logo
logo
AI Products 

Digital Textile Printer vs. Double-Side Inkjet Printer: Key Differences You Should Know

avatar
Truecolors Group

The development of digital textile printing has truly revolutionized fabric designing by providing accuracy, speedy output, and flexibility, factors that are very limited or cannot be fulfilled by a conventional method. Still, many people become confused in distinguishing between a digital textile printer and a double-sided inkjet printer, mainly because the two technologies serve different purposes. Hence, it is necessary to understand the core differences for an educated decision.

What is a Digital Textile Printer?

A digital textile printer is specifically aimed at directly printing textiles. Advanced inkjet technology applies dye or pigment-based inks on different types of fabrics such as cotton, silk, polyester, or blends.

Digital textile printers contrast with screen printing, which is wholly dependent on stencils and is labor-intensive; in that digital textile printers can deliver full-color high-resolution prints of counts with practically no setup time, lending themselves to custom or small batch production.

The printer is widely popular in fashion, interiors, and soft signage usages, where it can be used to create beautiful, intricate patterns. The speed and intricacy have kept these printers front and center in the modern digital fabric printing workflow.

Understanding Double-Side Inkjet Printers

Double-sided inkjet printers are primarily designed for paper-based media; however, they may find some application on certain types of coated fabrics. They are about printing onto the surface of a substrate on both sides and do so automatically without requiring any flipping of the substrate.

This ability of printing on both sides of the substrate becomes crucial in applications like brochures, double-sided banners, and certain textile signage with mirrored or back-to-back designs.

Though double-sided inkjet printers are capable of high-resolution printing, they are not necessarily fabricated with textile printing in mind. Therefore, their deployability in textile printing is far less compared to a fabric digital printer. These inks can be used for some niche textile applications but are not consciously optimized for fabric ink absorption, stretch, or dye penetration.

Key Differences Between Digital Textile and Double-Side Inkjet Printers

1. Application Focus

The most obvious difference is the type of materials each printer is designed to handle. Whereas a digital textile printer is optimized for fabric materials, a double-sided inkjet printer is usually intended for coated paper or specialty substrates.

2. Ink Compatibility

Digital textile printers use dye-sublimation, reactive, acid, or pigment inks that best suit textile fibers. They bond well to fabric and last a long time in color.

On the other hand, double-sided inkjet printers normally use aqueous or solvent inks that define themselves great for paper or film-based media, posing a great disadvantage to digital textile printing requirements.

3. Penetration and Durability of Prints

Textile printing requires ink penetration would assist in ensuring that the prints are vibrant and that the colors do not fade away or wash away. The fabric printer technically allows the ink to soak into the fabric.

On the other hand, double-sided inkjet printers usually deposit the ink on top of the media, which may contribute to lower durability over fabrics.

4. Printing Speed and Flexibility

In terms of speed, depending on the model, both printers can provide fast production. The digital textile printer is, however, better for variable print runs and detailed design customization, especially for printing on fabric digitally.

Double-sided printers are faster for symmetrical, dual-sided layouts, but materials are limited in their capacities.

5. Cost and Maintenance

Generally, digital textile printers are costlier initially; however, since they are designed for the purpose, textile companies get better returns in the long run.

Maintenance for textile printing could keep changing as printing heads and ink systems need cleaning regularly because of fabric types and inks involved.

Double-sided inkjet printers fare better in terms of maintenance but need to be frequently calibrated for media when theoretically co-opted for textile use.

Which Should You Pick?

Should your primary business be in digital textile printing, the wise thing is to invest in a textile printer for producing fabrics. It accommodates specific requirements of fabric production, such as inks and durability of print.

On the other hand, for double-sided printing on coated fabric or synthetic materials for signage or short-term promotion, the double-sided inkjet printer may suffice.


collect
0
avatar
Truecolors Group
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more