Pulse → 2026-10-06

Pulse — 2026-10-06.

The lead

Kama has filed for court-supervised restructuring. Print Business reports the move puts it on the list of German engineering businesses calling on the courts as headwinds mount. For a production manager, the headline matters less than the follow-up calls it should trigger. If a Kama machine runs on your floor, find out who holds your service contract, where your spare parts come from, and whether either answer changes while the restructuring runs. The report does not say support will stop. But a supplier working under a court’s eye may reorder its priorities, and you want to know that before a part fails, not after. Count the wear parts and consumables on your shelf this week. Ask your dealer, in writing, how warranty and service commitments will be handled. Kama is one name. The report treats it as part of a wider run of German engineering filings.

Print Business: Kama joins the list of German engineering businesses calling on the courts

Signals

GelatoConnect describes its own hub network. GelatoConnect has set out how its print-on-demand production management software links production hubs around the world, in a feature The Dead Pixels Society runs under the banner of a customer-led future of print. This is the vendor describing its own system, so read it as a statement of intent rather than an audit. The useful questions for a floor manager are what a connected hub has to report, how often, and who sees it. Any software that ties plants together can also be used to compare them. If you make work for a network like this, that comparison is your scorecard.

The Dead Pixels Society: GelatoConnect and the customer-led future of print

Photo POD: build the process before the volume. Kenneth Kollasch talks manufacturing workflow automation and scalable fulfillment systems for photo print-on-demand in a Dead Pixels Society conversation that runs from swamp mode to systems that sell. The title sets the contrast. One shop handles each order by hand and drowns as volume grows; the other builds the process first and grows into it. For a photo POD floor, the practical test is simple. If fulfillment stops when one person is off sick, you are still in the swamp.

The Dead Pixels Society: From swamp mode to systems that sell with Kenneth Kollasch

CorelDRAW 2026 turns text into vectors. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2026 adds text-to-vector generative AI, Impressions reports, pitched at garment and print design prep. Type a description, get vector artwork. That lands the tool inside software many decorators already use for separations and layout. The catch for production is the one that comes with any generated art: someone still has to check line weights, small text and separations before a screen is burned or a film goes through the printer. Budget that check into the quote, not after it.

Impressions: CorelDRAW 2026 adds text-to-vector AI tools

Canon joins the Sustainable Print Manifesto. Canon has signed on as a development partner to the Sustainable Print Manifesto, which sets out to establish eco-standards in print production, Large Format Review reports. A development partner role points to a hand in shaping the standards, not just endorsing them. Watch this one if you sell sustainability to customers. The EU’s EmpCo ban on unsubstantiated “eco-friendly” claims carries a Sep 27, 2026 date, and a shop that can point to a published standard is better placed than one relying on its own wording.

Large Format Review: Canon joins Sustainable Print Manifesto as development partner

Pantone adds more than 200 graphics colors. Pantone has released more than 200 new bold graphics colors aimed at production print matching, according to The Cannata Report. New swatches tend to show up on the floor as customer artwork before anyone has updated a library. Check whether your RIP, ink sets and swatch references can answer a request for one of the new colors. A shade the client picked from a fresh guide still has to be hit on press, or flagged as out of gamut, before the job ships.

The Cannata Report: Pantone launches 200 new bold colors

Generative AI art, 18 months on. Ink Kitchen looks back at generative AI art in decorated apparel production, 18 months on. The retrospective framing is what makes it worth reading. It is not a launch claim; it is a check on what stuck after a year and a half. Pair it with the CorelDRAW item above. Generation tools are moving into the design software decorators already own, and an 18-month view is a fair place to judge how much of that output survives contact with a press.

Ink Kitchen: AI generative art, 18 months later

Madeira UK has launched a new chenille embroidery thread for textured apparel decoration, Printwear & Promotion reports. NozzleCheck has not independently verified the details of the release. For embroidery shops, the questions before ordering are the usual ones: which machines it runs on, what it does to run times, and how the finish holds after washing. Ask for samples and test them on your own equipment before you quote a textured job to a customer.

Printwear & Promotion: Madeira UK launches new chenille embroidery thread

°FAI is introducing automation software for decorated apparel shops built to be stateless, and Ink Kitchen’s headline puts it bluntly: the software doesn’t remember. That is a design choice to understand before you buy, not after. If the automation keeps no memory of past jobs, the practical question is where job history, reprint specs and customer preferences live instead. Ask the vendor to walk through a reorder from six months ago. The answer will tell you more than the feature list.

