Ink

I am new as well and I interested in any responses. Thank you.

Since you are both relatively new, I assume that you will not be looking for large amounts of ink in PMS colors. The ordering/making of specific PMS can get very costly, even though you probably only require a pound or less.

What I have done over the years is to visit any local offset printers I can find and simply see if they won’t either give or sell you a small amount of ink if you simply ask them. Most of them should have shelves of partially used cans of ink that they needed for their commercial jobs. One of my sources actually saves small amounts of leftover colored ink in Dixie Cups and places a piece of wax paper over the top and seals it with a rubber band. They simply write the PMS number on the side of the cup. But most of them will have cans that have been partially used. You may get very lucky and find a place with your exact PMS number, or you simply may find something “close-enough”. A lot of these place will actually mix-their-own PMS colors as well, using established formulas.

This is the frugal way to get your colors. I have also scrounged a LOT of ink from printers going out of business, etc.

It has been my experience over 30 years that offset inks works pretty much just as well as “letterpress” inks. Have I committed blasphemy????. It is true. You may have to experiment with what you obtain this way, to see how they work on the stock you are using and if it will dry efficiently, etc. But the price is certainly right if you obtain it this way.

If you explain that you are a hobby printer, this will certainly lossen them up so that they will not feel that you are their “competition” for work. While you are there, also ask abou odd-lots of paper that they might have. Many printers often end up dumping or scrapping odds and ends of great stock that is leftover from jobs when they start running out of room to store it all. If you really push your luck, they might even cut it down for you into usable sizes!

I should mention that the ink in the old cans us usually scummed-over and hard on the surface, but if you dig down you should be able to find usable ink.

Good luck,

Rick von Holdt
The Foolproof Press

Thanks for the response. If I wanted to buy PMS inks were can I go, are their online stores?

Rick, that’s a great response. A Frugal Printer’s Guide to Finding Ink.

I just wanted to thank you, and the many others who have also written thorough responses here in Discussion. Your advice becomes a lasting part of the discussion archives, where it will help many others who arrive with similar questions.

Thank you from a beginner as well - valuable info!

If you do get your ink in odds and ends from commercial printers, you may still want to mix other colors which you don’t have. The easiest way to do this is to get a piece of plate glass (1/4 inch thick), which is at least 12 inches square, preferably larger. Tell the glass store to polish the edges. This smooths and takes away the sharp edges of the glass. Place the glass on a smooth surface so it doesn’t crack. Also get two ink knives or putty knives about 1 inch wide. You need two knives because you can’t scrape the ink off one knife if you don’t have another one. For instance, you can knead the colors together on the glass with knife #1, which will of course get ink on both sides of knife #1. Then scrape both sides of knife #1 against one side of knife #2, transferring all of the ink to it. Then you can scrape the glob of ink off the side of knife #2 with the end of knife #1. You will then have all the ink on the end of knife #1, from which it is easy to transfer the ink your ink disc. The glass and knives are then easy to clean with a little roller wash.

The more ink colors you have, and the more pure and brilliant (high in chroma) colors you have, the more colors you will be able to make. You should also try to get some transparent white, which is a finished ink but without any color in it. You can lighten existing colors with it, or you can mix a little colored ink with transparent white to make pastel colors. There is also opaque white (ink with white pigment in it), but you will probably find that transparent white is more useful unless you want to print a light colored ink on a substrate which is darker than the ink, or if you want to hide the color of the substrate. Then you will need opaque white.

A couple of color matching guidelines are: Start with the closest color which you have to the color you are trying to make. Try not to start with a dark color which you have to lighten, because it may take a large amount of transparent white or a light color to lighten it. For simplicity, try to use as few colors as possible in the new color. If you want to make a pure, brilliant color, use colors which are as close as possible to the color you are trying to make. The farther the base colors are from each other and from the color you are trying to make, the less pure and brilliant (lower in chroma), your color will be. For instance, if you are trying to make an orange and you have an ink with orange pigment to use, and can match the color by adding a little yellow to it, it will be higher in chroma than if you make an orange from red and yellow. If you have to add black to darken a color, be very careful not to add too much. If you do add too much, it will take a lot of the lighter color to bring it back to where you want it.

Regards, Geoffrey

Great advice, Geoffrey - in letterpress or for any color mixing project!!

Of all the expenses of printing, ink is probably the cheapest. A pound of ink usually costs between $8 to $23 depending on the pigments used in its manufacture. The pigments are the same as what are used in watercolor and oil paints and are usually chosen by the inkmaker so that they have a good quality of lightfastness. What makes ink different from paint are the additives used to make the vehicle or the body of the ink (you can actually use oil paint as a colorant in oil based inks because they are so closely related).

