With the growing popularity of inkjet printers, you might have heard about Dye ink & Pigment ink. We will understand another special type of ink i.e. Sublimation Inks at the end of this article. It becomes difficult for one to decide which type of ink suits what purpose. Let’s understand these inks and where to use them.
First of all, let’s understand briefly the chemistry of these inks. Dye Inks are made from Dye Colorants. They are ultra-fine particles of colors that dissolve completely in water. Dye-based inks will appear like a clear solution. Pigment inks are large particles of colors that don’t dissolve in water. Pigment particles are held suspended in the ink with the help of specialized technology.
Dye-based inks are suitable for general document printing applications. They are also an excellent choice for amateur photo printing. These links are also suitable for indoor short-life graphic arts applications such as event banners, exhibition posters, etc. Dye-based inks offer vivid colors and reproduce colors accurately. In general Dye, inks have longer stability and shelf life.
Pigment-based inks are ideal for printing business documents. Prints are water fast even on plain papers. Pigment inks are also highly popular for professional photo printing, indoor signage, and posters. The excellent fade resistance of the pigment inks makes them an ideal choice for printing ID Cards. Prints of pigment inks are highly sharp with no inter-color bleeding. Advanced pigment inks have a good color gamut, and high color vibrancy as well. Pigment inks have a slightly less shelf life compared to dye-based inks.
We hope now you know which type of ink to select for your printer. There are some printers, which offer a combination ink set of Pigment & Dye. In these printers, the black ink is pigment-based. Cyan, Magenta & Yellow inks are dye-based. When you print the document, pigment black is used. When you print the photos, dye-based ink is used. Black ink for photos is generated by mixing C, M & Y. These types of printers offer benefits for both the ink types. Canon Pixma G series Ink Tank printers, Epson Ecotank L4150, and L6150 series printers are a few examples of such printers.
This brings us to Sublimation ink. This is a special type of dye-based ink that has a nature similar to pigment inks. These dyes have a special property to turn into color vapor when heated. When we print with these inks and heat the paper with special equipment; these color vapors can be transferred to polyester fabrics or coated substrates such as mugs, mobile covers, key chains, photo frames, etc. These links are used only for the personalized gift business. You can learn more about Sublimation ink in our blog HERE.
