How digital textile printing affects the product development process

If a company chooses digital textile printing, which have higher unit price, would it not be beneficial to know what possibilities the technique bring to the product development process? Are there design possibilities that companies using traditional textile printing cannot obtain?Advantages of using digital textile printing could for example give a competitive edge, which that distinguish the brand and offer new designs. Such insights are relevant knowledge when designing textile products to be successfully introduced to the market.The aim of this master thesis is to design a collection of textile pattern design, and implement them in a textile interior product. At the same time, the aim is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of digital textile printing.During a literature review it was identified that the disadvantages of digital textile printing are the relatively high price and the slow printing speed. These are crucial factors when choosing printing method, but reviewing digital printing there are interesting qualities that provide new possibilities. For example, when it comes to the pattern design process, digital textile printing eliminates design constrains such as repeat size and limited use of colors. The abilities to print a single product or small batches without a pre-production process illustrate potential for print-on-demand production. It is therefore concluded in this thesis that digital printing enables customization and illustrates potential for new innovational ideas. When reviewing the ecological sustainability qualities of several printing techniques, it is concluded that digital textile printing have a lot of advantages. Digital textile printing is consistently less wasteful, and with minimal excess production no unnecessary products are manufactured