Acid & Fancy Printing

It can be done on white or a coloured fabric. If done on coloured fabric, it is known as overprinting. The desired pattern is produced by imprinting dye on the fabric in a paste form. To prepare the print paste, a thickening agent is added to a limited amount of water and dye is dissolved in it. Earlier corn starch was preferred as a thickening agent for cotton printing. Nowadays gums or alginates derived from seaweed are preferred because they are easier to wash out, do not themselves absorb any colour and allow better penetration of colour. Most pigment printing is done without thickeners as the mixing up of resins, solvents and water itself produces thickening.