Custom Water Based Printing

If you’re tired of tough prints and you want to soften things up a bit, why don’t you try custom water based printing? You see, most screen printing is done with plastisol inks which are very easy to use and reuse, but they aren’t perfect for every application. Garments come in countless varieties and sometimes you have lightweight fabrics that you want to remain soft and lightweight. Using plastisol inks on these fabrics would give you a heavier print that feels stiff to the touch, but if you try custom water based printing instead you can get amazing prints that feel fantastic.

Why is custom water based printing so different? Well it all comes down to the way the ink is formulated. Plastisol inks don’t contain a solvent which means they won’t dry up when exposed to air and that’s great for reclaiming excess ink at the end of a job. Unfortunately since it won’t dry by air you need to use a heater to cure the ink which tends to stiffen the ink and make it feel heavier on the fabric. Typically it’s not too much for most prints, but there are plenty of scenarios where you need a softer hand to your printed designs. Custom water based printing uses inks that contain a solvent (usually water) and as such they can penetrate deeper into fabrics and when they dry you barely feel the ink on the surface.