The digital textile market is one of the most promising opportunities for inkjet printing. The global textile market has been valued at $ 830 billion in 2015, reaching an estimated $ 1.2 billion in 2025, according to Grand View Research, Inc.

From that, the printing of textiles has been estimated at more than $ 160 billion annually, with the vast majority of the market being printed. Industry leaders report that maybe 2% of that total is printed digitally.

Initially, the inkjet was used by a few pioneers for samples, prototypes and personalization of textiles. However, this is changing as the benefits of textile ink printing become more evident and printing technology continues to improve.

The estimates of the digital textile printing market suggest a billion-dollar industry that is growing rapidly. According to the MarketsandMarkets study, “Digital textile printing market by printing process (roll to roll, DTG), type of ink (sublimation, pigment, reactive, acid), application (textile and decoration, industrial, soft signage, direct to clothing), and Geography – Global Forecast until 2023, “it is anticipated that the digital textile printing segment will generate $ 1,760 million in sales by 2018. MarketsandMarkets expects the segment to grow at a CAGR of 5.59% through 2023, reaching $ 2.31 billion for 2023.

MarketsandMarkets cites a variety of reasons for this growth, including sustainability, new technologies, faster fashion cycles, cost reduction and e-commerce growth.

This coincides with previous research in the field. For example, Allied Market Research reported that the global market for digital textile printing was $ 1.245 billion in 2015, reaching $ 3.9 billion for 2022, at a CAGR of 17.9% between 2016 and 2022, in the digital textile printing market: Analysis of global opportunities and industry Forecast, 2014-2022. ”

Smithers Pira placed the value of digital textile printing at € 1.17 billion in 2016, with 12.3% of CAGR up to 2021, reaching € 2.42 billion in 2021, in his study, “The future of the digital textile printing until 2021. ”

Fashion designers offer their perspective

For leading fashion designers, the advantages of printing textiles through inkjet has proven to be a game changer.

Gabriel Asfour has been in the fashion industry since 1991 and co-founded three ASFOUR, together with Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil, in 2005. He said that much has changed since digital printing technologies have been put to use.

“In 1991, if I was doing a silkscreen, each color was a screen,” said Asfour, who exhibited some of the three newest ASFOUR designs during Epson’s Digital Couture event at New York Fashion Week at the beginning of this year. “It was very limited in terms of what it could do, and the cost of printing and the minimums were high.” For a work of art with 20 colors, it had to have 20 screens, and each additional screen takes more time and increases the cost. We had to be careful not to use many colors, with digital printing we can use millions of colors.

“We have been using digital printing since 2006,” Asfour added. “That makes a big difference in terms of advantages, first of all it’s time, it would take at least a month to pass a design cycle, the second is accuracy.”

In particular, Asfour noted that it works with intricate designs. “The ability to print images opens up many more ideas,” Asfour observed. “We have been experimenting with fractal patterns, they are extremely detailed, and if you print these with silkscreen, it would be very difficult to get the details.”

Candice Cuoco, the founder of the CANDICE CUOCO brand, started designing textiles three years ago. He pointed out that digital printing reduces cost and time and broadens horizons.

“You can really tell a story,” said Cuoco, who showed some of his latest designs in Epson’s Digital Couture. “Just having that tool really brings your design to life. You can customize your fabric and literally print it that day.

Being flexible in the amount of material that can be printed digitally is a great advantage.

“Digital printing reduces waste, I can print two yards, 200 yards and even 2,000 yards, depending on what that order or season requires,” said Cuoco. “Retailers are not interested in buying 2,000 yards of clothing all the time, it’s crucial to be flexible because the market is difficult, I can print enough fabric for a sample, and I can change the fabric for any sample if necessary. ”