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Originally Posted by cam |  | | | | | | | | | 1.Does this mean that it is not common to have dyes inside of the inks?
2.What do you mean by "ultra-soft hand"
3.Do the dyes make the inks easier to work with
4.what do the dyes do to the long term quality of the inks. Does the product retain the high quality long life of other screen printed products not using dyes. | |  | |  | |
1. There are hundreds of ways to color an ink, like adding flavor to a vanilla milk shake. Hundreds of ink and hundreds of colorants.
Dyes are liquid in nature and can penetrate into cellulose fibers like cotton. Pigments have larger particle size and have to stick to the outside of cotton fibers.
2. Hand is a textile term to describe the way fabric feels when it is touched. Terms like softness, crispness, dryness, silkiness are all terms that describe the hand of the fabric. Plastisol with lots of pigment for dark shirts printed with a heavy deposit on football uniforms has a heavy hand. Soft hand plastisol printed like a stain on white shirts through a fine mesh will have a soft hand. A printed sheet or pillow on your bed has a soft hand. The combination of soft vinyl resins and 'dye' or 'toner' added to the ink will result in a print that you can't feel when you run you finger across the surface.
Dyes and pigment perform the same basic function; to add color. Pigments can provide more viscosity and opacity because of particle size. Pigments usually provide stronger color because they don't penetrate the surface, unlike dyes that are 'soluble' in the ink vehicle or solvent.
Dyes can have superior color fastness and brightness.
Tell me why you are focused on 'dye'? Are you aiming for a desired result but don't want to disclose it?
The best black ink I ever printed was for a custom design for Walt Disney where we printed 'the rat' with non-ionic dyes imported from Italy and mixed at 10% with our hand-made water-base base. Soft and BLACK, but 4 times the money even with the savings from water-base ink.
After one wash, you couldn't tell the difference between the custom ink and the soft hand Rutland Black we regularly used.
Begin with the end in mind.