There are two kinds of ink supplied by ink manufactures for commercial printing: oil based and rubber based. Oil based inks are ground in oils and varnish & drier are added - you can tell an oil based ink because the ink will dry in a can with a hard, wrinkled looking coating that has to be removed to access the ink. This ink dries well on most surfaces (if it is new - the driers can evaporate out of old inks and have to be added back to make the ink work properly) and has been the standard of the industry for centuries. This is the ink I use on a regular basis; you just have to make sure that you clean up immediately after printing or the ink will dry hard and will be difficult to remove.

The other type of ink you will encounter is rubber based, which uses synthetic oils and was originally made for high-speed offset press (especially the quick-print market) because it is designed to stay loose or “open” on the press yet dry on the paper by absorbtion. The advantage of this ink is that one doesn’t have to wash-up as frequently and if you forget to wash the ink knife overnight you don’t have to remove it with a razorblade. The disadvantage is that it tends to dry poorly on coated stock; although there are additives that can facilitate drying. Soy inks really fall into this catagory and in reality only sound better for the environment because the problems with inks as a pollutant are the heavy metals used in the pigments. Rubber based inks tend to have more body and so are often preferred by letterpress printers.

Most inks bought off the shelf are formulated for offset presses, although a few makers still keep letterpress ink on their shelves. Offset inks are not as full bodied as letterpress inks and can be thickened by adding a little rice starch (not too much or the ink will get grainy) - a little trick taught to me by an old inkmaker, but it is always better to have purpose-made inks that have been run through an ink mill. Sadly, the old ink-makers that knew about the needs of the letterpress operator are few and far between.

Now for color: The PMS system or Pantone Matching System was designed to get the most combinations out the the fewest number of pure pigments. The combinations are measured by parts (which can be translated to weight) and a PMS mixing book is a must in every shop. At $80 it is a little steep in price but can be bought from any ink dealer. The theory applied to color mixing is to vast to delve into in a post such as this, but it helps to read what you can to try and understand how colors work together and apart from each other. An excellent book (designed for artists using paints, but very applicable to inks) is Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green by Michael Wilcox, currently available in art stores or from North Light Books.

Transparent White and Opaque White are also called extenders. Their use is to basically drive the individual molecules of pigment apart and the illusion created makes the color appear lighter. Transparent White is, a..er..transparent and allows you to see through the ink to the paper and/or another ink it might lay over changing its color value. This was originally used by wood-engravers such as Edmund Evans and Benjamin Fawcett to amazing effect, and later applied to half-tone processes the result of which we see in the amazing process printing in books and magazines today. Opaque white disperses the pigment without the visual penetration through the ink, which makes the eye perceive that the ink is suspended on the surface of the paper. This quality was used to good effect on posters, but it can strenghten the contrast of color versus black on a simple page of text. Transparent White can look watery at times, where a color mixed with Opaque White has a certain ‘body’.

Ink manufacturers can be found in most cities of any size and their product can vary in quality. If you have specific needs - express them to the maker. I have found them all to be very informative and will answer most any question except the actual formulas they use, those are trade secrets.

I intended to mention that a good source of quality mail-order inks is Daniel Smith in Seattle, 800-426-6740 or danielsmith.com, ask for their catalogue. They sell lithographic, etching and relief inks. They don’t offer PMS colors but do have a good assortment of art colors to choose from. They also sell some very small tins of ink, which increases the per pound price, but if you are operating with a small budget it could be a good alternative to buying a full pound of ink. I have found their Traditional Black #79 to be a very good ink. You will need to add about 7% Cobalt Drier (available at any art store) to their ink for it to dry properly.

Great post, Halfpenny! After all this talk of ink mixing and where to buy pantone colors and the like, I snapped 3 shots when I was mixing PMS 349 last weekend and posted them onto flickr in hopes of showing people how easy it can be.

http://tinyurl.com/2uwr76

I use Vanson rubber based ink.

Jason Wedekind
http://www.genghiskern.com

The “Printers Parts Store” is a good place to buy ink. Phone: 1-800-543-1117 or probably NA Graphics punch them in on the web.

hey guys :-)
i have been trying to make light coloured oil based from my large stash of vintage inks. so far i have used the transparent white and a tiny squidge of color but was dissatisfied with the results. so while i was at my local utrecht art supply store i talked to a saleswoman who has done art prints and her advice was to use a basic titanium white oil based paint. she suggested windsor and newton(tube about the size of a toothpaste tube was only $7) and it works beautifully.the drying time didnt seem to be altered. try it out and let me know what you think. i used my usual white gas(kerosene) for cleanup.this in on my lovely vandercook#1 rigid bed proof press.

