The same file printed on 19 momme charmeuse and on 12 momme twill comes back as two different products. The charmeuse reads deeper on the face than the twill does. The twill is the one that can be worn either way.
All four base cloths take reactive digital and screen ink without argument, so the question was never whether silk holds a print, but which silk. Weight settles that before weave does.
Momme is a ceiling set by whether the back of the piece is ever seen, not a quality score to push upward. Answer the reverse-side question first, cap the momme, and charmeuse, twill, habotai and crepe de Chine sort themselves.
Momme sets the ceiling because one drop of ink either travels down through the cloth or spreads sideways across it, never both. Heavier silk keeps the ink nearer the face, which is where the depth comes from and why the reverse goes pale.
Faisal and colleagues measured that split in Pigment & Resin Technology on a plain-weave silk of 35 g/m², roughly 8 momme. Ink penetration ran 62.18% to 98.21% across 20 runs, with balanced conditions between 71% and 74%. A spread dot carries a thinner film and reads lighter as it grows wider.
A single-sided digital pass reaches the back well enough to read below 12 momme, provided the artwork is 300 DPI or higher. One pass can no longer bring the reverse anywhere near the face above 14 momme.
Two further limits are our own working numbers, not an industry standard. Our double-sided line stops registering the second pass at roughly 19 momme, because the reverse image goes too faint for the laser to position against. Our newest double-sided process over-inks anything under 10 momme.
Those limits leave a window of 10 to 19 momme where the double-sided route stays open. The four cloths do not sit in it evenly.
| Base cloth | Momme sold | Inside our 10-19 momme window? |
|---|---|---|
| Silk habotai | 6, 8, 10, 12, 15 | No: 6 and 8 sit below |
| Silk crepe de Chine | 12, 14, 16 | Yes, every weight |
| Silk twill | 12, 14, 16, 18 | Yes, every weight |
| Silk charmeuse | 12, 14, 16, 19, 22 | No: 19 and 22 sit at or above |
Charmeuse, famous for depth, is the only one of the four sold in weights that close the second pass. Habotai, famous for printing through, is the only one sold too light to run clean.
Hermès builds its scarves at around 18 momme twill, just under the weight where our own second pass stops registering, and the heaviest weight we sell with both sides still available.
The weave surface decides how a drawn line and a flat colour read, not whether the ink holds. Charmeuse, twill, habotai and crepe de Chine all take the same reactive ink, and what changes is the surface each weave presents to it.
Charmeuse is where we watch fine detail hardest. Long satin floats mirror light, which buys the face its depth, and that same smooth run of yarn lets ink pool at the edge of a hairline.
Habotai’s flat plain weave does the opposite, holding a solid block of colour and a clean edge where a satin float would pool. Twill’s diagonal raises the ground slightly, and on the finest work that ridge costs a little off the crispest edges.
Crepe de Chine is the one that surprises buyers. Nothing in a twisted yarn increases lateral spread, so the drawn line holds as well as it does on a plain weave.
What the irregular matt face changes is the light. It scatters rather than mirroring, so colour reads even and matt where a satin face reads like a mirror.
The artwork therefore narrows the shortlist before price or hand is reached. If the finest element in the file is a hairline, a fine grid or small type, crepe de Chine and habotai are the safer grounds. Charmeuse is the one to prove on a strike-off first.
The finished piece decides whether the reverse is on show, and that answer caps the momme before drape or price. A hand-rolled square is seen from both sides every time it is worn. A lining is not.
| Finished piece | Base cloth | Momme | What the choice gives up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scarf, hand-rolled square | Twill or crepe de Chine | 12-16 | a satin face’s glossy depth |
| Dress or blouse | Charmeuse or crepe de Chine | 14-16 crepe, 14-19 charmeuse | at 19 the second pass is already gone |
| Lining, layered piece | Habotai | 8-12 | reads through; no second pass below 10 |
| Cushion or pillow cover | Charmeuse or twill | 16-19 | a single pass leaves the reverse pale |
For a folded square, 12 momme twill is the pick: one pass reaches the back, and the edge still turns.
An order line carries the base cloth, the weight in momme, the width, the print method and the resolution it needs. Silk crepe de Chine, 14 momme, 114 cm, single-sided reactive digital, file at 300 DPI or higher is a complete one.
All four run at 114 cm as standard on our custom printed silk fabric, with no minimum order.
Ask for a strike-off of the real artwork, never a blank swatch card. Judge it on how deep the ground shade reads on the face, then on what the reverse shows against the light. Printed dimensions can shrink up to 4.2 mm across the weft, so a fine grid gets judged on cloth.
Silk twill and crepe de Chine at 12 to 16 momme are the default whenever the back of the piece will be seen. Of the four cloths, they are the only two sold at no weight that closes the double-sided route.
Charmeuse earns its 19 and 22 momme where the reverse never shows and the depth of the face is the whole answer. Habotai earns its 6 and 8 momme where the print is meant to read through.
Momme is the ceiling, not the quality score. Cap it against the reverse-side question and an undecided piece keeps its options; a cloth ordered at 19 momme, or at 8, has already made that call.