The variables that affect colour in the digital textile printing process
(2019)
author(s): Becky Gooby
published in: Research Catalogue
The development of digital printing is a major change within the textile design process as a designer is no longer restricted to number of colours, repeat patterns, and may include photographic images and intricate detail. With digital print it is now possible to print anything between a metre, or hundreds of metres, at the click of a button.
However, there is a marked difference between screen-colour and print colour. A textiles designer using Computer Aided Design (CAD) to create a design will be required to experiment with a number of variables in order to feel more confident about the outcome when using digital fabric printing.
Colour Maps
(2019)
author(s): Becky Gooby
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition presents 48 colour maps signifying the hue, saturation and brightness (HSB) differences between a screen colour and the resulting colour outcome when printing onto fabric with a digital inkjet textile printer. Each map is a 360 degree hue colour circle that has inner rings decreasing in saturation and brightness.
These diagrams visualise the results of initial gamut mapping exercises to explore the colour shifts for a set of Pantone colours printed onto wool (w), linen (l), cotton(c) and silk (s) using reactive dyes.
The colour maps, or digital lab dip tests, provide designers and SMEs with a visualisation of expected colour shifts, allowing them to make amendments to design work prior to printing, and managing expectations of printed colour outcomes.