Water-based textile printing is a different discipline from plastisol work. The ink absorbs into the fabric fibre instead of sitting on top, and that's what gives you soft hand feel. But it also means getting the paste chemistry right is critical. Too little binder and the colour washes off. Wrong thickener ratio and your edges bleed. We stock every component you need to mix a proper printing paste, and we can walk you through the ratios if you're dialling in a new recipe.
Textile Ink
Water-based pigment ink that penetrates fabric fibres rather than sitting on the surface like plastisol. Pigment particles are held in an aqueous emulsion and fixed to the fibre through a binder-heat cure combination. You barely feel the ink on the fabric. That soft hand feel is why people choose water-based.
Where it's used
Light-coloured cotton garments, bed linen, curtain fabric, cotton bags. Preferred for fashion and retail garments where hand feel matters more than opacity. Most saree pallu printing in South India uses water-based textile ink.
How to use it right
Mix into a printing paste: textile ink (pigment) + binder + thickener, with CCL fixer for wash-critical jobs. Print through 62T-90T mesh. Cure at 150-160°C for 3-5 minutes in a conveyor dryer, or heat press at 160°C for 30-45 seconds. The cure fixes the binder. Without proper heat, the binder stays water-soluble and your print washes out.
Watch out for
Water-based ink dries in the screen. You can't walk away for 20 minutes and come back like you can with plastisol. Keep the screen flooded between prints. If ink dries in the mesh, you'll need to reclaim the screen. On dark fabrics, opacity is poor without multiple passes or a white underbase, which partly defeats the soft-hand advantage.
Storage & handling
6-12 months. Keep sealed because water evaporation changes the consistency. Don't let it freeze. If it thickens in storage, add small amounts of water (1-2% at a time) and stir. Don't dump water in and expect it to remix properly.
Binder
Acrylic binder for textile screen printing paste. It's the clear, film-forming polymer emulsion that locks pigment particles onto fabric fibres. When cured with heat, the acrylic polymers coalesce into a transparent, flexible film that physically traps the pigment against the fibre surface. Without binder, pigment just sits loose on the fabric and dusts off.
Where it's used
Every water-based textile printing paste needs binder. It's not an optional additive, it's a core structural component. Used in combination with water pigments for all cotton and cotton-blend printing.
How to use it right
Standard ratio is 150-200g of binder per 1kg of printing paste. Below 100g/kg, the pigment doesn't have enough film to hold it. Prints fade or wash off after 3-5 cycles. Above 250g/kg, the print feels stiff and boardy, defeating the purpose of water-based printing. Start at 150g/kg and adjust based on wash test results.
Watch out for
We've seen printers waste entire runs because they skimped on binder to save cost. The print looks fine off the press and even survives one gentle wash, then falls apart at the third. False economy. Also, different binders have different film hardness. One meant for industrial fabric printing will feel stiffer than one formulated for fashion garments. Ask us which one suits your job.
Storage & handling
12 months sealed. Acrylic emulsions break down if frozen. The polymer particles coagulate irreversibly. Once a binder has frozen and thawed, it's ruined. In Kerala's climate freezing isn't usually a concern, but don't store it against an AC unit's cold wall.
Thickener
Synthetic thickening agent for screen printing and textile printing paste, typically a polyacrylic acid polymer that swells dramatically when neutralised to pH 7-8 with ammonia or a base. This swelling creates viscosity, turning your liquid paste into a printable consistency that holds clean edges on the screen without bleeding into the fabric weave.
Where it's used
Added to every water-based printing paste to control viscosity. Without thickener, the paste is too runny. Ink floods under the stencil and you get fuzzy edges and bleeding. Can't do fine detail textile work without it.
How to use it right
Add 1-2% of total paste weight at a time, stirring continuously. Let the paste rest 10-15 minutes between additions because thickener doesn't reach full viscosity instantly. Neutralize with ammonia if the thickener requires pH adjustment (check the technical data sheet). Over-thickening makes the paste impossible to push through the mesh and creates a rough print texture.
Watch out for
Adding too much thickener in one dose creates lumps that are very difficult to stir out. Go gradually. Be patient. If the paste feels grainy, you've either added too fast or the thickener has partially dried in storage. And remember, thickener is not binder. It provides viscosity, not adhesion. Some printers try to substitute one for the other. They do completely different jobs.
Storage & handling
12-18 months. Keep sealed. If the thickener concentrate dries out, it forms a skin on top. Peel it off and stir the remainder. Don't try to reconstitute fully dried thickener. It won't perform the same.
CCL Fixer
Cross-linking agent. A chemical additive that creates covalent bridges within the binder's polymer network during heat curing. These crosslinks turn a thermoplastic binder film into a thermoset network, dramatically improving wash fastness, chemical resistance, and durability. CCL stands for chemical cross-linker.
Where it's used
Added to textile printing paste when the printed garment needs to survive repeated industrial or domestic washing. Workwear, uniforms, children's clothing, bed linen. If the client needs 50+ wash cycles, you need CCL fixer in the paste.
How to use it right
Add 0.5-1% of total paste weight. Mix thoroughly and use the paste within 8-12 hours. Once the crosslinker is added, it starts reacting slowly even at room temperature. That pot life is real. After 12 hours, the paste thickens noticeably and print quality drops. Mix only what you'll use in a shift.
Watch out for
More is not better. Exceeding 1.5% CCL fixer makes the print brittle. The crosslink density gets too high and the film loses flexibility, cracking when the fabric is stretched or folded. Also, some crosslinkers release formaldehyde during curing. Check your product's safety data sheet, especially for children's garments where formaldehyde limits apply.
