Study on color ink diffusion in fabrics and color reproduction of digital inkjet printing

Abstract

The accuracy of color reproduction of digital printed fabric is affected by fabric structural characteristics and treatment, and the adjustment of color management is required for reducing the color difference. To study the mechanism of color presenting, the interaction of ink droplets diffusing on polyester knitted fabric with different structures and treatment was investigated. The result showed that the smaller the porosity, the larger the diffusion area. Besides that, the pretreatment alleviated the edge blurring of color blocks on fabric, and the diffusion area of hydrophilic finished fabric was larger due to the hydrophilic film. In terms of color presenting, the smaller the porosity, the smaller the K/ S and C* values are, and the pretreatment could have a better effect on color presenting, while the color appeared more pastel on the finished fabric. Due to errors in the process of color transfer, the adjustment of color management in fabric digital inkjet printing was also studied. The manuscript correction method and the ink volume control method were proposed for color management in comparison with the original color management. Through the analysis of color differences, the optimized methods were able to provide an improved color reproduction effect, in which the ink volume control method had the best reproduction effect among the three. The improved color reproduction effect of the ink volume control method on finished fabric was also verified, and the difference of effects between finished fabric and ordinary fabric was explained with the diffusion law of ink droplets.