Transferring ink onto textiles is an ancient practice used to add complex designs through screen printing. Digital printers for fabric printing are a relatively new invention, opening up a wide variety of new options for the textile industry. Using dye-based inks and specialty printers, it is possible to print on substrates from cotton to polyester.

Advantages of digital printing

Digital fabric printing has a number of advantages over screen printing because digital printers are more flexible to use.

Because digital printers can print small runs without wasting or over-using ink, companies can prototype designs before printing a full run. For this reason, digital printing can be a more economical option for many printers. Digital printers also enable companies to customize their design and directly apply images from a computer to fabric.

By utilizing eco-solvent inks and utilizing prototyping to minimize wasted materials, companies can also lower the environmental impact of printing on fabric through digital printing.

Types of digital printers for fabric

There are a number of wide format digital printers that can print on fabric, including the following main brands:

• Mimaki
• Mutoh
• Vutek
• Kyocera
• And more.

What type of ink should you buy?

Digital printing ink is chosen according to what type of substrate you want to print on. Different types of ink may be necessary for a nylon fabric versus silk. Take into consideration the structure of the fabric: how ink bonds with your substrate depends on properties like the weave or knit of the material. Contact Independent Ink to learn more about what type of ink is right for your specific application.

Digital printing can be an integral part of an artist’s body of work and the pieces she creates. Whether an artist works in a digital medium or just needs to create prints of an original piece, she will want to control how a piece is printed on a digital printer as a part of the creative process and the distribution of her work.

What types of digital printers are used?

There are a number of different digital printers equipped to handle fine arts digital printing, but some of the best wide-format printers available are from Epson, Canon and HP. These printers create beautiful prints in a variety of sizes and accept the most popular and vivid fine arts inks.

Whether you want to purchase a printer and render your own prints or have a print shop handle your fine art prints, selecting the right printer for your work is crucial.

What inks are best for fine arts printing?

For Giclees and high-quality prints, most printers will use Archival Inks. These inks are capable of producing long-lasting, museum quality prints, perfect for the fine arts. Typically, Archival inks will be made from fade-resistant pigment-based ink.

Pigment inks will not shift in hue or tone as they dry or over-time, even with some exposure to light. However, it is still best to protect your prints by displaying them away from sunlight or environmental hazards – you can even protect your art with UV glass.

What is the best substrate to use?

Part of this depends on personal preference. Do you want a matte or glossy finish? Would you prefer a heavier, canvass texture or a thin paper? There are a number of substrates that are commonly used in Fine Arts printing:

• Photo paper
• Watercolor paper
• Cotton canvass
• Textured vinyl
• Other substrates for multi-media artists, like aluminum or foam board

Consider which substrate will have the best print permanence. How will ink adhere to your chosen substrate? Is that substrate particularly sensitive to light exposure or ozone?

Be sure to look for a substrate with a high-quality coating since pigment inks adhere to the coating, rather than permeating the substrate. Run-of-the-mill office paper used in common printers do not typically have a coating, which means they will render a lower-quality print.

Getting started

Before you purchase a printer, consult an expert on digital printing to find out what kind of printer and ink are right for you. With more than 70 years in the printing industry, Independent Ink designs and manufactures custom printing solutions for industrial printers and digital printers.

We sell high-quality replacement inks for the most popular digital printer models, including Canon, Epson, HP and more! Contact us today to learn more about our products and how we can help you get started.

When it comes to digital printing inks, there a variety of types to choose from depending on your application and substrate, but two of the most common forms of digital inks are pigment-based inks and dye-based inks.

If you are wondering what the best option is for you and your business, take a look at these helpful tips:

Dye-Based Inks

Composed of colorant dissolved in water, these soluble inks are what you will find most often in a standard inkjet printer. These inks are designed to permeate the substrate you are printing on, resulting in vivid colors. Often, dye inks come in a wider variety of colors, and they are less expensive that pigment inks.

The draw-back of dye-based inks is that they fade more easily. So if you need your ink to last a long time or withstand the elements, dye inks may not be the best choice for you. They also may not work well with a glossy or more water-resistant substrate.

Pigment-Based Inks

Although pigment inks tend to be more expensive, they can be well-worth the price if you are printing on a tricky substrate or need your ink to withstand decades of wear and tear. Designed to adhere to the substrate instead of permeate it, pigment ink is made up of small particles in a solution.

These inks tend to have greater color stability, meaning they will not shift in tone or hue as they dry and they will not fade as quickly as dye-based inks. They are also perfect for more rigid, non-porous substrates.

What’s the right option for your business?

Consider what substrate you are printing on and how long you need your inks to last. Because pigment-based inks tend to be more expensive, your budget is also an important factor. If you are looking for top-of-the-line dye or pigment-based inks for your digital printer at a lower price, we carry high-quality replacement ink for all of the name brands. Contact Independent Ink today to talk over your printing needs, and we can find the right option for your budget!

