Frequently asked questions

Of course! Water-based inks are a great option for printing vibrant and accurate colours, and there are a few reasons why.

Water-based inks have come a long way in recent years, with many advances in technology and formulation. This means that they can now produce colours that are just as vibrant and accurate as those produced by solvent-based inks. Many professional printers and artists prefer water-based inks because of their ability to produce high-quality, long-lasting prints.

Absolutely! Water-based inks can be used in automated screen printing machines, and many printers actually prefer using water-based inks in their automated printing processes. Some of the advantages of using water-based inks in automated printing include their fast drying times, ability to produce sharp and crisp designs, and their ease of use with automatic machinery.

Proper storage and handling is important to ensure the best performance and longevity of water-based inks.

First, it’s important to store water-based inks in a cool, dry place, out of direct sunlight and away from sources of heat. It’s also important to keep the ink containers tightly sealed when not in use to prevent drying out by evaporation and contamination from the ingress of pathogens…..the flipside of having an eco-friendly product.

When handling any ink product, it’s recommended to wear gloves to prevent direct contact with the skin, especially for prolonged periods. Additionally, it’s important to avoid cross-contamination by using separate spatulas and containers for different ink colours.

Thorough cleaning of spatulas and other equipment after use is also critical to prevent any cross contamination. The use of hot water and appropriate hygiene measures will also go a long way to ensure minimum wastage through biological contamination.

PERMASET Inks are 100% water-based and do not contain any organic (hydrocarbon) solvents. The only solvent is water.

There are a number of white inks in the PERMASET range. Which is the correct white ink to use as an underbase for overprinting with PERMASET standard and PERMATONE inks when printing on dark fabrics?

PERMASET FIRST DOWN WHITE Ink has been specifically formulated for use as an underbase (flash white). It is used by trade printers who wish to print on dark fabrics but use regular PERMASET Standard colours or PERMATONE Inks to retain their superior softness and vibrancy. The First Down White should only be used by shops with multi-station print facilities where tight registration can be maintained. 

PERMASET SUPERCOVER WHITE is the premium opaque white ink for printing directly onto dark fabrics. It has the highest levels of titanium dioxide pigment for use on dark coloured fabrics. Excellent opacity in a water-based ink. Despite having been the flagship product in the PERMASET SUPERCOVER range for well over 30 years, in more recent times, this style of ink has become popularly known as HSA or High Solids Acrylic.

PERMASET STANDARD WHITE is a soft handle white ink for printing onto light coloured fabrics. It delivers a significantly softer hand than the PERMASET SUPERCOVER White ink, yet still delivers a beautifully crisp white print and looks spectacular when used for white-on-white prints.

My inks are drying into the screens. Help!

This is probably the biggest problem for people who are starting to use or are changing over to water-based inks, particularly from plastisols, which are very forgiving in this regard. 

Prevention is better than cure, so a good first step is to keep humidity in the print area above 40-50% RH. Once the relative humidity gets below 40%, the inks will show much greater propensity to dry in and printing will become a lot more difficult. Getting an hygrometer for your print room is a great investment.

When people first start printing with water based inks, they can use a fine mist of water every 15-20 prints to maintain the moisture of the ink on the screen. Many people swear by this method. The most important thing is to flood the screen with a layer of ink (1-2 mm; 1/16-1/10”) and to keep the ink moving; that is, work quickly (but don’t rush). If a screen has been sitting around doing nothing for a while, pull a test print from it onto a scrap T-shirt, piece of fabric or even newsprint and inspect the clarity of the print, particularly around any fine detail.

If the ink does start to dry on the screen a little, don’t panic. Just pull another print on a test piece, so that as much ink is cleared from the image area of the mesh as possible, take a damp rag and clean both sides of the screen, then remove excess moisture with another rag. Reflood the screen, take another test print and then you’re good to go again.

Mesh count is often a factor. Most garment printers use a 43T (110 tpi) mesh. All other things being equal, the higher the mesh count, the quicker the ink will dry in. However, S-meshes have been a wonderful invention for printing with water based inks. With S-meshes, higher mesh counts can be more forgiving than the same thread count with a conventional mesh. Check out the S-mesh comparison tables.

Use a good emulsion that is compatible with water-based inks and maintains its integrity and you can get good results even with a coarser mesh. With increased experience, you will eventually master 77-90T (195-225 tpi) meshes for SUPERCOVER and up to 120 T (305 tpi) for PERMASET AQUA, PERMATONE and PERMAPRINT Premium.

Yes, inks within each range can be mixed.  

However, when mixing between ranges, e.g. PERMASET SUPERCOVER® opaque inks with PERMASET AQUA® transparent inks, it is important to exercise caution. First, the opacity of the print will be reduced compared to a print with PERMASET SUPERCOVER® ink alone. This will be particularly noticeable in prints over dark backgrounds. Second, some combinations exhibit slight to significant incompatibility. As above, exercise caution and test first before embarking on a production run.

Yes, water-based inks can be mixed together to create new colours, just like traditional artist paints. Particularly in the Education space, the teaching resources, Reductions of PERMASET AQUA and Using the PERMASET Colour Wheel are invaluable as an introduction to colour mixing. They contain well thought out information presented very accessibly to help your students get off to a flying start without wasting hours of class time together with buckets and buckets of ink, all the wrong shade and usually brown.

Mixing water-based inks allows for a wide range of colour options and can be a cost-effective way to achieve specific shades without having to purchase additional ink colours.

When mixing water-based inks, it’s important to use clean mixing containers and imperative to mix the inks thoroughly to ensure the new colour is consistent throughout the mixture; thus transparent or semi-transparent containers are recommended. Finally, it is recommended that the mix formula, operator details and date are all recorded on the outside of the container and that the lid be tightly sealed after use.

It’s important to keep in mind that water-based inks can be sensitive to changes in temperature, humidity and prolonged exposure to air. This means that it’s best to mix only what is needed for the print job to prevent waste and potential colour inconsistencies.

Water-based inks are not necessarily more expensive than traditional inks, and in some cases, they may even be less expensive.

The cost of screen printing ink can vary depending on factors such as the brand, colour, and quantity/pack size purchased. However, when comparing water-based inks to plastisol inks, water-based inks may actually be less expensive. This is in part because they do not require the same chemical additives as plastisol inks.

