Why do you talk about water-based inks all the time?
What are they? What does it mean for me? Who are you? Why are you obsessed with ink? What’s wrong with you? Why is water so special? Doesn’t discharge sound gross? Why does it matter? What’s the difference? Why are you eating that?
So everyday I talk to people who’ve heard of what we do, but don’t really get what all the water-based ink fuss is about. Here’s a response I sent to a customer recently who just wanted some general information about the techniques we’d be using.
The Basics of Water-based Inks:
Sick of wearing a bulletproof plastisol shield on your chest? Go water-base!
Water-base is the way to achieve a soft print that feels like it is part of the fabric. Water-base (also known as discharge printing when used on dark fabrics) is the preferred print method that satisfied the discerning tastes of our clients. Quality is one of our main concerns, and a big part of why we have such a loyal customer base.
Water-based inks are known for their “soft hand” (the feeling of the ink on the shirt). Once a water-base print is washed, it feels the same as the rest of the shirt and you can’t feel the print. This is because the ink sinks into the fabric and binds to each fiber rather than sitting on the surface like plastisol. It doesn’t chip, crumble, or peel over time like plastisol, although it can experience pilling and slight fading like any other fabric if washed excessively or mistreated. Truth be told, we’ve only had one complaint of fading with our water-based inks, and that was from someone who supplied us with “seconds” from a manufacturer outlet’s bad dye lot.
Water-based inks are slightly harder to pantone color match because of the way they interact with the garment dyes, which is not a factor with plastisol. But we have years of experience with them and dozens of garments in avariety of styles and brands that we’ve worked with previously; so if you have any concerns, just ask! We’re always happy to answer questions about the technique we love to use!
What’s Discharge?
Discharge ink is a water based product that is formulated to deactivate the dyes used on natural fabrics. It’s a heat activated agent you add to colored inks, that acts almost like a bleach on the garment while the rest of the ink is curing. You have probably seen many shirts with a very soft print that looks like the color of natural cotton – this is discharge printing. Discharge screen printing can be used to print colors on dark garments that in the past would have required an additional layer of white ink in order to achieve proper opacity of top colors. The best part is it doesn’t cost extra, and you don’t have to ask for it. We’ll add discharge to the inks for your order whenever it is necessary to give you the results you want.
Does water-based discharge work on everything?
No! One of the biggest issues we run into with our customers is when they really want to use light colored water-based inks on dark cotton polyester blend tees. Usually we recommend that clients select 100% cotton tees, because blended tees have synthetic fibers that will not discharge. This results in a muted or vintage look that some people really like and others don’t. If you want your colors to pop and your design to remain crisp, we recommend that you select tees with all natural fibers.
Unfortunately not all 100% cotton garments discharge equally well. Discharge printing has some mixed results on colors in the cobalt blue dye family, specifically Royal Blue, Kelly Green, and a few purples. However final results vary by garment manufacturer and color. Sometimes it’s an tinted effect people really like, and sometimes it’s a deal-breaker. There’s some more info about discharging and color limitations here.
Experienced customers who are familiar with our processes will sometimes purposefully use discharge inks on polyblends for a vintage or distressed looking print. But if you want the softest brightest most opaque print possible, you’ve gotta stick with waterbased discharge on 100% cotton.
Waterbased discharge print on 100% cotton Black Tee - SO SOFT!
Waterbased (No Discharge necessary) Inks on 100% Cotton White Tank
Thanks for reading!
<3 K
(Source: forwardprinting.com)
