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.