CAD has enabled individual designing and inkjet printing on each piece of the pattern.

Arguments are largely divided into two in forecasting how the industry structure would alter when high-speed inkjet printing came into practice in the textile field.

One is the emergence of cutting out the middle-man with direct connections to retail sellers. The other is the realization of QR with the conventional structure virtually unchanged.
However, even in the latter view, the skeleton of the plate-making industry might be maintained, if colors can be flexibly expressed with high-speed inkjet, but is generally expected to be hit hard.

Those who make such a projection say, by way of warning, 'Inkjet printers becoming high-speed would not make rotary and flat-screen printing cease to exist.Although inkjet printing would account for a certain part of all the printing techniques, it is hard to imagine it wiping out other methods. However, if inkjet printing becomes as fast as 200 meters per hour, the plate-making industry will be hit considerably, unless they become directly linked with customers and do not go through printing factories.'

The reason given is this. 'Unless plate-makers unite with printing factories or become self-reliant, they will be struck hard being in a weak position in the division of labor in the industry.' Examining this will make it easier for us to find materials with the prospect of future development. The issue looks clearer looking back on the endeavor for IT innovation in the plate-making industry from such a standpoint.

Introduction of CAD for correction of print designs and color separation was prominent during the 1990's, as a measure to adopt QR in the plate-making industry.The trace-film producing devices were also increasingly being invested in. In the second half of the decade, the number of newly employed direct plate-making machines (color separation/plate-making) grew, on line with CAD. Without such investments, many factories dropped out.

Among those who had invested, being liberated from manual labor and looking successful in rationalization, there was a plate maker in Kyoto, Wakon Co., Ltd., who went out of business because of an unexpected side attack.

The company, which enjoyed its recognition as a pioneer who succeeded in linking CAD directly with trace-film producing, was, however, unfortunate with its associates. The fierce decline in the Kimono industry came as a hard blow for Wakon.

Miyoshi Somegata, whose president also served as director general of the plate makers association in Kyoto, also came to a standstill. Although its customers were wide-cloth printing factories and its QR delivery system proved effective, the profits failed to match the CAD investment.

As more and more printing factories adopting CAD-linked, direct plate-making devices, the division between printing and plate-making became less clear. Since then, plate-makers have been surviving on the basis that having differential plate-making technology is indispensable.

Alteration of divisions in the industry is also apparent in printing. In a Hokuriku printing factory for yukata or traditional cotton robes,more profit is produced per piece through the success of direct distribution to retail sellers, even topped with the assumption of sewing costs. Some major printing factories employed direct plate-making devices for faster planning and design and to effectively exert CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Furthermore, introduction of inkjet printers followed. Similar alteration has been increasingly carried out in many printing and plate-making factories. As a result, the division between the two businesses has become unclear.

There is now no guarantee for each enterprise to secure its profits, unless plate-makers with their new inkjet printers remain decidedly as assistants of printing factories and only make samples for them. The gap between companies with digital access and those without is continuously shrinking. It would be necessary, after all, to be prepared for the divisions in the industry to become eventually less specific even in the latter case as mentioned above.

Inkjet output over exact shapes of patterns has rationalized the sewing process.