When important information needs to be added to a garment, such as washing and care instructions or constituent fibres, clothing manufacturers and their print suppliers have three choices: garment labels, heat transfer labels, and direct-to-garment prints.

Textile label printing presses have adopted new and greatly more efficient technologies in the recent past, especially in the areas of print automation and ease of operation. The result is that the second hand market has become flooded with used and refurbished machines that were state of the art 10 years ago but are now inefficient and outdated. However, they still function as fabric printing machines and may present an attractive proposition and alternative to the more significant investment involved in acquiring a new machine.

Technology in the print industry continues its rapid evolution, especially where label printing is concerned. Thanks to constant change and innovation, there are now several ways to print labels on ribbons. Whether thermal transfer technology, digital offset, dye sublimation, hybrid or ink jet technology is employed, businesses seeking options for printing on ribbon labels are certainly spoiled for choice.