Pigment inkjet printing has highlighted the advantages of cost-effective, short production cycle and environment-friendly. However, patterns directly printed with pigment inks usually have low color yields and blurry images which are caused by bleeding phenomenon. This work presents an atmospheric-pressure plasma method for improving the pigment-based ink-jet printing performance of silk fabrics. The effects of surface changes induced are discussed, with data derived from morphological study by atomic force microscopy (AFM), chemical analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurement. Ink-jet printing experiments were conducted to study the influence of measured changes on anti-bleeding property and color strength of treated and original samples. The ageing experiment indicates that the modified silk fabrics should be printed within 24 h after plasma processing for maximum color yields. This study explores an effective approach for the atmospheric-pressure plasma, which can provide its significant use in improving the surface properties and ink-jet printing performance of fabrics. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.