While water-based inks can be used with a standard screen printing press, they may require some special equipment or tools to achieve the best results.

For example, it is essential to use a screen emulsion specifically formulated for water-based inks, as traditional emulsions are often water sensitive and are unlikely to hold up to the moisture in the ink. It’s also recommended to use a scoop coater with a special coating technique to achieve an even and consistent emulsion layer over the mesh, but that recommendation would apply regardless, as good screen coating practice.

For printing with water-based inks, another tool that may be helpful is a spray bottle filled with water to keep the ink from drying out too quickly during printing by replenishing moisture lost to evaporation, particularly under low humidity conditions.

Lastly, a heat press may be necessary to properly cure the water-based ink onto the fabric, as air-drying alone is not likely to achieve the desired results.

Yes, water-based inks can be used with a screen printing press. In fact, water-based inks have become increasingly popular among screen printers because they are eco-friendly, produce vibrant colours, and are easy to clean up with water.

When using water-based inks, it is important to choose the appropriate mesh count for the design you are printing, as well as the proper squeegee blade and angle. It is also recommended to use a pallet adhesive to prevent the fabric from moving during printing. We do NOT recommend the use of spray adhesives for health, environmental and housekeeping reasons.

It’s worth noting that water-based inks may require a bit more attention and care than plastisol inks traditionally used for fabric printing. For example, water based inks may dry out faster and be more inclined to clog the screen if not used quickly, so it’s important to be well prepared, to keep the ink surface moist and to work efficiently. Additionally, water-based inks may require a longer curing time or the use of a heat press to properly heat set the ink, once printed.

PERMASET AQUA® textile inks are high in pigment. Tints are achieved by reducing the intensity of colour through a process of reduction. PERMASET® Print Paste is an uncoloured mixing base for achieving tints with PERMASET textile inks. The resulting tint retains the same superior soft handle and excellent durability characteristic of PERMASET AQUA® textile inks.

This e-book shows ten reductions for each colour in the PERMASET AQUA® textile ink range from 100% (pure PERMASET AQUA® ink) to 0.1% (0.1g PERMASET AQUA® mixed with 99.9g PERMASET AQUA® Print Paste) except for Black which is reduced to 0.01%.

Click here to view the PERMASET Reductions E-Book

PERMASET Inks are designed to print on textiles where the fibres are woven or knitted into a coherent fabric. This is not the case with fur, so the short answer is ‘No, you cannot print on fur with PERMASET Ink’.  

PERMASET Inks are designed to print on textiles and are not well suited to printing on plastics for two main reasons. First, they need to be heat set to achieve any degree of permanence and most plastics are heat sensitive, making this problematic. Second, they are based on a soft polymer, so even when cured, they are likely to exhibit poor abrasion resistance on plastic. You can print on plastics with PERMASET inks, but should not expect the print to last for any length of time if exposed to any abrasion. 

For those wanting to screen print on plastics with a water-based ink, we would normally steer people to PERMAPRINT Premium (PPP). This has been used successfully on a range of plastics. For softer synthetic and heat sensitive substrates, e.g. non-woven tote bags or spun bonded non-woven cloths, PERMAPRINT Hybrid would be the product of choice. Both of these can be air dried. PPP has much better abrasions resistance and can be printed with finer detail whilst PERMAPRINT Hybrid is more flexible and generally has better opacity. 

Given reduced budgets of both time and money, many students come to courses with little exposure to colour theory and consequently learn during prac time by trial and error, wasting a lot of time and a lot of ink (how many litres of various browns have you had to discard?) 

With the above in mind, PERMASET and PERMATONE Inks come supported with some excellent teaching resources. These include: 

1. 2 e-books of Reductions for each of the standard PERMASET and PERMATONE Ink ranges showing how to do more with less, 

2. A Case Study, “Working With Colour” (Parts I and II) and 

3. A Poster for display in the work space for teaching colour harmonies and based on the theory set out in 2) above.  

They are also invaluable teaching resources, providing students with a solid platform based on sound theory from which to innovate more confidently and more productively. 

Acrylic paints are designed for painting and are a) generally opaque and b) applied a lot more thickly than a printing ink. PERMASET Inks are specifically designed for screen printing, PERMASET Inks for textiles and PERMAPRINT Premium (PPP) for Paper, Board and other rigid substrates or flat stock. 

At a process level, the PERMASET Ink rheology is optimised for application via the screen and the pigmentation is sufficiently intense that the experienced practitioner can use very fine meshes. The particle size of most pigments used in an acrylic paint would not be suitable for any but the coarsest screens and would also make the finished image feel quite rough to touch. 

This may not be a consideration with a painting, but is definitely a factor in apparel and homewares. 

For textile designs to be wearable, they need to be both soft and launderable (and occasionally) dry cleanable. An acrylic paint will offer none of those properties. It will make the fabric stiff and will readily wash off under the stress of laundering, if it hasn’t already rubbed off from close contact/abrasion. PERMASET Inks can and have been used on fabrics ranging from the delicate end, like silk and organza to the rough end including coarse woven canvas, hessian and/or burlap. 

For PPP, the industrial strength adhesion will allow the curious student to explore a broad range of substrates from standard paper and board to a range of plastics, metals and even glass. The PPP resin system also has exceptional UV durability, allowing prints to be used in indoor and outdoor settings. Hand-printed wallpapers for example can cope with quite a bit of punishment. 

Artist acrylics are unlikely to offer these properties. 

Education Grade Print Paste Reducer (EGPPR) is available to Educational Institutions to reduce the intensity of the inks, helping make them go much further. EGPPR is available ONLY to Educational Institutions. 

EGPPR is similar to normal Print Paste or Reducer (or Extender in the PERMATONE range). Thus, if you do not have access to EGPPR, you can use normal Print Paste, Reducer or PERMATONE Extender. 

The EGPPR product is supported by the REDUCTIONS case studies resources via the PERMASET website. These allow the student to actually see what reducing the intensity of the ink from 50% to 99% will do. In the case of Black, a reduction to 99.9% is included. They are an invaluable teaching resource.

Colormaker Industries, manufacturer of PERMASET water-based screen printing Inks, is absolutely committed to being carbon neutral and have set a target of 2025 to achieve carbon neutrality.  

