, or other cotton-specific dyes. Alternatively, a cotton polyester blend requires two dye types combined in the print paste. One type is for the cotton fibers, such as reactive, and one type is for the polyester fibers, such as disperse. Textile pigments may also be used. They are not dyes but colorants and require a binder or glue to affix them to the surface of the textile fibers.
Unlike dyes, pigments are not fiber specific, therefore a 60/40 cotton polyester blend could be printed with a single pigment. Pigments work equally well on 100% cotton fabrics and various fiber blends.
Yarn
The type of yarn construction also has an influence on textile printing. Because print color is applied from one side of the fabric, the evenness, brightness, and depth of the color are very sensitive to the hairiness, twist, and luster of the yarns. For instance, the higher the yarn luster, the brighter the printed color. Fiber luster can also influence the appearance of the printed design in much the same way. If yarns are highly twisted, they may not allow print paste to penetrate deeply into the yarn bundle and this yields poor print color fastness. Additionally, fine to medium yarns generally are easier to print than large, bulky yarns or novelty yarns.
Fabric
Fabric construction properties impact the quality of the printed fabric as well as the printing process itself. For example, wovens are normally easier to print than knits. This is because woven fabrics are much more dimensionally stable than knit fabrics. Fabrics with a flat surface are easier to print than fabrics with a pike surface. A good example of this difference is to compare the typical printing process for sheets with that of bath towels. Most fabrics are normally printed on flat for rotary screen-printing machines and typically require a single squeegee stroke for the printing process. In contrast, bath towels are usually printed on flat screen-printing machines and may require as many as four squeegee strokes to force the print color down into the fabric pile. The extra squeegee strokes severely limit the printing production speed for towel fabric. Any fabric with surface texture will present more printing challenges than a comparable flat surface fabric. Additionally, thin or sheer fabric may present more printing problems than a thicker fabric of the same fiber content.
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