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36 • August 2016 • S I G N & D I G I T A L G R A P H I C S DIGITAL PRINTING AND FINISHING DIGITAL GRAPHICS And while a transfer printing system might be fine for some commercial appli- cations, Randy Anderson, product mar- keting manager with Mutoh America, says direct printing can also serve you well, with different ink types available to vastly broaden the versatility of your output. "You can print directly to fabric, and when using a dispersed pigment with a coated fabric you can print to both natu- ral fabrics as well as polyesters, some- times without pretreated fabrics for fashion, home furnishings and similar applications," he says. "Disperse ink pigments also allow printing onto coated polyesters for soft signage, and similar applications, with a better resistance to UV fading over dye sub applications. Acid and reactive dyes can be used for direct printing as well for flag production, cotton and other natural fabrics that need the advantages of dye over pigment." The only disadvantages, Anderson adds, are that all direct print jobs need some form of post-treatment. "But this can be as simple as heat for ink setting pigments and flag applications, [or as elaborate as] the need for high-pressure Mimaki's Tx300P-1800 has capability to print direct onto almost any type of natural or man-made fabric. Photo courtesy of Mimaki. (Photos courtesy of Roland DGA)