Glossary → Reactive dye printing
Reactive dye printing.
dye bonded chemically to the fiber, then steamed and washed off
Dye that forms a chemical bond with the fiber, mostly cotton, then has to be steamed to fix it and washed to strip the unfixed portion: a wet, energy-heavy finishing line standing behind every printed run. Pigment ink skips both steps, sitting on the fiber and curing with heat instead. Reactive is the baseline whenever a pigment vendor quotes water, energy, or CO2 savings, so ask which steps the comparison covers before believing the percentage.