Colormaker began its journey to carbon neutrality in 2003/4 with the total reformulation and launch of PERMASET Inks in a solvent free version. Since 2019, all products have been made using 100% renewable power, whilst a new EV, charged exclusively from the array, is used for local deliveries. 

Colormaker recently celebrated the 2nd anniversary of its solar array going live in September 2019. Over its first 2 years, the installation saved over 300 T of GHGs and provided enough clean electricity to power 40 local homes for a year. 

Current and future projects include water use and carbon emission abatement measures, with R&D focussed on making products even more environmentally benign, acquisition of more EVs and a farm to sequester carbon in trees and soil. 

PERMASET AQUA, PERMATONE and PERMASET SUPERCOVER Textile Screen Printing Inks will adhere to most natural fibres, polyester, polyester blends and most, but not all, synthetic fabrics. In order to achieve full adhesion properties however, it is essential that a) the fabric/fibre is print ready and b) the inks are appropriately cured. Extra care will be required when trying to cure prints on heat sensitive fibres. 

PERMAPRINT PREMIUM Screen Printing Inks are formulated to adhere to paper, board, a range of plastics, wood and some coated metals. 

PERMAPRINT Hybrid Inks are designed for use on vinyls, some plastics and metals. 

Whichever ink you use and whatever substrate you’re printing on, it is best practice to conduct test prints prior to embarking on a commercial print run. These test prints should approximate as closely as possible both printing and curing or drying conditions that will be used during the full production run.

It is worth considering what you want to achieve and why.

PERMASET Inks have good – excellent light fastness. Most colours* achieve a rating of 8/8 on the Blue Wool Scale, but all are not less than 6/8. This is even better than many fine art acrylics. When fully cured, prints have excellent wash and dry clean fastness.  

*All Glow colours and Phosphorescent Green exhibit diminished light fastness, particularly in direct sunlight. 

The above considers pigments. The resins are another matter. The chemistry that allows the prints to cure and in doing so, to attain wash, rub and dry clean resistance is reactive and may compromise very long term viability of prints, particularly on fibres like cotton and particularly in settings where the prints are constantly exposed to strong light. In such an environment, the fibres would be likely to degrade in any case. 

For applications such as these, PERMAPRINT Premium (PPP) would be a preferable choice. PPP confers the same pigment benefits but in an archival quality resin system. The UV resistance of the PPP resin system is such that it has excellent outdoor durability. 

However, use of PPP would mean that the soft handle and launderability properties that are typically required for textile applications would be lost. 

As above, it is worth considering what you want to achieve and why. 

Yes, you can.  In order to print with PERMATONE Inks onto black T-shirts (or any dark coloured fabrics) you need to first print an underbase with PERMASET SUPERCOVER First Down White. Once this has been flash dried, you can print PERMATONE colours over the top. You will typically need a multi station carousel capable of maintaining tight registration.

For screen printing purposes, the PERMASET AQUA and PERMATONE Inks are very similar and perform in a comparable way on the screen.  These two inks do however differ in the following ways: 

1. The PERMATONE Ink range was designed as a complete system for colour matching and comes with a matching tool for 1869 colours. PERMATONE inks are generally significantly stronger than the comparable PERMASET AQUA colour, and may incorporate slightly different pigmentation in order to work within the mixing system, They would rarely be used without mixing.   

2. PERMATONE Inks have also been certified organic by the Soil Association of the UK, whereas only the PERMASET AQUA Process Colours have been through this organic approval process. 

43-120T (metric) or 110-305 tpi. The finer the mesh the softer the handle and the greater the design detail that can be achieved. However, that needs to be weighed against the increased propensity of ink to dry in on finer meshes. 

Bleeding is when the inks splurge over the edges of parts of design during the print process. This can happen for the following reasons: 

1. Your squeegee is too soft. When printing on softer fabrics e.g., thick T-shirts and fleecies, try using a harder squeegee and make sure the pressure you apply is firm and even. 

2. A rounded squeegee blade produces a broader hydrostatic pulse which contributes to splurge. Ensure that your squeegee blades are sharpened to a hard right angle. 

3. The squeegee is too horizontal. A squeegee angle of about 15–30-degree off vertical works well. 

4. You are pushing too much ink through the screen on the flood stroke. Do not press too hard on the screen when flooding. 

Yes, PERMACRYLIK Paints are suitable for use on concrete and other masonry surfaces.

Yes, PERMACRYLIK paints work very well on glass. These products were originally developed as a sign-writing paint for mural and signage applications on shop and showroom windows.

With the PERMACRYLIK Glow Colours, best results are achieved when applied on a white background such as PERMACRYLIK Scenic White or PERMACRYLIK Acrylic Sealer Undercoat in either White or the N23 Grey.

PERMACRYLIK Glow Colours do glow under UV light and a number of artists like to use this to advantage in their art. Contemporary artist, Tommy Balogh of Canberra, often paints his art using PERMACRYLIK on plexiglass so that when exhibits he can do so in the dark. His paintings are backlit through the plexiglass so that his artworks glow in the dark. A number of mural artists also like the fluorescent effects PERMACRYLIK glow paints offer. Some of the Glow colours fluoresce more than others as shown below.

PERMASET Inks are designed for fabrics, with soft handle and great wash and dry clean durability. The cross-linking chemistry in PERMASET Inks that makes it great for textiles, confers other properties to the ink film that are not conducive to archival print life expectancy on paper. So, if archival durability is important, then PERMAPRINT Premium is the product of choice.

PERMAPRINT Premium is ideal for use on sealed paper, cardboard, Tyvek®, polyesters (Mylar®), polycarbonates (Lexan®), PMMA (Perspex®), some coated metals and polystyrene and has excellent UV durability.

PERMAPRINT Premium AQUATONE Inks are a subset of the PERMAPRINT Premium range. The AQUATONE Inks comprise a colour management system that can be used to match over 1869 colours. The AQUATONE Ink range includes 12 bases (9 colours, plus Black, White and an Extender). The rest of the range are the more exotic colours including Glows, Pearls, Process Colours, Gloss & Matt Varnishes and Opaque White. The PERMAPRINT Premium range is water-based and has excellent archival properties along with UV resistance on paper and other rigid substrates.

This effect is known as orange peel and is caused by a process known as crawling. This can often be caused or exacerbated by silicone contamination of the surface.

