It all started at FESPA in 1999, when one of Kornit’s founders realised, as a visitor to the show, that there was no industry-grade inkjet printer that could print directly on T-shirts. Back in Israel, what started as an idea gained momentum. Staff were recruited, development work begun and a company was ultimately founded in January 2003.

The breakthrough came in September 2004 when Kornit’s lab succeeded in printing on
dark garments with a direct-to-shirt inkjet. They expect to announce an upgrade module for dark-garment printing at the beginning of 2005. Attempts by others to deliver direct-to-shirt printing solutions failed because of their low speed or because of their inability to print on dark garments or on different fabric types or substrates.

 “I was blown away with the samples you sent, the best I have seen so far of digital prints on
textiles,” wrote Eric M Henry, President of T.S. Designs in Burlington, North Carolina, USA. Kornit is unique because it provides a way for apparel decorators to tap into the benefits of industry-grade digital printing. “The new machines bring decorators who need to print small and medium print-runs significant reductions in cost, time and effort, while at the same time increasing flexibility and supporting personalised output,” says company CEO Ofer Ben-Zur. “Our new D-O-G™ (Direct-On-Garment) technology has produced outstanding results in terms of colour richness, garment feel and detail. We feel that this technology can be the start of a new era,” he added. Kornit machines cater for all T-shirt printers. “We estimate that over the next two years many high-volume garment decorators in the US and Europe will go digital.”

Continuing, Ben Zur said: “These new industrial printers have several unique features never seen on the market to date - a mass-production capability, a unique personalisation and customisation capability, and an unprecedented high-quality,
process-image printing (up to 630 dpi) and colour gamut.”

Published in Eurostitch Magazine, December 2004

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