Storage & handling
6-9 months for the concentrate. Keep sealed, cool, and dry. The crosslinker is moisture-sensitive, so humidity exposure reduces its reactive potency. Once mixed into paste, use within one shift.
Water Pigments
Concentrated pigment dispersions in water. Finely ground colour particles stabilised with surfactants and dispersing agents. These are pigments, not dyes. Pigments sit on the fibre surface held by binder. Dyes chemically bond to the fibre. That distinction matters because pigments work on any fabric with the right binder, while dyes are fibre-specific.
Where it's used
Colouring component of water-based textile printing paste. Available in the full colour range, primaries, process colours, and common spot colours. Used for everything from single-colour logos to multi-colour fashion prints on cotton.
How to use it right
Add pigment to your paste at 3-8% of total weight for standard colours, up to 12% for deep shades. Always mix light colours into dark. Adding dark into light means you'll overshoot the shade and waste material. Keep it to 3 pigments maximum for mixing a shade. Each additional pigment muddies the result. If you can't hit the colour in 3, you need a different base pigment.
Watch out for
Pigment concentration doesn't equal colour strength forever. Past a certain loading (usually 10-12%), adding more pigment actually reduces wash fastness because there isn't enough binder film to hold the excess particles. If you need deeper colour, increase pigment potency, not volume. Also, some pigments are more lightfast than others. Check the blue wool scale rating if outdoor exposure is expected.
Storage & handling
12-18 months in sealed containers. Pigment dispersions can settle, so stir before use. If you see hard sediment at the bottom, the dispersion has broken and the pigment may not redistribute evenly. Use fresh stock for critical colour-matching work.
White Paste
High-opacity white pigment paste for screen printing on dark fabrics, based on titanium dioxide (TiO2). Same pigment used in house paint, sunscreen, and virtually every white surface you see. In textile printing, white paste serves as the underbase layer that blocks the fabric colour from showing through subsequent colour layers on dark garments.
Where it's used
Underbasing on dark-coloured fabrics before printing colour layers. Also used as a standalone white print on dark garments. You need it for any multi-colour print on black, navy, or dark-coloured cotton.
How to use it right
Print the white underbase first through 43T-62T mesh for heavy deposit. Flash cure it, bring it to about 100-120°C briefly, just enough to gel the surface so the next colour layer doesn't mix into it. Don't full-cure the underbase yet. Choke the underbase 0.5-1 point smaller than the top colour artwork. This prevents a white halo around the edges of your colour print. Full cure everything together in one final pass through the dryer.
Watch out for
Flash curing too long or too hot on the underbase will make the surface too smooth for the top colour to grip. You'll get adhesion failure between layers. Just gel it, don't cure it. Also, TiO2 is naturally cool-toned. If the design calls for warm whites or creams, you'll need a touch of yellow pigment mixed in. Straight TiO2 white on warm-toned design looks clinical.
Storage & handling
12 months. TiO2 is dense and settles fast, so white paste needs thorough stirring before every use. If you see a layer of clear liquid on top, that's the binder separating. Stir from the bottom until completely homogeneous.
Quick Comparison
Component
Amount (per 1kg paste)
Percentage
Function
Binder
150-200g
15-20%
Film formation, pigment adhesion
Water Pigment
30-80g
3-8%
Colour
Thickener
10-20g
1-2%
Viscosity control
CCL Fixer
5-10g
0.5-1%
Crosslinking for wash fastness
Water
Balance to 1kg
~70-80%
Carrier / dilution
Common Questions
How much binder should I use in my printing paste?
150-200 grams per kilogram of total paste weight is the standard range. Below 100g/kg, the pigment lacks sufficient acrylic film to survive washing. You'll get noticeable colour loss by the third or fourth wash. Above 250g/kg, the print starts feeling stiff and plasticky, which defeats the purpose of water-based printing. Start at 150g/kg, print a test swatch, wash it 5 times at 60°C, and assess. Increase binder by 20-30g/kg increments if wash fastness isn't satisfactory.
Why does my textile print wash off after a few washes?
Usually one of three things, in order of likelihood. Not enough binder. Below 15% of paste weight, the pigment film is too thin to hold. Second possibility is under-curing. The paste needs to reach 150-160°C for the acrylic binder to fully coalesce into a durable film. If you're heat pressing, make sure you give it the full dwell time (30-45 seconds), not a quick touch. Third is no CCL fixer. For garments that get regular washing, adding 0.5-1% crosslinker makes a dramatic difference in durability. Fix these three and your prints will survive 50+ washes.
What is CCL fixer and when do I need it?
CCL fixer is a chemical crosslinking agent that creates permanent bonds within the binder film during heat curing. Without it, the binder forms a thermoplastic film. Decent durability, but it gradually softens with repeated washing and detergent exposure. With CCL fixer, the binder crosslinks into a thermoset network that resists washing, dry cleaning, and chemical exposure much more effectively. Use it whenever the garment needs to survive more than 20-30 washes. For promotional items that might see 5 washes, you can skip it. For uniforms, workwear, or children's clothing, always include it.
Is binder the same as the office folder/binder?
No connection at all. In textile printing, binder is a liquid acrylic polymer emulsion that you mix into your printing paste. It forms a transparent film that locks pigment onto fabric fibres when heat-cured. Without it, the colour washes off. An office binder holds paper. A textile printing binder holds colour on cloth. Same word, completely different product.
Getting your water-based paste recipe right is half the battle in textile printing. We carry all the components, binder, thickener, fixer, pigments, white paste, and we know the ratios that work for different jobs. Bring your fabric sample and we'll help you dial in the right mix before you commit to a full run.