Ink is one of the key components in any printer. Your printed images or documents quality, stability, and durability completely depend on it. Therefore, when things come to print images from a specific application, the first question is not about the printer model, but about the type of ink.
Today, almost all modern printers model are compatible with Mac, iPad and iPhone devices. But, in order to get high-quality documents printouts, you must have good knowledge of different types of ink and their purpose of use. So, if you don’t have enough information, don’t worry. This write-up will explain you different forms of ink with their various features. Let’s begin:
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1. Water-based Ink
As the name implies, the main component of this ink is water. This ink is further divided into two parts:
2. Dye-based Ink
It is a homogeneous solution of the dye in water made with special additives that correct viscosity, density, and other characteristics. The uniformity of the solution distinguishes this type of ink from all others. Let’s know some pros and cons of dye-based ink:
Applications: interior printing, backlit, photo printing.
Pros
- Low price
- Environmental friendliness, lack of smell
- It is easy to clean printers that use this ink as when nozzle clogged, it can be easily washed.
- This ink can be easily inserted into cartridge and has better light-scattering properties compared to other types of ink.
Cons:
- The possibility of interior use only as of the image fade under laminate.
- When liquid enters the unprotected seal, the image spreads.
- The range of compatible media is narrow compared to other types of ink.
3. Pigment Ink
Pigment ink is made from more complex compounds compared to the previous one. Moreover, this mixture is not homogeneous. Therefore, the pigment may precipitate over time and if it lies for a long time, it is always recommended to shake the cartridges immediately before use.
Applications: interior printing, backlit, photo printing.
Pros:
- Environmental friendliness, lack of smell
- High images print quality
- Have a higher degree of light and water resistance than dye-based ink, so prints can keep colors for years in the interior, but this ink is still unsuitable for outdoor use.
Cons:
- More expensive than dye-based ink, at the same time single shade print look less bright because of the worse light-scattering properties of the pigment.
4. Solvent-Based Ink
The second category is designed for large format printing, which is called solvent-based ink. This ink is created from the more aggressive chemicals compound and water, therefore it has higher resistance power to face external influences. But on the other hand, this ink is not as environmentally friendly as the ink of the first group.
Depending on the chemical composition, this group can also be divided into several subgroups:
- Hard Solvent
This ink is the most suitable option for the professional that works for external printing of wide and super-wide formats. Therefore, this category of ink is the most aggressive and provide maximum resistance to all types of external influences like water, sun, alcohol and abrasive effects. It is designed for the cheapest method of outdoor advertising like printing firewalls, banners and billboards, where interior quality is not required. In addition, you can view the advertisement from several meters distance.
- Low Solvent
This type of ink is most suitable for external printing of average formats and interior printing. This ink is created to reduce the impact of aggressive solvent inks on the environment and especially on human health. Its smaller size of pigment granules makes it possible to use this ink for XL class printers (up to 1.6 m wide) that print with interior quality.
- Eco-solvent
With the rapid development of technology, the ink industry is growing and producing eco-solvent ink. Such ink is secured from the entire solvent-based ink family. The biggest advantage of using this is that it has a lack of smell and can be used for interior photographic. It has a lower cost compared to low solvent printers.
5. UV Curable Ink
The next type of ink is basically different from water-based and solvent-based ink. As the ink is added in the cartridge with ultraviolet radiation. Printers that print with such ink are equipped with powerful ultraviolet lamps and shine on the media with each pass of the print head. As a result, the ink seems to freeze on the surface of the carrier, forming an additional layer. This can be easily seen by typing text or dice on a white background.
Pros:
- Less harmful than solvent-based inks
- Possess high resistance to external influence
- Practically independent of the material – you can print on anything.
Cons:
- Unpleasant smell
- Printing is required to protect your eyes from UV radiation with special glasses
- High cost, because UV lamps and special liquids (primer, cooler for heads, etc.) are added to consumables.
6. Latex Ink (HP Latex)
Today, Latex inks are patents from Hewlett Packard and are used only in HP printers. In fact, this is nothing more than water-based pigment inks with a dissolved artificial polymer, which HP calls latex. This special polymer requires slight changes in printing technology immediately after printing, the media. Latex ink consists of five basic elements. For the composition of this ink, almost 70% of the liquid ink base consists of water, less than 30% of solvent and about 1% of various additives in it. According to light-scattering properties, they are as close as possible to water-soluble inks, which makes it possible to use them for printing backlit.
Pros:
- Lack of smell
- A much wider range of compatible materials than standard pigment inks
- Prints coming out of the printer are completely dry
- High photographic print quality
- High resistance to external influences.
Microsoft Ink For Mac Installer
Cons:
Microsoft Ink For Mac Computers
- While compatible only with HP devices
- High price
Microsoft Ink For Mac Shortcut
Bottom Line
Microsoft Ink For Mac Desktop
Among other types of inks that were quite popular in the past, but now those have lost their positions. Therefore, oil-based inks and solid inks can be high in demand for colour printouts. Both types provide high image quality and good resistance to negative environmental effects. So, whatever image quality and contrast you see on your MAC 2019, you will get with these ink in real.