TEXTIL PLUS FACHARTIKEL RIP TECHNOLOGY, COLORIMETRY AND COLOR MANAGEMENT IN DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING Software and workflow topics are often underrepresented in the machine-dominated textile industry, but they have a critical influence on quality and profitability. Professional color management, for example, enables technology-agnostic printing of textiles or networked printing across remote locations. ■ ■ ■ Inkjet printing on textiles has many advantages: there is no need to make printing forms or screens, which makes the process ideal for smaller runs and enables the economic production of personalized and individualized prints. Ink- jet-based processes are also preferred for printing photo- OLIVER LUEDTKE graphic images. However, there are also some challenges Dipl.-Ing. to be mastered: on the one hand, ink is absorbed by fabrics, Chief Marketing Officer so the textile or fabric must first be pre-treated. The differ- ColorGATE ent types of fibers, dyeing techniques and finishings of the DE-30171 Hannover base material provide a wealth of changing parameters as
[email protected] well. Still, customers have high expectations of the print qual- ity: despite the relatively uneven surface, they expect a de- The RIP: the data preparation hub tailed and well-resolved print with a large color gamut. In All these and more tasks are fulfilled by the RIP and color direct-to-garment printing, the substrate is often a dark or management solution. In the closer sense of the word, a RIP black garment. In such cases, the use of white ink is a basic («Raster Image Processor») is a software or hardware compo- requirement for the printing process, because the CMYK nent that converts print data into the output format of the inks used are not opaque but translucent.