Printing Inks Matter!
Just look around you.
What do you see?
The paper you just picked out from the letterbox. That beautiful wallpaper you spent hours choosing. The latest novel you’re reading, your children’s schoolbooks. The carton of milk you use each morning. The pizza box from yesterday’s delivery.
Printing inks are used on products that line the shelves in the supermarket, as countless packages are printed on – from food packaging such as crisp bags or beverage cartons, from your laundry products to the napkins you use to dress up your dinner table. Inks enable printing of barcodes and expiration dates, and they ensure greeting cards or roadside billboards grab your attention.
Inks and the clear varnishes and coatings that are used to protect printed images must meet a variety of requirements. We need ink to print on many different substrates: paper or cardboard, plastic films or rolls, vinyls, textiles, metals, wood, or even glass. Whatever the substrate, the required inks might have to withstand extreme temperatures, humidity and weather conditions. In some circumstances, inks should not rub off, in others they should deliberately come off. In special applications, inks conduct electricity, changes colour (depending on the temperature) and helps protect against counterfeiting and fraud. In the end, the integrity of the printed image must always remain intact, as it is there to serve a purpose. When looking at food packaging, inks display ingredients, dietary information, storage and handling instructions.
Throughout the centuries, printing has been known as the art that preserves other arts. The spread of knowledge and culture, the ability to pass on experiences to the next generations, have been made possible through the application of ink on paper. Even today, in our digitalised world, it is still printed words or pictures which are needed in many situations, be it for permanence or clarity, for prolonged use and enjoyment.
The use of ink helps to educate, inform and update us on world events or warn us of danger. Ink also helps us to make choices: which products to buy, in which direction to travel, and even what messages to send to our loved ones.
With inks bringing education, design and decoration to life, they are one of the most important mediums of communication in the world today.