The structure of the textile market has been, is now und always will be modeled by the printing technology that drives it. Globalisation, quick response, and ecology impose stringent and substantial demands on the different components of the printing process. The major trends in textile printing have been directed towards the production of better-quality prints with greater repeatability und higher fastness, printing right first time und every time, reducing down time of the printing machine, minimising pollution of the environment und waste of raw materials,. reducing stock risks, shortening und flexibility of preprinting process. In short, they have common denominations: versatility and flexibility.These trends are the driving forces to the modifications of the printing devices. Today ink jet technology for textile is mainly being offered und used in the hitherto expensive and time-onsurning procedure of design sampling. Only in very few cases this technology is being for production scale printing.However, even in its current limited state-of-art, this new technology provides for many new business opportunities and cost savings, most notably in sampling, strike-offs and mass customization. This resulted over the past two or three years in an increasing interest in the application of digital prinring technologies to textile substrates. This interest has been fueled by the rapid advances that have been made in digital printing technologies in home und office computer printing systems. Recent conferences und publications suggest that a much broader range of compagnies und suppliers are now willing to undertake the work. required to solve die technological problems in fabric printing.This lecture deals with the latest developments und potential advantages of digital printing from a viewpoint of an European printer.