Comfort Colors Color Chart Explained: Pigment Pure vs Direct Dye Truths
By James H. Sterling
The heavy 6.1 oz per square yard fabric weight of the Comfort Colors 1717 presents distinct curing challenges inside the dryer chamber. Because ringspun heavyweight cotton holds environmental moisture inside its dense weave, dryers spend considerable energy boiling off water before raising ink films to their target cure temperatures.
When decorators rush garments through forced-air conveyor dryers, two costly errors emerge:
First, under-cured plastisol cracks after the end user washes the garment. Second, overcompensating with prolonged conveyor exposure causes dye sublimation, where loose pigment dyes migrate directly into wet ink layers. To prevent fabric dye bleeding without compromising wash durability, experienced production facilities use low-bleed, low-cure plastisol inks engineered to gel at 260°F to 275°F (126°C, 135°C).
Discharge printing, which relies on zinc formaldehyde sulfoxylate salts to strip fabric dye and return cotton to its natural raw state, fails entirely on pigment-dyed blanks. Discharge chemistry destroys the molecular bonds of reactive dyes, but it cannot dissolve resin-bound pigment particles. Printers attempting discharge on pigment shades like Blue Jean or Terracotta end up with muddy, half-bleached prints that damage shop margins.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
