What Are the Types of Printing Inks?

While one might think that the first printing inks would have coincided with Guterberg’s first press in the 1440s, inks date back far before that. Whenever a civilization wanted to write out records, for example, people used some sort of colorants, be it a dye, pigment, lampblack or other substances, combined with some sort of resin or drier.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest known surviving document dates back to 26th century BC, as ancient Egyptians used their form of ink on papyrus. With Gutenberg’s invention of what would become a letterpress printing press, a new type of ink was needed. In Gutenberg’s case, it was a combination of lampblack and varnish.

Today, there are many types of printing presses, all of which have their own advantages and markets. Letterpress, which was a staple of printing until the 1940s, is very infrequently seen today. As such, there are several types of inks as well.

Here are the main types of inks that are used by printers today:

Offset (Paste) Inks

Letterpress inks were phased out by offset inks. While a letterpress