If you can sand the surface back with some very fine sandpaper, that might help. Alternatively, you might like to try the PERMAPRINT Premium Opaque White Ink. This has higher viscosity and would thus be less susceptible to crawling. You could also try a finer mesh so that you’re putting the ink down drier. However, you may need multiple hits to get the right film weight.

Given the variability inherent in the substrate, printing on any timber will take some experimentation, so we suggest trialling a print on a small piece of timber first.

PERMAPRINT Premium Clear (Gloss Varnish) can be mixed with the AQUATONE and PERMAPRINT Premium Glow Colours to provide more transparent/glossier inks. These look exceptional over metallic substrates such as metalized Mylar® and brushed metalized Mylar®. PERMAPRINT Premium Clear can be applied as an overprint varnish to pick out various design elements and can also be used as a clear ink in its own right to create interesting effects.

AQUATONE Extender is ink with no coloured pigment in it, so you can use it to “extend” the ink or simply reduce the colour strength/intensity. AQUATONE Clear is a Gloss Varnish that can be used either to over print the entire design, to pick out certain design elements or even by itself to create tricks of the light/interesting patterns.

PERMASET Puff Paste can be mixed with any or all of: PERMASET AQUA, PERMASET SUPERCOVER and PERMATONE Ink ranges from 0–100% and with PERMASET Pigment Concentrates up to 10–15%.

The more Puff Paste you add, the greater the 3D effect but the less intense the colour. Conversely, the less Puff Paste you have, the greater the colour intensity but the less noticeable the 3D effect.

Ask your local PERMASET stockist for their recommendations for water-based inks.

• Ensure the screen is clean
• Before starting a print run, soak the screen in water for 5–10 mins. Allow to drain and dab off excess water with damp (lint free) sponge
• Have a spray bottle handy with water and add 1-3% of PERMASET Print Retarder i.e., 10–30 mL/L
• ALWAYS leave the print area flooded between prints
• If the flooded area starts to look a bit dull, then spray until the ink looks glossy again

If you leave the image area flooded between prints, that should be a BIG help. If you are still having problems, add 1-3% of PERMASET Print Retarder. What will be an even bigger help is ensuring that the humidity in the print room never falls below 40% R.H. and ideally is kept over 50% R.H.

Misting the screens, or rather PERMASET Inks, whilst printing is good practice.

However, what will help you set up and through the course of the run is if you give the mesh fibres a drink before they start. Spray the image area liberally before starting. Allow 5–10 minutes for the water to be absorbed into the micro-pores of the screen mesh, then wipe off excess moisture with a damp sponge or a lint free cloth. This will greatly reduce the propensity of the ink to dry in on the screen, a problem that is more acute the finer the mesh you use. Then, if you keep the ink topped up with a quick mist every few prints, that will keep you printing with much fewer interruptions. What is also imperative is ensuring that the humidity in the print room never falls below 40% R.H. and ideally is kept over 50% R.H.

PERMASET AQUA Inks have been used through an Airbrush, but using PERMASET SUPERCOVER Inks may present some problems due to much higher viscosity. If you do want to use an airbrush, then you will need to thin PERMASET Ink as follows:

1. Buy some sulfate of ammonia (from gardening shop)
2. Make up 10% solution in water
3. Add solution in drops to into ink to be thinned with VIGOROUS stirring after each addition

This process will serve to thin the ink ready for airbrushing.

With “normal” litho type/lino block inks, they tend to be a lot stickier and, being oil based, dry more slowly so that:

1. You’d generally use a brayer (hard rubber roller) to spread the ink out on the lino block and
2. The ink stays wet until printed, so you get quite a long time to get organised after rolling it out

As PERMASET Inks are primarily designed for screen printing and are 100% solvent free (water-based):

• You will need to use a soft SPONGE ROLLER to spread the ink out (a normal brayer would just skid all over the lino block) and
• You need to get well set up before you put the ink on, as the thin film will dry out a lot more quickly (though you can’t smell it, water actually evaporates faster than many solvents at room temperature).
• As PERMASET Ink is quite intensely coloured, you may need to cut the strength back by mixing it with PERMASET Print Paste (clear ink/reducer). However, you’ll only know how much after some experimentation.

If you can modify your work practices to accommodate the above, then you can fully exploit the superior technical performance of PERMASET Inks for textile printing; soft handle, brilliant colours, excellent wash and dry clean resistance (after heat curing).

There are other methods of getting ink onto fabric via block printing. There are many people all over the world who love using PERMASET Inks for block printing. This blog outlines how to use PERMASET Ink for block printing

PERMASET Process Black and PERMASET (Standard) Jet Black have different strengths. Process Black is typically used in conjunction with the other Process Colours. Process Colours are generally used for printing photorealistic graphics.

Yes. You can reduce the colour intensity of PERMASET Inks with PERMASET Print Paste. Alternatively, if you want to reduce the viscosity for either air brushing or dyeing for example, you will need to use an additive solution of sulfate of ammonia. Please refer to the Air Brushing FAQ for this method of thinning PERMASET Ink.

If the ink comes off the fabric, then the ink was not cured correctly or the fabric was not print ready. Please refer to the Product Information Sheet on Curing PERMASET Inks.

We would not recommend PERMASET Inks. PERMAPRINT Premium Inks have been tested on clear vinyl film with good results. However, there is a risk that the ink will soften over time if there’s plasticiser migration from the vinyl film. This can be reduced by wiping the film down with acetone prior to printing, but this only forestalls the inevitable. The plasticiser will eventually migrate out of the film and into the ink. Thus this system may be viable for shorter term and low/no abrasion applications, it is not recommended for long term high abrasion installations.

43–90T (110–230 tpi)

You should get at least 12 months, even longer as long if the ink lid is kept on tightly and no biological contaminants get inside the ink. In recovered from screens should be stored in a spare container and may be used again at the start of the next run. We suggest labelling with date, mix formula, possibly job number and operator initials.

We would suggest you would need to use the PERMASET SUPERCOVER range, however we have not tested how they would adhere within the ink. Depending on the diameter of the beads, you might need a very coarse mesh, say 32T or possibly 20-22T.

PERMASET Standard Ink is for printing light-coloured fabrics, PERMASET SUPERCOVER Ink is for printing dark fabrics and PERMATONE Ink is developed as a colour matching system. They are all water-based and eco-friendly fabric printing inks.