Thanks for all the great info. Jason’s flickr illustration was particularly helpful. My background is in design and I am used to spec’ing color with PMS numbers and swatchbooks. I never stopped to notice the recipes on the swatches before. As a total novice letterpress printer, I’m curious if there is a standard number of colors that make up the basic pantone palette and allow you to mix all the colors in their swatch books. Do any of the ink suppliers sell these base colors as a set? Or does anyone have a recommendation for “essential” colors to mix from?

Since we seem to have branched into general ink info, I’d like to add another complication to this. Does anyone have experinence with resin-based inks? Graphic Chemical and Ink Co. sells a line called “Pro-Line PPI Ink.” According to their catalogue the benefits are that the pigment “remains at the surface diving a denser color” and a “reduction in ink used.” Also it “will not dry on the roller and will not skin in the can yet the impression will dry fast on paper.”

I am more experienced with fine-art printing than with letterpress and will probably stick with oil-based inks because that’s what I’ve become used to, but I’m would be eager to learn something new if anyone has used these inks.

I have been using Van Son Infinity Acrylic inks only because a local print shop gave them to me as they were changing to oil based ink. It seems to work well. Dries quickly on paper, stays open on the rollers and in the can. I don’t print on coated paper so I can’t say much about that. I am not sure if this ink is laser printer or copier safe.

Sumner

I have printed with many types of ink but my choice on letterpress is Gans polyacyrlic inks. They perform like an oil base, that is, better color than rubber base but they don’t skin in the can and their tack level is a little thicker than oil base inks and that works well on my press. Another nice thing about acrylic is that it stays “open” which means that it doesn’t skin in the can overnight so you don’t have to deal with skimming the dried ink off the top when you start working—better for the environment as more ink gets on the paper than in the trash can.

Unlike some of the sources mentioned here, like Daniel Smith, Gans provides the complete line of mixing Pantone colors and can also mix for you. To print well you need to control the variables, particularly ink, and just picking up ink willy-nilly from various print shops is ridiculous if you are serious about producing the best quality printing possible from your press.

Whatever your choice, picking an ink and sticking with it will bring you experience that makes each job better, easier, and better-looking.

I purchase all my letterpress ink from Graphic Chemical & Ink Company 630-832-6004. I used Pro-Line PPI ink which is a unique printing ink based neither on oil nor rubber. Resin based which allows the pigment to remain at the surface giving a denser color. It will not dry on the roller and will not skin in the can. You can get it in standard colors or order specific PMS colors. Some PMS colors are going to cost you between $17-$35 for a 1lb. can. Hope that helps

I read Halfpenny Press’s comments about the oil based ink and oil based paint. You mentioned using oil paint as a colorant in oil based inks because they are so closely related- how do you go about this? I assume by mixing the ink and the paint together a little bit?

I ordered the assortment of tubes from NA Graphics but the colors I need are a little more vibrant. I have a few tubes of Winsor and Newton oil paints that I could add but I don’t want to harm the rollers or plates without knowing what to do. I’d love any help anyone can offer!

Not meaning to change the topic. Ink is the topic. But thursday my boss decided to clean out the old ink shelves. This is a small offset printing shop. He does not like oil base ink. Anyway, when he bought out my small shop 2 years ago he got all of my 5 lb. cans of oil base ink. Maybe 25 or 30 cans. Some not even opened, some half full or better. Most PMS usable colors. I told him just set them out & I will get rid of them. They are at my small home shop now. Black, Reds, Blues, Browns, Greens, Grays, Maroon, Teal, etc. I’ll never have to buy ink again, unless its a special color. Now to just get my shop operating. Bob

Oh, I forgot to mention. I mix PMS color at work all the time. I use triple beam scales. The colors work out the same from batch to batch if you follow the formulas. I also picked up some used scales at a auction a while back for my home shop.
Good luck on you inking adventures.
Bob

imariosf

If you are just starting out you certainly don’t need to know anything about PMS color work or formulas.

In fact, I don’t think you ever will. The Pantone color books are for offset printing, not letterpress printing. Colors are easily matched simply through intuition. The Pantone swatches are useful as guides, and for satisfying the annoying demands of the occasional graphic designer client, but otherwise, hardly worth the investment.

Gerald

I like mixing PMS ink colors. But I guess you could print like Henry Ford’s car colors. “Any color you want, as long as it’s black”. I guess I just have access to a lot of ink. Acrylic, Rubber Base & Oil. (Offset inks, but it works for Letterpress) The PMS or Pantone Books need to be replaced every year or so because they fade. As far as pleasing graphic designers, I won’t even get into that discussion.
Bob