DIGITAL FABRIC PRINTING SAMPLING
We know how digital printed fabric designs can vary on different fabrics, how the reality of your creation can look once it’s digitally printed. We highly recommend ordering a digitally printed sample of your design on any of our fabrics. This will give you an opportunity to experience and feel the quality and see your creation in silk, satin, viscose, cotton or whichever fabric you desire.
For digital fabric printing, a metre sampling strike off provides an opportunity to see how different colour graduations work within your bespoke design. You will be able to see exactly how your custom printed fabrics will look and then tweak any colours before you go on to print larger orders of the fabric you have designed on our digital fabric printer.
For well-established fashion labels, start-ups, designer brands and artists, a sample of digital textile printing is a great way to get your bespoke fabric designs out there quickly. Digital print fabric and digital textile print samples can be shown to buyers or your customers to present your range of print designs in a variety of colours. You can even have many different designs digitally printed up for a range of garments or pieces within your new fashion, interiors or art collection.
As the customer, to get the most from your 1-metre sampling strike off, we recommend to layout your test file to produce as many options for your own fabric as possible. This will save on time and cost from resampling your custom printed fabrics.
In the example image of a digital print fabric sample shown above there are many options for the customer or fabric designer to choose from. Try to include options on important colours, saturation, contrast and scale to ensure your own fabric has a high quality outcome.
What is a 1m sampling strike-off?
A strike-off is a digital fabric printing sample that allows you to test artworks, colours and fabric choices before proceeding with anything final. To get the most from your 1m sampling strike off, we recommend to layout your test file in a way that will give you as many options as possible. This will save on time and cost from resampling. Try to include colour chips of all important colours, and edits of saturation, contrast and scale.
How should I set up my file for digital print?
Please be sure your canvas is set to 136cm wide (our full fabric width) by 100cm down. Our fabric widths can vary so please check our fabric list to confirm this. The recommended resolution of image shouldn’t be any lower than 300dpi. Our ideal file format is a tiff, but you can also send as a Photoshop document.
What is your lead-time for a 1m strike off?
We pride ourselves on a fast turnaround – It will take us around a week to process your test file onto your chosen fabric for a strike off.
How can I submit my files to you?
Please send your files to us via We Transfer at https://forestdigital.wetransfer.com.
How can I match my colours?
Our monitors have been calibrated to our digital fabric printer, but we cannot be sure how the artworks look at your end and on your screen. We tend to find the brightness of the screen can give the print a false sense of brightness or vibrancy, or vice versa if your screen is quite dark. We will always print your design exactly how it’s been supplied to us – unless stated to change or adjust otherwise. This is why we advise to include lots of colour chips on the strike off, so that you have options to match up your colours on your custom printed fabrics and ensure a high quality result.
What printing software do you use?
We use a rip programme called Wasatch to prepare and send your digital files to print.
What colour profile do you work in?
We work in RGB, so it is important to create and save your artworks in this profile. Please note when transferring to Wasatch, some of the colours can shift. This is why it is very important to include as many colour chips on the strike off as you can, so that you have a mini colour book with lots of colour choices – in case they do shift.
Can you offer a full colour book?
We can offer a full colour book, but you as the client will be editing, separating (if any amendments are needed) and finalising your artworks. Therefore, we find it most effective and more accurate for you to print colour choices on your strike off. This will ensure you have control over the colour management and so there is less room for any inconsistencies to occur.
Something to bear in mind when it comes to the final digital print run!
After seeing the strike off, you can then select the files/colour-ways/edits you wish to proceed with. It’s important to make sure that the production prints are created and saved in the same way you created and saved the sampling file – to avoid any colour issues or irregularities in the final printing process. You will also need to print the strike off on the fabric you wish to use for production. Check sampling prices.