With growing attention being paid to making the textile industry more sustainable, and with the fragility of the global supply being unmasked by the effects of the pandemic, digital printing of textiles is increasingly coming to the forefront. The question that raises is: what is the role of the printer’s digital front end (DFE) in helping advance digital printing to the point where it can gain enough critical mass to make a dent in reshoring of textile and apparel production, thus taking some of the strain off of the global supply chain, enhancing the sustainability position of the textiles industry, and addressing the bane of inventory risk that has haunted the textiles and apparel industry for decades?

In a recent article posted on WhatTheyThink, textiles expert Debbie McKeegan noted, “Over the years, digital textile printing has become the most effective, sustainable solution in textile production. The machinery is smaller, consumes less space, and ink usage is a fraction of traditional analog printing processes. A typical digital print installation will use less than 25% of the electricity, and 10% of the water, and contribute less than 5% of the water table pollution of traditional printing processes—all of which adds up to a tremendous reduction in the environmental footprint of textile printing.”

Added to those benefits is the fact that digital printing enables both on-demand production—reducing inventory waste—and production closer to the point of need, reducing transportation costs and the associated environmental impact.