The main thing concerned in this study is about the colorimetric characterization of ink jet thermal transfer printing for polyester textiles. We use this way to replace the traditional printing. The method of digital ink jet printing is the essential technology for textiles in the future. Although the colorimetric characterization is an extremely important solution for the colour reproduction between devices such as colour displays and printers, a large amount of colour sample is needed during its process for a specific textile. Therefore, the feasibility of simplifying the process of colorimetric characterization in reducing the number of colour samples needed for different polyester fabrics made of fibers with various finenesses in the ink jet thermal transfer printing was investigated. The results show that the colorimetric characterization based on the data base of a normal process, and using a small amount of samples, can have good printing results in colour reproduction.