Abstract This research combines two digital technologies for customizing textile substrates: carbon dioxide (CO2) laser treatment and digital textile printing. The objective is to determine if creating pile height variation by laser engraving cotton velvet fabric prior to digital inkjet printing can impact the resulting color. Color yield depends on the surface in contact with the dye, a pile fabric (cotton velvet) was selected for this investigation. To develop samples, laser engraving was conducted to create pile height variance before printing using a CO2 laser machine, and laser intensity was controlled by adjusting the grayscale of patterns to modify pile height and surface contour of velvet. After laser treatment, seven-colored stripes were printed with a reactive dye ink printer. The reflectance values of printed color were measured by using a spectrophotometer. Pile height variation was demonstrated to cause a measurable effect on color results in inkjet printing using instrumental measures.