Modern digital printing enables you to take an image from your computer and print it directly onto the surface of a material or product. Unlike an applique or silk-screen printing, digital printers are more flexible and produce a beautiful, highly-detailed finished product that can be easily customized for each print job.

Typically requiring a larger format laser or inkjet printer, digital printing takes away the hassle of having to reconfigure an ink-transfer process for each substrate or image. It allows for on-demand printing and short turnaround time. For more rigid or difficult substrates, you can even purchase specialty inks that do not permeate the substrate, but form a thin layer on the surface that is then cured with a toner or UV light.

Below are the various types of digital printing inks:

Dye Ink

Standard in most inkjet printers, dye-based inks are colorant dissolved in liquid. Typically, dye-based inks are also water-based.

Pigment Ink

Made up of a powder-like particles that adhere to the surface of your substrate instead of permeating the surface, these inks are typically brighter and more vivid.

Solvent Ink

Solvent inks are similar to dye-inks, but they are not water-based. Typically, these are used on substrates that are not absorbent and need an ink application that is water-resistant. These inks can also include eco-solvent inks, which include a solvent that has a lower environmental impact.

Sepaix Ink

With a thicker polymer-water-base, Sepaix inks are a type of pigment ink most often used on vinyl and coated stock.

If you are looking for digital printing inks, Independent Ink sells replacement ink for some of the leading digital printing manufacturers, including HP, Epson, Mimaki, Roland and more. Quality-tested for performance, but provided to you at a lower cost, our inks are the perfect solution for your business.

For any questions about digital printing or our products, contact us today.

Here at Independent Ink, we strive to create custom solutions to meet the needs of our customers and the market, and we are the largest producer of aftermarket inks. Every ink we produce is quality-tested for performance and created with the latest technology. Although we got our start producing custom aerospace inks for NASA, we now serve a variety of industries across the globe with custom coding and marking solutions.

As a custom printer and ink producer, over the years we have developed replacement inks for many of the leading brands, allowing companies with industrial printing needs to purchase replacement inks at a lower price, while maintaining the same high quality.

Many of our customers use a Domino Inkjet Printer or a Drop on Demand (DOD) printer for their coding needs, so we carry a full line of replacement Domino ink and make-up products.  As a leader in Continuous Inkjet (CIJ) inks and printers, Domino is a trusted printer manufacturer used world-wide. With our replacement ink, you can focus on your business instead of worrying about printing costs.

We produce replacement Domino inks for a variety of substrates, including ketone, alcohol and water-based inks, complete with compatible additives and cleaners. We also provide MSDS for each of our products upon request!

If you are looking for a less expensive alternative for your Domino Inkjet Printer, view our full line of Domino Inks or contact us today!

With over 70 years of experience creating printers, inks and custom products, Independent Ink is a leading manufacturer and innovator in the industrial printing world.  We produce hundreds of replacement inks for leading printer manufacturers, including the most popular continuous inkjet models from Markem Imaje.

As one of the world’s largest provider of product identification solutions, Markem Imaje produces some of the most popular and widely-used inkjet printers. Markem printers are used across a variety of printing substrates, including plastic, glass metal, cardboard and directly onto food.  When it comes to buying ink, Independent Ink’s replacement inks for your Markem printer are not only high quality, matching or exceeding the quality of your current inks, but they are also a fraction of the cost.

Just like your favorite Markem ink products, we carry water, alcohol, ketone and acetate-based inks, as well as additives and cleaners matched with each of our ink products for any application.  We create food grade inks safe for direct-to-food printing, as well as inks made for cosmetics, pharmaceutical, electronic, cable and postal applications.

Our replacement products are fully compatible with your name-brand printer and are available at affordable prices.  If you are looking for replacement Markem Imaje ink, consider Independent Ink! Contact us today for MSDS or more details.

Founded in 1939, Independent Ink has a long history innovating and producing the top ink and printing products for a variety of industries.  We started with marking inks for the aerospace industry with a special NASA contract, but now we produce inks for everything from food and beverage barcoding to digital wide format printers for the graphic design industry.

As an expert in the industrial and commercial printing industries, we know that having a quality, low-maintenance option at the best price is essential for your business.  Our products are designed with cutting-edge research and experience to ensure that you can focus on your core-competencies instead of your printing needs.  We also can produce MSDS for our products upon request, just contact us!

Aside from our printers and Independent Ink brand inks, we also produce a variety of inks for popular printers created by other manufacturers like Hewlett Packard and Videojet Technologies Inc.  In fact, we produce over 100 high-quality replacement inks for Videojet Printers at a fraction of the cost other companies charge.  We pride ourselves on offering our decades of experience to create a high quality product at affordable prices for our customers.

If you are looking for Videojet Inks, we carry a full-line of replacement products, including solvent inks, UV inks, and cleaners.  Many of our solvent inks dry as fast if not faster than your original Videojet inks and write on a variety of substrates to fit whatever your printing needs are.

View our full line of Videojet  Printer Inks or contact us today to learn more!