PERMASET Ink has been tested in the lab and washed 30 times at 60 °C with no sign of deterioration. We strongly recommend in house testing as every fabric and print shop has unique print/cure characteristics.

Yes, PERMASET Inks are vegan. There is no bone char or other animal products in the PERMASET Black Ink or any other colour. Vegetable extracts are certified GMO free. The PERMATONE Ink range and the PERMASET Process Ink Colours have also been formally Organic Approved by the Soil Association (UK).

Unfortunately, we don’t think this would be very successful as the fibre is typically very sheer, so not much to hold onto. Curing is also expected to be problematic as the fibre would react adversely to high temperature.

If you’re looking for colours for cycling apparel, then we suggest you look at PERMASET AQUA Inks rather than PERMAPRINT Premium Inks.

There are 8 Glows colours in the that are really fluorescent in each of the PERMASET AQUA Standard and PERMASET SUPERCOVER (Opaque) ranges. However, it must be stressed they are not reflective.

They are GLOW YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, PINK, MAGENTA, VIOLET, BLUE and GREEN.

The PERMASET Standard Glow colours are designed for printing over light coloured fabrics.

The PERMASET SUPERCOVER colours are designed for printing over dark fabrics.

Note: whilst the colours used have been found adequate for most commercial purposes over many years, they would not normally last more than three months with continuous exposure to direct sunlight.

Yes, PERMASET Inks are suitable for use on automatic machines. To print most effectively and particularly to prevent drying in, you should:

1. Ensure that the emulsion you use is both:
   • Water resistant and
   • Fully cured
2. Leave the screen image area FLOODED between prints. It only needs to be 2–3 mm over the image area. Failure to do this will result in drying in within minutes if not seconds.
3. There is a blog post on our website about converting from plastisols to water-based inks. That will give you a lot of good tips. See https://permaset.com.au/converting-from-plastisols/
4. To slow drying in the screens you may also use PERMASET Print Retarder at 1–3% BUT whilst improving open time on screen, it will significantly increase the drying burden in the curing oven and is to be discouraged to the maximum degree possible. It is preferable to ensure that humidity in the workplace is greater than 40% R.H. and ideally above 50%.
5. When cleaning the screens at the end of the run, it is advisable to leave them on the carousel flooded until ready to clean. If you have many people available to clean screens, then by all means have them wiped at the same time. Otherwise, the recommended approach would be to leave them all flooded and manually scrape them only as you are ready to clean each one.
6. If flashing between prints, minimise heating of platens as this will exacerbate drying in and hot pick-up issues at down-stream print stations.

It is possible to dilute PERMASET AQUA Inks but you run a few risks, unless you want something like a water colour wash in the background.

PERMASET Inks are provided at a viscosity optimized for printing (thins under shear and re-congeals immediately once the shear force is removed) so you’ll see every brush stroke and, as the ink colour is exceptionally intense, there will be differences in colour expression related to relatively small differences in film thickness that you may not be used to.

If you DO want a water colour background wash, we strongly recommend dampening the cloth before you start or else, you’ll get strong colour lines or tide marks around the edge of the applied area.

Either way, we suggest experimentation on spare pieces of fabric first.

Rather than the standard PERMASET AQUA Ink range, we’d suggest that you look at our PERMATONE Ink range for printing baby wear and children’s clothing.

The PERMATONE Ink range has been tested to Oekotex Class I for formaldehyde content (less than 16 ppm). This result means that it meets the criteria for approved safe usage on clothing for infants less than 2 years old. However, this range has not been tested for saliva extractables so it may not meet your criteria.

The PERMATONE Ink range also has Organic Approval from the Soil Association (UK) as an input into a Certified Organic Textile printing process.

The PERMASET AQUA CMYK Process Colours are designed to work with 4-colour process colour separation software, typically used for photorealistic printing (e.g. magazines, newspapers etc.). In theory, the four CMYK Process Colours can be used to produce thousands of colours. In practice however, the gamut is limited and the colours are invariably less vibrant. On the upside, your studio need only invest in four inks.

In the PERMASET range, the Process Colours contain different pigment blends at different concentrations to the PERMASET AQUA Standard Ink colours.

The PERMASET AQUA Process Colours have also been granted Approval by the Soil Association of the UK (GOTS 6.0) for organic printing see Soil Association Approval Certificate

PERMASET Print Paste is essentially clear ink, so it can be blended in any proportion from 0% to 100%. It should not affect the handle at all. Here is a great PERMASET Reductions resource which shows you the different percentages of ink to print paste you require to make various tints

Depends on what it’s made of. If it’s satin, yes. If it’s plastic, no.

PERMASET Ink is not suitable for use on concrete. If you are looking to put paint on a wall, then our PERMACRYLIK Scenic Paints would be more suitable. More info is available here

Very quickly (i.e. whilst still wet!) and using a spot remover.

Yes, but not well. You would first need to scrub off the wax layer on the surface and then the print would only last until the wax exuding from the rubber pushes it off.

Yes you can!

Yes, they can. Some designers use PERMASET Inks to hand paint designs onto fabrics and textiles and achieve great results. Here is a blog with some tips and examples of hand painting with PERMASET Inks https://permaset.com.au/5-practical-tips-painting-fabric-screen-print-inks/

It depends on the depth of the fabric. For nice heavy T-shirt material, you might go 2–3 mm, all the way up to a full 1 cm if printing on fleecy fabrics.

Yes, they will, but a number of caveats apply. PERMASET Standard Inks have been used commercially through 120T (305 tpi) mesh, but the finer the mesh, the greater the propensity to dry in. 90T (230 tpi) will work, but you need to keep the image area flooded between prints and work relatively quickly.

PERMASET Inks are low odour. Some printers say they smell like blueberries!

No. PERMASET Inks do not include any toxic chemicals.

PERMASET Inks are supplied ready for use straight out of the tub but we do recommend the following:

• Stir PERMASET Inks well before use and

• Test the compatibility with all substrates before commencing any production run.

Yes, all of the PERMASET fabric ink ranges can be mixed. Mixing PERMASET SUPERCOVER Inks with PERMASET Standard Ink colours will affect the opacity on dark backgrounds; on light backgrounds mixing is no problem. Note: you should not mix PERMASET fabric inks with PERMAPRINT Premium Inks for printing paper and other substrates as they are different formulations for different applications.

