Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image,

text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, or quill. Thicker inks, in paste form,
are used extensively in letterpress and lithographic printing.

Ink can be a complex medium, composed of solvents, pigments, dyes, resins, lubricants, solubilizers,
surfactants, particulate matter, fluorescents, and other materials. The components of inks serve many
purposes; the ink's carrier, colorants, and other additives affect the flow and thickness of the ink and its
dry appearance.

its dry appearance.

Types

Magnified line drawn by a fountain pen.

Ink formulas vary, but commonly involve two components:

Colorants

Vehicles (binders)

Inks generally fall into four classes:

Aqueous

Liquid

Paste

Powder

Colorants

Pigment inks are used more frequently than dyes because they are more color-fast, but they are also
more expensive, less consistent in color, and have less of a color range than dyes.

Pigments
Main article: Pigment

Pigments are solid, opaque particles suspended in ink to provide color.

Pigment molecules typically link together in crystalline structures that are 0.1–2 µm in size and comprise
5–30 percent of the ink volume. Qualities such as hue, saturation, and lightness vary depending on the
source and type of pigment.

Dyes

Main article: Dye

Dye-based inks are generally much stronger than pigment-based inks and can produce much more color
of a given density per unit of mass. However, because dyes are dissolved in the liquid phase, they have a
tendency to soak into paper, making the ink less efficient and potentially allowing the ink to bleed at the
edges of an image.

To circumvent this problem, dye-based inks are made with solvents that dry rapidly or are used with
quick-drying methods of printing, such as blowing hot air on the fresh print. Other methods include
harder paper sizing and more specialized paper coatings. The latter is particularly suited to inks used in
non-industrial settings (which must conform to tighter toxicity and emission controls), such as inkjet
printer inks. Another technique involves coating the paper with a charged coating. If the dye has the
opposite charge, it is attracted to and retained by this coating, while the solvent soaks into the paper.
Cellulose, the wood-derived material most paper is made of, is naturally charged, and so a compound
that complexes with both the dye and the paper's surface aids retention at the surface. Such a
compound is commonly used in ink-jet printing inks.

An additional advantage of dye-based ink systems is that the dye molecules can interact with other ink
ingredients, potentially allowing greater benefit as compared to pigmented inks from optical brighteners
and color-enhancing agents designed to increase the intensity and appearance of dyes.

A more recent development in dye-based inks are dyes that react with cellulose to permanently color
the paper. Such inks are not affected by water, alcohol, and other solvents. As such, their use is
recommended to prevent frauds that involve removing signatures, such as check washing. This kind of
ink is most commonly found in gel inks and in certain fountain pen inks.