Water based inks

Water Based inks

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Water Based inks – Don’t tell any of the other inks, we don’t want any bother, but these are our favourites. They penetrate the fabric more than the plastisol inks, and create a much softer, gentler, puppy loving feel. And don’t tell the other garments, but our personal leaning is perhaps more towards the lighter softer weight garments that they sit so well with. But this is massively personal taste, and has no bearing on our hard nosed commercial common sense. This is business.

Water based inks, and printing dark colours onto lighter coloured garments.

They’re ideal for printing dark inks onto lighter coloured garments (or if it’s lighter inks onto darker fabrics we use their close relative, the water based discharge ink).

The main strength of Water Based inks perhaps, is where larger print areas are required, and so texture is of national importance. As such they are often the fashion label favourite, where a large full frontal flash of ink is exciting. See a shed load of T shirts in River Island, Top Shop, online with our friends at ASOS, or if you really know your shizzle, let’s have a little wander into Maharishi.

Additional considerations – garment weight. There’s not much future in choosing for example a lovely soft bamboo T shirt, and then whacking a massive plastisol ink onto the front…unless of course, you like to feel like you’re wandering about with a cricket bat strapped to your chest. Light weight garment = light weight print = water based ink. It’s ok, just maths.

Picky Printer’s note, and way too much info – water based inks will dry out slightly during a print run, and especially on a sizzly day begin to block a screen. Where using tonal dots in a design, don’t go so fine that the dot is only visible under an electron microscope…it could begin to block a touch – we can fix it, but worth a thought. That’s just for screen geeks – if anyone fell asleep into their soup during that bit, sincere apologies.

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