The Two Most Common Types Of Printer Ink On The Market

2010-09-04

Inkjet printers meant for home use, by far the largest selling type of printer today, use an ink that consists of water, an organic compound called glycol, and either pigments or dyes. These two, pigment based inks and dye-based inks, are the two main types found in printer ink cartridges designed for inkjet printers. Although there are formulations such as dye sublimation inks use, they're limited to specialty printing applications, and don't concern the home user.

Of the two ink types mentioned, dye based inks are the most common. Dye-based inks can produce a wider range of more vivid colors than pigment-based inks. Those desirable qualities make them the more attractive alternative. There were drawbacks to using dye based inks in printer ink cartridges, mainly that the bonding properties between the inks and the papers that were being used in the past were a bit iffy, which led to bleeding of the dyes through the paper and inferior results in the printing process. Also, they tend to take a longer time to dry, creating blurry images and taking longer to bond with the paper. Again, with the development of different paper surfaces, notably coated papers that eliminate the uneven surface of all-purpose printer paper, this is less of a consideration than it was a few years ago.

The other of the two main ink types found in printer ink cartridges are pigment based inks. These do not produce the brightness and vividness of color that the dye based inks do, but they have their distinct advantages. The main one is that they dry very quickly, resulting in printing that is sharper and clearer, especially useful in photo printing. The printer ink cartridges meant for photo inkjet printers are usually filled with pigment based inks, which produce waterproof images. There's an environmental advantage to pigment based inks, as well, as they are less toxic than dye based inks, a real consideration when the fact that hundreds of millions of empty printer ink cartridges end up in landfills all over the world is taken into account.

When using refill kits for printer ink cartridges, it's important to know which ink type the cartridge contained initially, as the two ink types are not interchangeable, and a cartridge meant for dye based ink printing will not function properly with pigment based inks, and vice versa. In addition, inkjet printers that use similar ink types will have different color profiles (the software settings designed to optimize print quality and ink usage with particular types of paper), and thus might not work properly if a cartridge is refilled with ink of a different formulation than the printer was meant to use.