Ink Kitchen: °FAI software that doesn’t remember

Solopress has launched Forge, an AI tool aimed at automating artwork and ordering for trade resellers, according to Print Business. NozzleCheck has not independently verified the details. The target is the reseller who takes orders from clients and passes them to a trade printer. If Forge works as described, the gain should show up as fewer files bounced back for fixes and fewer orders keyed in twice. That is the claim to test before anyone builds a workflow around it.

Print Business: Solopress shapes AI into Forge for resellers

Impressions Expo Dallas 2026 has revealed the decorated apparel and garment embellishment brands in its exhibitor lineup, Impressions reports. If you are planning equipment or blank-supplier conversations for the year ahead, the list is where to start. Check who is coming before you book travel. Then build a short list of the machines you want to see running on real garments, with your own art, rather than in a brochure.

Impressions: Impressions Expo Dallas 2026 exhibitors and brands

Two recurring threads on r/printondemand describe the same problem from different sides. One seller went through an Etsy and Printify shop order by order and reports high vendor fulfillment failure rates, plus catalog pricing errors that left listings unfulfillable and underpriced. Another asks what made sellers drop a POD supplier; the answers center on defect rates, print quality falling after approved samples, and erratic price spikes. These are user reports, not audited figures. For anyone producing for these platforms, they show what sellers upstream are counting.

Reddit r/printondemand: Going through my Etsy Printify shop order by order · Reddit r/printondemand: What made you stop using a POD supplier

Sellers on r/printondemand are hunting for Canadian print-on-demand fulfillment and finding few domestic providers. The result, they say, is high international shipping costs and customs delays. For a Canadian shop with spare capacity, that is a market signal. It is also a spec sheet: domestic shipping, predictable delivery and no customs surprises. One thread is not a survey, but the complaint is specific enough to act on.

Reddit r/printondemand: Looking for a Canadian print-on-demand resource

A T-Shirt Forums member wants to source private inside neck labels and custom packaging to replace manufacturer tags and lift the unboxing experience. Small request, real production consequences. Pulling a tag and adding a woven label is an extra step on every garment, and it has to be priced, scheduled and checked like any other operation. For shops offering private label work, this thread is the customer brief in plain words. Know your cost per piece for relabeling before someone asks.

T-Shirt Forums: Looking to buy inside neck labels to replace original label

What exactly is self-dispersing pigment? A T-Shirt Forums discussion works through surface-grafted self-dispersing pigment (SDP) inks for DTF and DTG printing, covering how they are formulated and what that means for print performance. It is a chemistry question with floor consequences, because formulation is what you are buying when you switch ink. If a supplier raises SDP in a pitch, this thread is a place to get the background first.

T-Shirt Forums: What exactly is self-dispersing pigment paste for DTF/DTG ink?

A post marked urgent on T-Shirt Forums: a shop has lost its SEDS Mobile Imagine installer but still holds the original Sentinel key. The wider problem is legacy software installers, hardware key drivers and firmware updates that can no longer be found, while the machinery they run still works. Read it next to the Kama lead. Back up every installer, driver and license file for equipment you depend on, keep copies off the production PC, and write down version numbers.

T-Shirt Forums: Lost SEDS Mobile Imagine installer, have original Sentinel key

The M&R Quatro is under discussion on T-Shirt Forums, where members are weighing commercial direct-to-film machinery and how DTF transfers fit into custom production workflows. This is evaluation, not a review. Its value is in the questions people ask before committing money. Where DTF sits next to screen and DTG, who owns transfer production, and how pressing fits the daily schedule are the points to bring to any demo.

T-Shirt Forums: M&R Quatro DTF machine

Verdict of the week

Curing DTG prints takes 1.8 to 2.4 kWh per 100 garments and adds 11 to 19 cents a shirt at $0.12 per kWh, according to packprintmatrix.com. We rate the claim Confirmed. Both figures appear word for word in the site’s hidden-cost list under “Post-cure energy”, so the claim reports its source accurately.

Source · Register · Appearance

Correction, 7 October 2026. We should not have rated this claim Confirmed. Its two figures contradict each other: at $0.12 per kWh, 1.8 to 2.4 kWh per 100 garments comes to $0.0022 to $0.0029 a shirt, not 11 to 19 cents. The page says both, which is all our check confirmed. The rating is now Figure unverified, and the register entry shows the re-check.

Floor talk

Dates

  • Dec 30, 2026 / Jun 30, 2027: EUDR due diligence obligations
  • Mar 1, 2027: GOTS 8.0 fully effective
  • Dec 31, 2027: Materials Matter Standard replaces GRS and RCS
  • ~2028–2029 (indicative): realistic DPP obligation for textiles

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