Colour and colouration

Colour has been playing a dominant role in life from time immemorial. Right from the prehistoric times man has noticed the abundance of multitude of colours worn by nature. With progress in times it was realised that the colours in nature were not permanent. The process of colouration began with application of natural colouring matters to dye clothes prepared from different natural textile fibres like cotton, linen, wool, silk etc. It was soon realized that the method of extraction of natural dyes and their application were lengthy and laborious. This gave the impetus to development of synthetic dyestuffs. Colouration in textiles ranges from apparel fabrics and other end uses like carpets, furnishing fabrics, automotive textiles, military textiles and so on. Textile colouration industry is a service that alters the appearance and aesthetics of textile materials. Colourants in textile application are principally based on organic dyestuffs and pigments, with some inorganic pigments also in use. Dyestuffs are mainly used in traditional dyeing and printing of textile material. Coloured textiles are produced today on a large industrial scale. Although modern automation techniques have been introduced for colour measurement, metering of dyes and auxiliaries and automatic control of dyeing processes much human invention is still required. Fibres can only be standardized to a limited extent due to biological and environmental factors like growing of cotton, raising of sheep etc. New developments in fashion and application have required constant modification in various procedures. Goal of every dyeing is to produce coloured textile of desired shade, homogeneous depth and hue with due consideration to economy and ecology.