For all our natural fabrics, such as cotton and linen we use a method called digital pigment printing. This is an eco-friendly, efficient, and high quality method of printing your custom designs directly onto fabric. If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes once you upload your artwork, this guide takes you through the process.

Step 1: Fabric Selection

Pigment inks work best on natural fibres, so before we start the printing process we'll check to see what fabric a customer has chosen. If they've selected one of our polyesters then we would use a dye sublimation process instead. Therefore pigment inks will be relevant for the following fabrics in our range:

Cotton Poplin
Cotton Drill
Cotton Half Panama
Cotton Linen
Cotton Fine Warp Satin
100% Plain Cotton
Basic Cotton
Bull Denim
Cotton Jersey
Tea Towel

Each fabric has a different texture and weight, which affects how the colours appear. Our website includes guides, and the option to purchase a test swatch or sample pack to help you choose the right one.

Step 2: Fabric Pre-Treatment

Some natural fabrics go through a light pre-treatment coating to help bond the ink more effectively to the fabric and improve colour vibrancy.

The pre-treatment is importantly eco-safe and water based. Also the coating is invisible once printed so you won't be aware of it. Once applied this coating will help prevent ink migration (blurring or bleeding).

Not all fabrics need this, but when they do, it’s an important foundation for long lasting, colour rich prints.

Step 3: Digital Fabric Printing with Eco-Friendly Pigment Inks

Now for the magic! Your design is digitally printed onto the fabric using the latest high tech inkjet textile printers with pigment based inks.

Here’s how the technology works:

The fabric which is already on a roll is loaded onto the printer and is fed through the machine. There is no need for screens or plates, which means your image goes directly from the computer software to the fabric. Tiny droplets of pigment ink are then sprayed onto the fabric with precise control for high resolution detail. This ink rests on the surface of the fibres rather than soaking in like dyes, creating sharp lines and vivid patterns.

The great thing about Pigment inks is they're water based and non-toxic, making them safe for home use and better for the environment.

Step 4: Drying and Heat Fixation

After printing, the fabric moves to the fixation stage, where it’s dried and cured using heat.

We use specialised heat presses to cure the ink. This bonds the pigments to the fabric using a binder within the ink. This curing process enhances wash fastness, lightfastness, and durability of the final printed fabric.

Unlike printing methods such as reactive dyes, there’s no need for steaming, washing, or additional rinsing, which significantly reduces water use and makes it one of the most eco-friendly printing processes.

Step 5: Final Quality Checks

Once cured, every printed piece of fabric undergoes a quality control inspection. When looking at the fabric we're checking for the following :

Are the colours vibrant and true to the design?
Is the print aligned and free from marks or banding?
Does the fabric meet handling and feel standards?

We pride ourselves on checking by hand as attention to detail is very important to us. If anything isn’t right, it doesn’t go out the door.

Step 6: Cutting, Packing, and Despatch

After passing quality control, your custom fabric is trimmed to the correct size (with margins where needed). Depending on the length of fabric it'll be rolled or folded neatly to avoid creasing and then packed in recyclable or reusable packaging. The fabric is then despatched to you via Royal Mail, courier or Air Mail.

We aim to get your printed fabric to you quickly so it's ready for you to sew!

Benefits of Pigment Printing with Woven Monkey

• Water based pigment inks  results in no harsh chemicals
• No water waste means it's more sustainable than dye printing
• Sharp detail is achievable so it's perfect for typography, line art, or repeat patterns
• Fast turnaround due to the few steps and efficiency involved in this form of fabric printing
• Flexible ordering so we can print a single swatch or metre and there's no setup charges

Want to print your own fabric?

Our online fabric printing service is built for ease of use. Upload your design, choose your fabric, and we’ll handle the rest. What's not to love? You get high quality pigment ink printing and you're supporting local manufacturing.

Want to hear more about our great fabrics? Check out our fabric guide page.

Want to chat to one of our experts? Let’s chat.