Yes, the colours of the PERMASET Ink range are extremely intense and give exceptionally vibrant prints. PERMASET Ink was developed combining softness and durability while achieving excellent colour brightness.

Yes, the colours of the PERMASET Ink range are extremely intense and give exceptionally vibrant prints. PERMASET Ink was developed combining softness and durability while achieving excellent colour brightness.

Yes. PERMASET Inks are formulated to be environmentally friendly. PERMASET Inks are water-based and do not include any CFCs, HCFCs, volatile organic or hydrocarbons solvents. Unlike other inks, e.g. plastisols, it is also phthalate free.

There are two easy ways to cure PERMASET prints if you don’t have a heat tunnel:

1. With an iron: Leave your print to air dry first. Then lay your print out on the ironing board, cover it with brown paper, baking paper or a clean tea towel. Set your iron to Cotton setting (160 °C; 320 °F) and hand iron for 2–3 minutes to set the print. Wait for your print to cool and then it should be cured and able to be washed.
   
2. In the sun: It depends on the heat of the sun. You can leave your print to cure in the hot sun for a few hours to cure it. You might go up to a half day, or even one whole day. Test this method on a scrap of fabric printed with PERMASET Inks to check how long it takes to cure before curing your finished print in the sun.

For further information about heat curing PERMASET Inks see our Heat Curing Technical Data Sheet

Around an hour should be a useful guide.

We generally like to keep flash times pretty short, so 1–4 s max. If you have a spare station, it’s useful to follow the flash with a cool-down station with air blowing across. This will do two things; first, it will cool the platen down (more on that later) and second, it will remove more moisture, for the same amount of heat input, so you can back off the tunnel heat even further.

The reason that we like to keep the platens cool is that if they carry heat on to subsequent print stations, then it ends up warming the ink and exacerbates drying-in issues, which is one of the biggest bug-bears that water-based ink users have to overcome. So, you can run the flash unit with less power and keep the whole room at a better temperature for working in.

Before we leave flashing, flash time and temp will depend on what ink type you’re using (Standard PERMASET AQUA, PERMATONE or PERMASET SUPERCOVER) and the proportion of the area being printed. For example, a large solid image printed with PERMASET SUPERCOVER will need a deeper flash than a few lines printed with Standard PERMASET AQUA Inks.

Next to curing; we can’t really make recommendations on curing with flash units as there are way too many variables. The amount of ink, ambient temperature, amount of ink to be cured, moisture content of the garment, capacity of the flash unit, distance from the garment and so the list goes on. Our recommended cure regime is 3 minutes @ 320’F in a tunnel dryer. If in doubt, run a test and record all the settings in a notebook.

Another concern with flash dryers is that there is quite a high risk of scorching the garment, particularly if they have synthetic content. Our general belief is that a heat press would be a more stable/reproducible proposition (and most likely faster). If all you have is the flash unit, then we can only suggest experimentation. It might be a pain, but we’d suggest keeping a notebook, record as many parameters as you can and staple both cured and wash/rub tested samples alongside your production notes. It will be a lot of work initially, but eventually this will become an invaluable resource for you.

If in doubt, talk to the flash unit manufacturer. They have more experience with their own products.

PERMASET Print Retarder is normally added at 1–3% of the total volume of product (i.e. 10–30 mL per 1 L of PERMASET Ink). Due to varying temperature, humidity and other conditions, it is difficult to predict the actual amount of PERMASET Print Retarder required. Generally, the higher the temperature, the lower the humidity and the higher the airflow of air in the printing environment, then the higher the amount of PERMASET Print Retarder required.

PERMASET SUPERCOVER White is used commercially, but must be dried, possibly with a hair dryer. So long as the print has been cured, it should be wash resistant. The rub resistance qualities however may leave a little to be desired, so possibly not on the chest, but ok on the outside of arms, legs or back.

PERMASET SUPERCOVER has flexibility, high pigment content & very high resin content, thus optimizing its likelihood of staying on. The ink needs to be cured to achieve any degree of rub resistance, but happily, curing can be achieved simply by exposure to the sun! The downside is that it’s not controlled and would take some time, so care should to be exercised immediately post print until the print starts to cure.

Rather than using PERMASET Inks, try PERMAPRINT Premium Inks. They are an air-dry product and will have much better (uncured) abrasion resistance than PERMASET Inks.

PERMASET and PERMAPRINT Premium Inks have both been used effectively for printing on wood. PERMAPRINT Premium will have the better wash and abrasion resistance once dry.

To print on Nylon, first check that the surface hasn’t been pre-treated with water repellent. Use PERMASET SUPERCOVER (2 hits through something like a 77T mesh). For best results do not cure with an iron, rather use a heat gun or hair dryer.

If you’re printing on polycarbonate, PERMAPRINT Premium should be the product of choice.

PERMAPRINT Hybrid Inks are recommended for a polypropylene substrate. Please find further information in the Technical Data Sheet

PERMAPRINT Hybrid Inks were developed specifically for printing on more exotic synthetic substrates like umbrellas & polypropylene tote bags that require higher opacity, a degree of flexibility but have to be air-dried due to the heat sensitivity of the substrate. You can try passing these through a drying tunnel at lowish heat, say 90°C (194°F) with maximum air flow to accelerate the drying process; however, you must first ensure that the substrate can cope with that heat. Here is a link to the Technical Data Sheet for PERMAPRINT Premium Hybrid Inks with more information

You could use PERMASET AQUA Standard Ink or PERMASET SUPERCOVER Ink, but would need to leave the product in the sun to UV cure (a little). Air drying alone will not give adequate cure. Failure to cure will result in the print having very poor wash & rub resistance.

If the piece is small enough, once air dried, it can be folded & left in an oven at lowish heat, say 90°C (194°F) for an hour or so to accelerate the cure process.

Screen Printers have successfully printed hessian bags with PERMASET SUPERCOVER Inks and cured them in a heat tunnel. Check out this PERMASET YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R13wZAdBiho&t=35s

If you’re ironing @ 160°C for 5 minutes, then you are probably over-curing, which would lead to embrittlement and subsequent cracking. You only need to cure PERMASET Inks with an iron on a Medium setting for 2-3 minutes. Also, if printing on really stretchy fabric, a degree of cracking may be unavoidable.

