Watch the mesmerising process of how printing ink is made
There's more to ink making then just mixing two things together.
Ink doesn’t seem like the sort of thing anyone could be passionate about. One assumes like any industrial process, it must be a drag. Turns out much more goes into it than you might think, and it certainly isn't boring.
The video above put up by The Printing Ink Company, a Canadian business, shows the beauty that is ink making. President and chief ink maker, Peter Welfare, explains the details of the many processes ink goes through before it is shipped out. And besides the science, and craftsmanship, passion plays a key role in producing high quality ink.
The four primary pigments – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black start out as powders, they are mixed with a sticky varnish like liquid called “vehicle”, the paste then goes through three grinding mills, two mixers, five quality tests before it is finally ready.
Welfare also says they can produce every conceivable colour of the Pantone spectrum. More than the technicalities though, it is the colours and the paint falling out of big vessels, that draws you in.
