I have resurrected this thread by offering more details about cotton material used for the printed shoulder titles with a focus on parachute regiment.
By June 1943, the War Office decided to move to printed cotton shoulder titles for equipping the entire British Army (ACI 905). It has been said that this move was motivated by Ministry of Supply concerns regarding possible shortage of cloth supplies. The reality might have been different and this interesting story is very well documented by Jon here under post #17
https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...wbeaten&page=2
The 6th Airborne Division which was still under formation was ordered to complete the change from embroidered to printed badges by December 1943, but we can assume the new printed para titles were issued first in the summer of 1943.
The Central Ordnance Depot commissioned the Calico Printers Association for manufacturing the new titles for the entire army. Calico had already been producing numerous formation patches like the Pegasus and the airborne strip from late 1942 so it was a logical choice.
It looks like the Calico printers used Cotton Drill first. The drill or twill weave is characterized by a pattern of diagonal lines. The same type of fabric was being used in the manufacturing of the first Pegasus patches a year ago (drill #2 cotton).
As documented by Ken Joyce, printing issues were soon encountered on coarse weave material with the detailing being not sharp enough. This can be illustrated in the first photo of an unissued para title which could have been rejected at the time (Unissued Coarse Weave Details).
For these reasons, a finer weave material started to be used in the manufacturing process which is referred to the satin drill. This move allowed a much better quality of printing (see 2nd photo Para Title Coarse vs Satin).
Some units probably because of the level of details required had their shoulder titles directly printed on satin drill. This is the case for the Canadian Parachute Battalion which had its first batch of printed titles manufactured on satin drill and delivered in May 1944.
It is possible that both quality of cotton weave continued to be used for printed titles but I doubt it. The printed issues encountered couldn’t be overcome. This wasn’t the case for the Pegasus where both types were made until the end of the war.
As usual, thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.