As stated before, the fabric you print on determines which Digital Textile Printing Ink must be used in your printing process. 

For example, reactive inks are used to print on natural fabrics, where cotton and viscose are the most common ones. Reactive inks combine vivid colours with excellent fastnesses. Reactive inks can also be used for printing on wool and silk, in applications where fastnesses are more important than the brightness of colours. 

If brightness is the main objective when printing wool or silk, then Acid Ink is the preferred choice. Not without reason, as acid inks are known for their vibrant colours, even when printing on materials that do not retain colour very easily. Acid inks are also often used for printing swimwear, due to their high tolerance for chlorine and saltwater.

On the other hand, disperse inks are used to print polyester. Just like reactive, acid and pigment inks, Disperse inks are directly sprayed on the fabric, after which it has to be steamed and washed to fix the colours. Disperse is absolutely needed in textile printing where a high-temperature finishing is required, such as water repellent finishes.

Pigment printing is a commonly used technique in conventional textile printing, as it is the cheapest solution, with a simple finishing process and it has the lowest costs. But until recently, pigment inks were only used in very small niche markets, as digital pigments inks are quite expensive to produce and require more ink per linear meter than for instance reactive inks.

The pigment particles must be very small to avoid printhead clogging, which has only recently been achieved by the newest generations of pigment inks. Given the simple process and no need for steaming and washing, plus the fact that they can print on virtually all fabrics, pigment inks are getting increasingly popular.

Read more about the possible applications for digital pigment printing and whether it could be interesting for your business here.