In the world of commercial print, the analog-to-digital transformation is well underway, with high-quality color digital printing having been available since the mid-1990s. Its growth was augmented by the availability of web-to-print solutions around the same time as the Internet began to enter mainstream mode. But with the ability to submit orders online—in quantities as low as one—comes the need to automate the order-to-delivery workflow in order to ensure profitability. For many commercial printing companies, web-to-print hand-in-hand with process automation has contributed to a near-lights-out production process that enables them to handle a larger number of shorter run jobs—in the hundreds or even thousands per day—quickly and profitably.

In the world of textiles and apparel, the analog-to-digital transformation is just getting underway, with an estimated 5% to 6% of all fabric printing worldwide printed digitally, up from an estimated 3% to 4% just a couple years ago. While this is a small percentage of overall production, adoption is being driven by the same factors as previous analog-to-digital transformations: shorter runs and faster turn times with no sacrifice in quality and keeping costs in line.

A barrier in previous transformations, however, and a factor here as well, is the need for an end-to-end workflow that enables near-lights-out production, with automation from design through production and shipping. It is simply not affordable to throw more people at the problem, a solution that is both costly and error-prone. Rather, businesses who want to truly capitalize on the digital textile printing opportunity must adopt an end-to-end approach.