How Ink Is Made -- The Printing Ink Company

[BJL]

For those of you who are passionate about all stages of the print-making process, including the making of the ink itself:
https://youtu.be/Fypi6dAJB8E

[hugowolf]

For those of you who are passionate about all stages of the print-making process, including the making of the ink itself:
https://youtu.be/Fypi6dAJB8E

Sorry, I could only manage the first 30 seconds. I really found Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto to be out of place to say the least.

Brian A

[Landscapes]

I on the other hand was thoroughly impressed.  What a way to do a film about something that most would consider boring!  I almost want to eat the ink given how deliciously it was presented.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Any inkjet printer will be clogged within a second with that ink.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[Richard.Wills]

I guess that their ink is just not for us mere mortals.

Reminds me of why british cars (Jaguar, Rolls Royce, British Leyland etc) used to boast of being hand finished - needed a human to correct any machine errors, unlike the Japanese TQM systems, which took the majority of the market.

Volte-face.
I want some of that gloop. Not sure what I'd do with it, but in the hand crafted fine art printing world, there is a bit of me that would rather use the finger test, than do the 26 minutes of scanning each and every 2033 target by hand.

If I were to hang up my (efi, image print and xrite) dongles, and start pressing my own papers, then I'd look at their inks, at least until I built my own tri-roller steel ink mill.

Video (and $deity help me) the following three movies, reminded me of how many of the technical craft/production industries are caught between the mid/early 20th & 21st centuries.

The geek in me enjoyed it, the realist wondered how on earth such a labour intensive production process could survive (let alone accurately match colour) today.

[Paul Roark]

I have been involved in mixing inks for black and white inkjet printing since the beginning of digital photo inkjet printing, and my conclusion is that the preparation of the pigments themselves is beyond what the small B&W retail ink sellers can do.  They and we are essentially limited to working with pigments that larger companies have already prepared for inkjet printing.

That said, one of my experiments involved looking at whether I could start with a watercolor pigment made by Daniel Smith.  I was, in fact, able to print with my new indanthrone blue ink, which made a very interesting single-pigment offset to the natural carbon warmth.  However, while the printer did not clog, the ink would not stay in suspension long enough for it to be a viable inkjet product.  Without a ball grinder and sophisticated filtering systems, not to mention the appropriate dispersion chemistry, it's just not something the vast majority of us and even small ink mixers/re-sellers can do.  The economies of scale go beyond what the B&W niche can support.

What we, at least B&W "darkroom/inkroom" types, can do successfully is mix different dilutions of existing carbon inks and, to a limited degree, mix existing color pigments to make a new "color" that might be useful for controlling B&W print tones, as long as the inputs are compatible, which usually means they are from the same family of pigments made by a major company and the dilution base is carefully made and tested to avoid incompatibilities.  While that degree of involvement with the inks is very limited, the results can be quite rewarding for those who just do B&W. 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com
http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/

[Tim Lookingbill]

Wonder if this will now stop us from complaining about the cost of inkjet cartridges. Naaah!

I'ld like to see a video showing what organic or non-organic substances the inkjet manufacturers use to expand the color gamut of current inks. It must be a very well guarded trade secret recipe.

[Doombrain]

Or you could just read any MSDN/SDS sheets which can be found online.

[enduser]

This company is  where you start if you want to get into the digital ink making business.
http://www.dispersions-pigments.basf.com/portal/basf/ien/dt.jsp?setCursor=1_806836