A: It will work, possibly better than any other water-based inks on the market, but only to a degree.

In natural leathers, the enemy is the wax surface treatment. This viscosity of the ink will hold the ink in place after printing + during drying, but as wax is a) intrinsically mobile (i.e., not chemically bonded) & from this b) often used as a lubricant, obtaining a secure or permanent bond to the underlying substrate is impossible in fact waxes are often used as release agents.

In synthetic leathers, especially vinyls, the enemy is the plasticiser in the film. You may be able to get a great bond initially, but the plasticiser will migrate to the surface over time. If you are using something like a suede or microsuede, that’s a different story, as you can get bond onto the actual fibre, but any glossy leather (except perhaps patent leather), the above heavy qualification applies! However, with all the above said, many people do currently successfully use PERMAPRINT Premium Inks to print onto leather.

A 20-22T (51-56 tpi) screen mesh should be used when screen printing with PERMASET FX Inks. The flakes are large so you require a mesh with a large opening to allow the flakes to pass through during printing.

The phosphorescent effect decays over time, with most of the effect being lost within the first few minutes. Best results on dark shirts are achieved when the Phosphorescent Green is printer over a white or light coloured underbase.

Yes, there is. When curing PERMASET Puff Paste, ensure that the prints have been air dried or heated @ 60°C (140°F) until dry. Once the Puff print has been dried, cure for 4-5 minutes @ 145°C (295°F) for optimum print performance. As a caveat, if you overcure Puff prints, the little air-bubbles explode and collapse, leaving a very unattractive thick plasticky film.

PERMASET Puff Paste can be mixed with either PERMASET Standard colours or PERMASET SUPERCOVER colours from 0-100%. 

The more Puff Paste you use, the greater the 3D effect, but the less vibrant the colour will be. 

Conversely, the less Puff you use, the greater the colour saturation, but the less noticeable the 3D effect. 

The more puff paste you add, the more it puffs, but the weaker the colour. There is no recommended ratio. If new to this area mix a small at 50:50 and test print and tweak either way, depending on your requirements.

Fujifilm Dirasol^® 916, KIWO POLYCOL^®, ULANO 925WR, MacDermid Autotype PLUS 5000, Murakami TXR^®/T9 or Chromaline^® CP-Tex^TM. Ask your local supplier for their recommendation for a water resistant emulsion.

PERMASET SUPERCOVER White is our flagship opaque white and is designed specifically as a standalone product for printing on black T-shirts. It has the highest levels of titanium dioxide white pigment for maximum opacity.  

 
PERMASET First Down White is related but includes a coarse extender pigment which helps provide a tooth for overprinting when used as an underbase. It is designed to be overprinted with PERMASET AQUA or PERMATONE colours. This system will deliver the most vibrant colours with the softest handle on black T-shirts. First Down White is typically used with multi-station print facilities where tight registration can be maintained. 

Yes, the PERMASET AQUA Metallic Ink range can be used to print onto dark fabrics without using an underbase. PERMASET Metallic inks are quite opaque and can be printed straight onto dark T-shirts and fabrics without an underbase. 

No animal products or animal by-products are used in the making of our inks. 

Further, none of our products are tested on animals. 

All plant based ingredients are certified GMO free. The PERMATONE range has been Approved by the Soil Association of the UK as complying with the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) v 6.0

Yes. You can print on dark backgrounds using PERMASET SUPERCOVER Inks straight from the tub. We developed our opaque PERMASET SUPERCOVER Colour range specially for this purpose. They are excellent for printing on dark backgrounds, achieving rich, vibrant colours with no underbase.

AQUATONE® Inks have lower viscosity than PERMASET fabric printing inks, more similar to that of shampoo, so a finer screen mesh will typically be required. As with most water-based inks, the image area should be flooded between prints to prevent the ink from drying in. 

PERMAPRINT Premium Inks have relatively high solids and proportionally little free water. In common with HSA textile inks, they are more prone to drying in on the screen. 

When printing with water-based inks, it is good practice to flood the image area between print strokes, immediately after lifting the screen. Small deposits or thin films of ink retained in fine mesh are prone to dry in quickly. 

By flooding straight away, fresh ink will wet out these deposits and prevent drying-in. 

• Ensure screen is hydrated before starting the print run.  
• Ensure a nice even flood between prints, around 1-2 mm thick 
• Ensure humidity is greater than 40-50% RH in the print room 
• Sometimes a slightly lower mesh count can help. Maybe drop to a 77 T (195 tpi), although this should be balanced with the propensity of low viscosity ink to run through a coarser mesh. 

Given the high solids in PERMAPRINT Premium and consequent low free water content, there may be issues with closing in on finer meshes. Fine meshes and large particle size also work against high print opacity. So, particularly for the PERMAPRINT Premium Pearl Gold, you may need to double pump the print. The other colours seem to perform better than the Gold, opacity wise, but it is expected that all Pearls would benefit from double or more print strokes.

PERMAPRINT Premium Ink is the only range in the PERMASET stable that is suitable for printing on vinyl and has been used successfully for many years in a variety of applications from high end wallpapers to stickers. Care should be taken with some vinyls as plasticiser migration may soften the ink over time. The migrated plasticiser can rewet the ink, leading to compromised rub resistance. Particularly in high abrasion applications such as shoes and handbags. Such compromised rub resistance can prove problematic and thus PERMAPRINT Premium may not provide an adequate long term result when printed on some vinyls. Test first.

• PERMAPRINT Premium Opaque White has much higher pigment concentration and from this, much higher opacity. It is designed for printing on dark substrates. PERMAPRINT Premium Aquatone White is almost transparent and for exclusive use in the colour mixing system. 
   
• All products in the PERMAPRINT Premium range are designed for use on paper and other rigid substrates. These inks should not be used on textiles as they have a much stiffer handle and very little wash or dry clean resistance. 

When printing with AQUATONE Inks, it is essential to flood the image area between print strokes, immediately after lifting the screen. Small deposits or thin films of ink retained in fine mesh are prone to dry in quickly. 

By flooding straight away, fresh ink will wet out these deposits and prevent drying-in. 

