PRINTING

• Printing
• Printing is a process of decorating textile fabrics by application of pigments, dyes, or other related materials in the
form of patterns. Although apparently developed from the hand painting of fabrics, such methods are also of great
antiquity. There is evidence of printing being carried out in India during the 4th century BCE, and a printing block
dated at about 300 CE has been unearthed in the burial grounds of Akhmīn in Upper Egypt. Pre-Columbian printed
textiles have been found in Peru and Mexico. Textile printing has become highly sophisticated and has involved the
skills of many artists and designers.
• The four main methods of textile printing are block, roller, screen, and heat transfer printing. In each of these
methods, the application of the colour, usually as a thickened paste, is followed by fixation, usually by steaming or
heating, and then removal of excess colour by washing. Printing styles are classified as direct, discharge, or resist. In
direct printing, coloured pastes are printed directly on the cloth. For discharge printing, the cloth is first dyed with a
background colour, which is destroyed by reagents, or reducing agents, carried in a print paste. This action may leave
the discharged design white on a coloured background, although print pastes may also contain colouring matters not
destroyed by the discharging agent, producing a coloured design. In the resist process, the cloth is first printed with a
substance called a resist, protecting these printed areas from accepting colour. When the cloth is dyed or pigment
padded only those parts not printed with the resist are dyed. A special application of this technique, imparting plissé
effects, is the printing of the fabric with a resist, followed by treatment with caustic soda.