A garment printing machine is provided with a transportable platen that can be utilized to significantly decrease the delay in printing expended in loading and unloading a garment for printing in either a digitized garment printing machine or a screen garment printing machine. The platen is provided with structure that holds a print receiving area of a garment firmly in position atop a print panel support plate that forms a part of the platen. Furthermore, the invention includes a platen support structure that cooperates with the conventional couplings' on existing conventional garment printing machines. A plurality of transportable platens constructed according to the invention are utilized interchangeably so that while one garment loaded on one of the platens is being printed upon in the printing machine, the prior garment just printed upon is unloaded and the next garment to be printed is loaded onto another identical platen. This totally avoids any delay in printing due to loading and unloading of garments on the platens.

A garment printing machine is provided with a transportable platen that can be utilized to significantly decrease the delay in printing expended in loading and unloading a garment for printing in either a digitized garment printing machine or a screen garment printing machine. The platen is provided with structure that holds a print receiving area of a garment firmly in position atop a print panel support plate that forms a part of the platen. Furthermore, the invention includes a platen support structure that cooperates with the conventional couplings' on existing conventional garment printing machines. A plurality of transportable platens constructed according to the invention are utilized interchangeably so that while one garment loaded on one of the platens is being printed upon in the printing machine, the prior garment just printed upon is unloaded and the next garment to be printed is loaded onto another identical platen. This totally avoids any delay in printing due to loading and unloading of garments on the platens.

Disclosed are methods that couple effective nesting of fabric, as part of a textile cutting process, in which designs and/or graphic elements are directly printed on the nested elements, instead of on the entire textile sheet. Embodiments of the invention can address issues of waste and redundant printing, such as by starting with a blank textile roll, and printing only in the geometry areas of the patterns. Embodiments of the invention can increase fabric yield, because there are no constraints between the pattern geometries and the textile sheet print.

A hybrid printing machine is described having both silk screening stations and a direct-to-garment digital printing station with a raster image processor to control a portion of a printing process.

A hybrid printing machine is described having both silk screening stations and a direct-to-garment digital printing station with a raster image processor to control a portion of a printing process.

Disclosed are methods that couple effective nesting of fabric, as part of a textile cutting process, in which designs and/or graphic elements are directly printed on the nested elements, instead of on the entire textile sheet. Embodiments of the invention can address issues of waste and redundant printing, such as by starting with a blank textile roll, and printing only in the geometry areas of the patterns. Embodiments of the invention can increase fabric yield, because there are no constraints between the pattern geometries and the textile sheet print.

A system or machine is disclosed which takes pre-stretched emulsion coated screens, digitally prints thereon and exposes them before further processing and use in a screen printing machine.

A system or machine is disclosed which takes pre-stretched emulsion coated screens, digitally prints thereon and exposes them before further processing and use in a screen printing machine.

A hybrid printing machine is described having both silk screening stations and a direct-to-garment digital printing station with a raster image processor to control a portion of a printing process.

A hybrid printing machine is described having both silk screening stations and a direct-to-garment digital printing station with a raster image processor to control a portion of a printing process.