Dye inks generally refer to water-soluble inks, but there are also solvent-based inks made from alcohol/oil soluble dyes. Pigment ink is insoluble in water, so it needs to be ultrafine dispersion to be applicable, the ink produced with pigment has a narrow color gamut and a darker color, but the black text is sharp, no fraying, waterproof and fast.

Made of dyes/solvents (mainly water) and various additives such as: hygroscopic agents, surfactants, dispersants, antioxidants, anti-corrosive agents, acid-base stabilizers, light stabilizers, etc.

The color is bright and pleasing to the eye. Commonly used are: magenta, pure blue, yellow, black and other colors, in order to strengthen the performance of the transitional color and gray tone, and increase the light powder/light blue/gray/light gray and other tones, so that the color of the printing is more rich and rounded.

The requirements of water-soluble dye ink for dyes are 1. Good water solubility 2. Strong coloring 3. Bright color 4. The aqueous solution is stable and does not deteriorate 5. The color is firm and weather resistant.

The dyes used to manufacture water-soluble inkjet are mainly acid dyes and direct dyes.

Inks made with water-soluble dyes have poor fastness. Mainly sun fastness and anti-redox fastness, due to the excellent resolubility of water-soluble dyes, so this kind of ink is not resistant to water.

Acid dye is characterized by bright color, the disadvantage is poor light fastness, high color migration, easy to appear edge infiltration, printed parts placed 2-3 weeks after the color and color contact edge halo, resulting in the third color to reduce the quality of the printed part. The cost of ink jet made with acid dyes is lower. Low - cost inkjet mostly uses acid dyes as colorants.

Direct dye because the molecular weight is relatively large, low mobility, high light fastness of the printing, no halation infiltration phenomenon, high clarity of the printing, preservation time than acid dye printing more than ten times.

The cost of inkjet with direct dyes as colorants is much higher than that of acid dyes. Advanced inkjet on the market all use direct dyes as colorants.

Dye ink is a molecular level fully dissolved ink, the general diameter is 1~2 nanometers, the probability of plugging the ink head is very small, easy to be absorbed by the material after printing, and printed on a flat and smooth paper, the radiation performance of light is very good, so the ability of color reduction is relatively strong, the printed image is colorful, and the cost is low; However, because dye inks do not have a layer of polymer protection on the surface like pigment inks, the molecules are easy to decompose under harsh conditions, causing fading.