With so many varieties of ink in the digital ink industry, Selection of the best and more optimum inkjet product for your purpose is not an easy task as it still very mandatory for your distinguishing through your field of business.

A basic knowledge should be at your end of different kinds of inkjet inks which can be found on Types of Inkjet Ink for well based knowledge and basics.

Application Properties:

1- Water based inks

Simply it is an ink which the main carrier is water, with colorants which could be dyes or pigments. Dyes are bright and cheap but fade rapidly by time, pigments as it cost more but resist fading if you interest after the printing. Photographic quality pigment inks can resist fading for a century or more if you keep them away from direct sunlight and pollutants.

Uses: They are mainly used in graphic and textile applications. Aqueous Inks can be used in HP, Roland, Epson and Mutoh Printers.

2- Solvent based inks

These inks use a solvent as their carrier fluid. Generally, the solvent is a type of volatile organic compound, which means they dry very quickly through evaporation. Solvent inks are cheap, durable and give good coverage on non-porous vinyl and other graphic arts substrates.

Mainly 2 different of solvent based inkjet inks widely common as follows:

Strong Solvent inkjet ink

widely used for outdoor signage applications. The results are very durable and work well with plastic media and billboard papers. The solvent dissolves into the top surface of plastics so that the dye or pigment colorants are locked into it after the solvent evaporates. Five years’ outdoor lifetimes are commonly quoted for plastics.

Eco solvent inkjet ink

Used for indoor and outdoor signs and display, billboard papers, sale points, self-adhesive vinyl, polypropylene, mesh, vehicle wraps but not used for non-absorbent media  

3- Latex inks

Uses for wall coverings such as convey short term, frequently changing messages in retail spaces, transportation stations, flexible advertising signage and interior decoration instead of vinyl and paper media, fast expanding market due to the attractive appearance of printed fabric and its light weight and others.

4- Oil-based inks

As vegetable oil used in manufacturing in this type of ink a significant increasing in the glossiness of the dried substrate, it is very Suitable for printing on porous substrates such as Plain paper, coated paper and cardboard. These inks are most commonly used in coding and marking and Some paper-based wide-format graphic applications.

5- UV inks

UV inks are considered more environmentally friendly. Also, unlike aqueous and solvent inks, where the carrier fluid has to be dried off to leave the color behind, the whole of the liquid UV ink is turned into a solid that remains on the substrate.

6- Hot melt inks

This ink has an advantage over aqueous inks in that it does not suffer from bleed and ink penetration through to the other side of the paper. These inks are used in the coding, marking, and packaging segments. One disadvantage of these inks is that sometimes it is possible to scratch them.