HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRINTING
The history of printing is more popular and more ancient. The ancient printing history is not so clear. Textile printing is the most versatile and important of the methods used for introducing colour and design to textile fabrics. Considered analytically it is a process of bringing together a design idea, one or more colorants, and a textile substrate (usually a fabric), using a technique for applying the colorants with some precision. Several techniques have been used and the colorants available have multiplied. This articles about history of printing presents an overview of the changes that have occurred, together with an examination of some techniques that have almost ceased to be of commercial importance, for their own intrinsic value for the historical development of printing.
If we want to discuss about the history of printing we must know about the desire to create garments and other artifacts that reflect the beauty of the world around us and provide for the expression of our artistic nature has been evident from early in human history. The decoration of the body presumably predates the production of clothing. Early men and women used the colorants that were available to them, such as charcoal and coloured earths (ochres), mixed with oils and fats, applying them at first with their fingers and sticks to a variety of substrates. Staining of fabrics with plant extracts provided a different approach; patterns could be produced by applying beeswax as a resist to the dye liquor or by tying threads tightly around the areas to be resisted. The realisation that certain colourless materials could be used as mordants to fix some plant dyes was a vital step in the prehistory of dyeing and printing. The discovery that different mordants, applied first, gave different colours with the same dye (for example, from the madder root) must have seemed litle short of magical and suggested a style of printing (the dyed style) that was to become of cardinal importance.
Where the printing style originated – whether in India, Egypt, China or elsewhere – is not clear. Brunello states that an early variety of cotton dyed with madder around 3000 BC was found in jars in the Indus valley. Taylor gives evidence of madder on flax found in Egypt and dated at 1400 BC. In China the dyeing of silk was developed very early, and China is credited with the invention of paper printing and therefore may well have seen the birth of fabric printing.
Apart from transfer printing, there are five essentially different approaches to the printing of any substrate. We have seen that three have achieved historical importance in the textile field – the surface (block), intaglio and screen methods – and that nowadays screen printing is the predominant approach. A fourth approach, lithography, has been used to a very small extent for printing smooth surface fabrics but is of more importance in paper printing, including transfer paper.
The fifth approach, jet printing, is a 20th century method of building up a design from ink drops. It is already important for printing pile fabrics (Chapter 4) and paper, and could become a serious competitor to screen printing. It is the only approach that can provide the really rapid response to changing demand that is increasingly expected, because there is no requirement for the production or changing of patterned screens or rollers; in addition, instantaneous use for sampling or long runs is potentially available. The significant development in these last decades of the century has been the success of computer technology, so that computer-aided design (CAD) systems and colour match prediction are in regular use. The scanning of an original design can now provide the data required for its reproduction by any technique, but fits into the jet printing route more directly because the jets require only electrical control. It remains to be seen, however, if the development of jet systems that are practical and economic for a wide range of fabrics can be achieved. The first commercial production unit, based on Canon bubble-jet technology, is being built in Japan.
The history of printing is more popular and more ancient. The ancient printing history is not so clear. Textile printing is the most versatile and important of the methods used for introducing colour and design to textile fabrics. Considered analytically it is a process of bringing together a design idea, one or more colorants, and a textile substrate (usually a fabric), using a technique for applying the colorants with some precision. Several techniques have been used and the colorants available have multiplied. This articles about history of printing presents an overview of the changes that have occurred, together with an examination of some techniques that have almost ceased to be of commercial importance, for their own intrinsic value for the historical development of printing.
If we want to discuss about the history of printing we must know about the desire to create garments and other artifacts that reflect the beauty of the world around us and provide for the expression of our artistic nature has been evident from early in human history. The decoration of the body presumably predates the production of clothing. Early men and women used the colorants that were available to them, such as charcoal and coloured earths (ochres), mixed with oils and fats, applying them at first with their fingers and sticks to a variety of substrates. Staining of fabrics with plant extracts provided a different approach; patterns could be produced by applying beeswax as a resist to the dye liquor or by tying threads tightly around the areas to be resisted. The realisation that certain colourless materials could be used as mordants to fix some plant dyes was a vital step in the prehistory of dyeing and printing. The discovery that different mordants, applied first, gave different colours with the same dye (for example, from the madder root) must have seemed litle short of magical and suggested a style of printing (the dyed style) that was to become of cardinal importance.
Where the printing style originated – whether in India, Egypt, China or elsewhere – is not clear. Brunello states that an early variety of cotton dyed with madder around 3000 BC was found in jars in the Indus valley. Taylor gives evidence of madder on flax found in Egypt and dated at 1400 BC. In China the dyeing of silk was developed very early, and China is credited with the invention of paper printing and therefore may well have seen the birth of fabric printing.
Apart from transfer printing, there are five essentially different approaches to the printing of any substrate. We have seen that three have achieved historical importance in the textile field – the surface (block), intaglio and screen methods – and that nowadays screen printing is the predominant approach. A fourth approach, lithography, has been used to a very small extent for printing smooth surface fabrics but is of more importance in paper printing, including transfer paper.
The fifth approach, jet printing, is a 20th century method of building up a design from ink drops. It is already important for printing pile fabrics (Chapter 4) and paper, and could become a serious competitor to screen printing. It is the only approach that can provide the really rapid response to changing demand that is increasingly expected, because there is no requirement for the production or changing of patterned screens or rollers; in addition, instantaneous use for sampling or long runs is potentially available. The significant development in these last decades of the century has been the success of computer technology, so that computer-aided design (CAD) systems and colour match prediction are in regular use. The scanning of an original design can now provide the data required for its reproduction by any technique, but fits into the jet printing route more directly because the jets require only electrical control. It remains to be seen, however, if the development of jet systems that are practical and economic for a wide range of fabrics can be achieved. The first commercial production unit, based on Canon bubble-jet technology, is being built in Japan.
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