The New Digital World: Color Management Challenges

How effective is your color management strategy? For many in the textiles and apparel industry using conventional manufacturing processes, consistent color management is a given. In fact, in textiles, color accuracy is quite stringent. In the graphic arts, a Delta E of “one”—the point at which the human eye can start to detect color differences—is quite acceptable. Not so in textiles and apparel for many brands and retailers! Consider an intimate apparel garment. Piece parts come from everywhere and lace, elastics, straps, and hardware all must match perfectly. A Delta E of one is simply not acceptable in most cases. Now introduce digital printing into the mix. While digital printing of textiles represents less than 10% of total textile printing, it is growing at double digits; and high speed, high quality printers such as the EFI Reggiani Bolt (printing at up to 90 linear meters per minute with a width of 1.8 meters) will drive that growth even further, raising the economic crossover point between digital and conventional technologies.