Thursday, January 04, 2007
Dye
Dye based inks are manufactured by dissolving them in purifies water based compounds. They offer a wide variety of color choices and are significantly easier to manufacturer than pigment based inks. Their major disadvantage is that they tend to soak into the paper and consequently spread out more, there bye reducing their overall brilliance, and sharpness.
Pigment
Pigments by contract do not dissolve in the water solution, but are suspended (Float) in the solution. As a result the brilliance of the pigment is not reduced, and the pigments do not typically soak into the paper when printed by they remain on the surface. Pigment based inks are more lightfast/colorfast making them more suitable for archival/photo purposes. Pigments tend to be costlier to use and they can also clog printer nozzles accordingly.
Filed under: FAQ, Inkjet Info | Tagged: brilliance, colorfastclog nozzles, dissolve, dye, pigment, sharpness | Leave a comment »