The ongoing transformation in printed apparel
In the dynamic world of apparel printing, innovation is accelerating, driven by the convergence of technical developments and sustainability mandates. The industry is effectively undergoing a double transition, which is taking place inside the long-term trend of global consumers buying and wearing more articles of clothing. The humble inkjet head has become a powerful change agent, capable of achieving more with less than ever before. The growing use of the PDF file format, which enables richer graphics and more reliable reproduction of colorful designs, is reshaping garment printing, just as it has done in other industries. These are among the transformations raising the bar for the entire range of garment workflows — from mass production to fast fashion to on-demand printing.
Garment vendors in Europe are leading the world in building sustainable supply chains, in compliance with the EU “Green Deal”. Apparel design and manufacturing will use more recycled materials and, in turn, produce more recyclable clothing. The buzzword is “circularity”. Direct to Garment (DtG) — inkjet printing onto blank finished garments — contributes to sustainability in multiple ways. DtG often replaces traditional screen printing but uses much less water, generating less emissions and chemical waste. It also offers several supply chain advantages that positively impact the environment and the bottom line. Inkjet garment production means smaller batch sizes can be cost-effective, with shorter setup times. Production can occur closer to the consumer, reducing transportation and storage costs. The overall timeline from design to purchase can be significantly shortened with greater flexibility in the production process. DtG designers can unleash their imaginations with beautiful and often complex graphics, while respecting and protecting the environment. After a decade of strong growth, DtG still has significant momentum, and is projected to increase at a healthy pace for at least a decade — 4.5 percent annually.
A related push is to make garment supply chains more transparent and traceable. In the EU, product manufacturers, including in fashion, are working to implement the Digital Product Passport (DPP) by the 2027 deadline. The DPP will be a “digital twin”, carrying product data such as size, weight, raw material, manufacturing facility, and process. The information can be accessed via the garment care label, using a QR barcode or an electronic method such as NFC or RFID. This initiative, and similar initiatives being implemented in other geographies, will provide important information to both supply chain operators and consumers, which can be used to validate the authenticity of apparel products, and help inform purchase decisions.
Today, garment designers generally send their artwork to a printer in the form of a TIFF image file. But, more and more, this well-established practice is giving way to PDF, which everybody understands and trusts. This is because PDF can convey images, text, and graphics at their highest level of abstraction, a guiding principle in every type of prepress workflow. For a garment designer working in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, submitting the job as a PDF means that they can freely employ attention-getting creative effects such as transparency interactions between graphics and images, which are often quite complex. With PDF jobs, the capabilities of the press (e.g. ink stations, overall gamut, droplet sizes, resolution) will be taken into account when the design is rendered. The Adobe PDF Print Engine is the market-leading prepress technology for rendering PDF designs in every print segment. Adobe invented PDF, and has incorporated core PDF technologies into its products, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, and the PDF Print Engine. The latest version of PDF Print Engine is optimized for garment printing, with state-of-the-art color management, automatic white-underbase generation, and support for spectrally defined colorways. The net result: garment designs that are vivid, sharp, and meet or exceed the designer’s expectations.
Kornit Digital, the global leader in sustainable, on-demand digital fashion, has incorporated Adobe PDF Print Engine into K-RIP, the next-generation of Kornit’s Raster Image Processing software. K-RIP is engineered to help brands and producers deliver repeatable, reliable images for the highest quality in digital garment decoration. “As the global leader in on-demand, sustainable digital textile production, Kornit developed a state-of-the-art RIP and workflow solution, K-RIP, to guarantee our customers' digital designs are precisely reproduced on Kornit's direct-to-garment systems. Our collaboration with Adobe truly changes the game by harnessing the richness of the PDF Print Engine module to ensure reliable production of highly complex graphics on every garment. As the textile, apparel and fashion industries push the envelope of creativity with high-impact visual effects, our solution is well-aligned in our joint commitment to innovation — with the shared goal of transforming artistic imagination into sustainable real-world products” said Danny Gazit, chief product officer at Kornit Digital.
Join Kornit at DRUPA
Experience the power of the K-RIP and Adobe PDF Print Engine firsthand and discover how Kornit and Adobe are leading the way in transforming the world of digital textile printing. We invite you to see this cutting-edge technology in action at the Kornit booth at DRUPA Hall 4, booth B35. The ongoing transformation in printed apparel is driven by innovation, sustainability, and a commitment to excellence. Join Kornit and Adobe as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible to create a more sustainable, beautiful world of fashion.