Coloration

In the case of transfer printing the colour/design is printed onto paper and then subsequently transferred onto fabric. Special disperse dyes are used which are able to sublime or vaporise directly from the solid form and transfer onto suitable fabrics, i.e. fabrics constructed from hydrophobic man-made fibres such as polyesters and polyamides/nylons.

It is possible to print colour onto fabric in the form of an insoluble, inert pigment in a binder. The resulting print is baked and forms an image of pigment in a clear polymer film. Washing off is not necessary, the result is similar to a painted image rather than a dyed image. Flock may be applied to a printed adhesive image to produce "flock prints". Special printing materials are available which incorporate retro-reflective glass beads in a binder, after baking the image has similar properties to retro-reflective, high visibility garments.

Retro-reflective material, microscopic glass spheres reflect light back to source