El Shams › Textile printing
Printing
Textile printing in Egypt.
Prep printing on yardage for garment production — rotary screen for volume, digital pigment for short runs and detailed artwork, sampled on your own fabric before bulk.
What we print
Built around the pattern a buyer actually needs.
A lot of Egyptian print houses sell from a catalogue: you pick from the designs already engraved and you take the colourway that exists. El Shams runs the other way round. You bring the pattern, the repeat and the colourway, and the mill prints it — on cloth that, in most cases, it dyed and prepared itself.
That matters more than it sounds. A print sits on a ground, and if the ground shifts between lots the print shifts with it. Because dyeing, printing and finishing all happen in one building at 10th of Ramadan, the ground under your pattern is the same ground from the first roll to the last.
What the printing line covers
- Pattern printing — your artwork, your repeat, your colourway
- Ground printing — all-over grounds for garment-ready yardage
- Sampling before bulk — approved on your fabric, not on a swatch card
- Straight into finishing — printed cloth goes on to stenter and compactor without leaving the mill
Two routes
Rotary screen and digital pigment.
The right route is decided by your quantity, your number of colourways and the detail in the artwork — not by which machine happens to be free.
| Rotary screen | Digital pigment | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Long runs of one design | Short runs, many colourways, sampling |
| Setup | Screens engraved per colour | No screens — straight from file |
| Cost behaviour | Cost per metre drops as the run grows | Cost per metre stays flat at any length |
| Artwork detail | Strong flat colour, defined repeats | Fine gradation, photographic detail |
| Colour count | Priced per colour in the design | Colour count does not change the price |
Rotary screen printing
The volume route. Once a design is engraved, rotary screen runs fast and holds flat colour cleanly across long yardage — which is why it still carries most bulk garment orders.
- Economical above a run length we will confirm for your design
- Excellent flat-colour density
- Consistent repeat over long runs
Digital pigment printing
No engraving, no minimum tied to screen cost. Good for a first season, a capsule range, or a design with photographic detail and gradation that screens would flatten.
- No screen cost, so short runs are viable
- Many colourways at no extra setup
- Fast turnaround on sampling
How a print order moves
Artwork in, printed yardage out.
01
Artwork & brief
You send the design, the repeat, the colourway and the fabric it should run on.
02
Route & quote
We advise rotary or digital from your quantity and artwork, and quote a lead time with the price.
03
Ground preparation
Cloth is scoured, bleached and where needed dyed on our own line so the print sits on a stable ground.
04
Strike-off sample
The design is printed on your actual fabric for approval. Bulk waits for your sign-off.
05
Bulk printing
The run goes through rotary screen or digital pigment, with the repeat checked through the run.
06
Finish, QC & dispatch
Printed cloth is finished, inspected roll by roll, graded and packed to destination spec.
Working with us
What a garment manufacturer gets.
One mill, three stages
Dyeing, printing and finishing under one roof. No handover between subcontractors, no shade drifting at every gate, and one supplier accountable for the roll that arrives at your cutting table.
Traceable production
Every stage is logged against the order. If a fault shows up in a bolt, it can be traced back to the stage where it happened instead of being argued over.
Audit-ready
ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 certified, with a 45-year production record in Egypt's 10th of Ramadan industrial zone.
Common questions
Before you send a spec
Rotary screen or digital — which should I use?
Rotary screen is the economical route once a design goes to volume, because the cost per metre falls as the run gets longer. Digital pigment printing wins on short runs, many colourways and detailed artwork, since there are no screens to engrave. Send the design and the quantity and we will tell you which is cheaper for your order.
Do you print before or after garment cutting?
Before. This is prep printing on yardage — the cloth is printed, finished and delivered ready to cut and sew, which is how ready-made garment manufacturers buy it.
Can you print our own pattern?
Yes. The line is built around the pattern a buyer actually needs rather than only what is already on the floor. Send artwork with the repeat, the colourway and the fabric it will run on.
Will I see a sample before the full run?
Always. We sample before bulk commitment. Nothing goes to volume until you have seen the print on your fabric and approved it.
What fabrics can you print on?
Cotton, viscose and their blends are the mainstay, and polyester where the design and dye class allow it. The fabric is usually dyed or prepared on our own line first, which keeps the ground consistent under the print.
What artwork format do you need?
Send layered artwork at print scale with the repeat marked and each colour on its own layer where possible. If you only have a printed reference, post us a physical sample and we will work from that.
Also at El Shams
The rest of the line
Send us the spec.
Fibre, weight, quantity and target shade — we come back with a lead time and a price, usually within two working days.
Request a quote