• Ensure screen is hydrated before starting the print run.  
• Ensure a nice even flood between prints, around 1-2 mm thick 
• Ensure humidity is greater than 40-50% RH in the print room 

• Sometimes a slightly lower mesh count can help. Maybe drop to a 77 T (195 tpi), although this should be balanced with the propensity of low viscosity ink to run through a coarser mesh. 

We recommend a mesh range of 61-120 T (155-305 tpi) for AQUATONE, Gloss Varnish, Glow and CMYK Process Colours and 43-90 T (110-255 tpi) for the Pearl Colours, Opaque White and Matting Agent

Emulsions must be water resistant, fully dried and cured. Dual cure direct emulsions are recommended, particularly for long print runs and maximum print resolution. Care should be taken to ensure that stencils are properly dried and exposed as under-exposure will render most direct emulsions sensitive to premature breakdown with water-based inks. 

The AQUATONE colour matching set can be used in conjunction with the PERMATONE® Mixing Guide. This is a database of colours with the proportions required to mix each colour. 

The AQUATONE Ink colours are extremely vibrant that comes hand in hand with great transparency. Therefore when printing on dark backgrounds, you will need to use PERMAPRINT Premium Opaque White as an underbase. Opaque White is not part of the colour matching set, so you will need to purchase this ink separately.

When printing with AQUATONE Inks, it is essential to flood the image area between print strokes, immediately after lifting the screen. Small deposits or thin films of ink retained in fine mesh are prone to dry in quickly. 

By flooding straight away, fresh ink will wet out these deposits and prevent drying-in. 

• Ensure screen is hydrated before starting the print run.  
• Ensure a nice even flood between prints, around 1-2 mm thick 
• Ensure humidity is greater than 40-50% RH in the print room 
• Sometimes a slightly lower mesh count can help. Maybe drop to a 77 T (195 tpi), although this should be balanced with the propensity of low viscosity ink to run through a coarser mesh.  

We recommend a mesh range of 61-120 T (155-305 tpi) for AQUATONE colours and 43-90 T (110-255 tpi) for the Pearl Colours, Opaque White and Matting Agent

This is probably the biggest problem for people who are changing over to water-based inks, particularly from plastisols, which are very forgiving in this regard. 

Prevention is better than cure, so a good first step is to keep humidity in the print area above 40-50% RH. Once the relative humidity gets below 40%, the inks will show much greater propensity to dry in and printing will become a lot more difficult. Getting an hygrometer for your print room is a great investment.

When printers first start using water based inks, they can spray a fine mist of water every 15-20 prints to maintain the moisture of the ink on the screen. Some printers swear by this method. The most important thing is to flood the screen with a layer of ink (1-2 mm; 1/16-1/10”) and to keep the ink moving; that is, work quickly (but don’t rush). If a screen has been sitting around doing nothing for a while, pull a test print from it onto a scrap T-shirt, piece of fabric or even newsprint and inspect the clarity of the print, particularly around any fine detail.

If the ink does start to dry on the screen a little, don’t panic. Just pull another print on a test piece, so that as much ink is cleared from the image area of the mesh as possible, take a damp rag and clean both sides of the screen, then remove excess moisture with another rag. Reflood the screen, take another test print and then you’re good to go again.

Mesh count is often a factor. Most garment printers use a 43T (110 tpi) mesh. All other things being equal, the higher the mesh count, the quicker the ink will dry in. However, S-meshes have been a wonderful invention for printing with water based inks. With S-meshes, higher mesh counts can be more forgiving than the same thread count with a conventional mesh. Check out the S-mesh comparison tables.

Use a good emulsion that is compatible with water-based inks and maintains its integrity and you can get good results even with a coarser mesh. With increased experience, you will eventually master 77-90T (195-225 tpi) meshes for SUPERCOVER and up to 120 T (305 tpi) for PERMASET AQUA, PERMATONE and PERMAPRINT Premium.

PERMASET FIRST DOWN WHITE Ink has been specifically formulated for use as an underbase (flash white). It is used by trade printers who wish to print on dark fabrics but use regular PERMASET Standard colours or PERMATONE Inks to retain their superior softness and vibrancy. The First Down White should only be used by shops with multi-station print facilities where tight registration can be maintained. 

PERMASET SUPERCOVER WHITE is the premium opaque white ink for printing directly onto dark fabrics. It has the highest levels of titanium dioxide pigment for use on dark coloured fabrics. Excellent opacity in a water-based ink. Despite having been the flagship product in the PERMASET SUPERCOVER range for > 30 years, in more recent times, this style of ink has become popularly known as HSA or High Solids Acrylic. 

PERMASET STANDARD WHITE is a soft handle white ink for printing onto light coloured fabrics. It delivers a significantly softer hand than the PERMASET SUPERCOVER White ink, yet still delivers a beautifully crisp white print and looks spectacular when used for white-on-white prints. 

To make PERMASET ink more translucent, just keep on adding PERMASET Print Paste (or Reducer). 

If you want a REALLY translucent colour, it’s probably best to start the other way; i.e., start with PERMASET Print Paste and add tiny amounts of the coloured ink until the desired intensity is achieved.  For some excellent information and further detail on making PERMASET reductions with Print Paste, check out this Blog Getting to know PERMASET textile screen printing inks: Part 1 – Permaset

PERMASET Inks are a 100% water-based and do not contain any organic (hydrocarbon) solvents. 

Yes, inks within each range can be mixed.  

As one of the top printing inks for trade printing, Inks from the various PERMASET ranges can provide a wide range of high-quality and versatile inks that can be mixed within the same range.

However, when mixing between ranges, e.g. PERMASET SUPERCOVER® opaque inks with PERMASET AQUA® transparent inks, it is important to exercise caution.

First, the opacity of the print will be reduced compared, for example, to a print with PERMASET SUPERCOVER® ink alone. This will be particularly noticeable in prints over dark backgrounds.

Second, some combinations exhibit slight to significant incompatibility. As above, exercise caution and test first before embarking on a production run.

When mixing water-based inks, it’s important to use clean mixing containers and imperative to mix the inks thoroughly to ensure the new colour is consistent throughout the mixture; thus transparent or semi-transparent containers are recommended.

Finally, it is recommended that the mix formula, operator details (initials) and date are all recorded on the outside of the container and that the lid be tightly sealed after use.