painoväri

Painoväri is the Finnish term for printing ink, a substance used to apply color to substrates such as paper, cardboard, plastics, or textiles in various printing processes. It typically consists of a pigment or dye dispersed in a binder and vehicle, along with additives that control properties like viscosity, drying, gloss, and adhesion. Pigments provide opacity and lightfastness, while dyes offer vivid colors but generally lower opacity. Binders are resins that fix the pigment to the substrate, and vehicles are solvents or water that evaporate or cure during drying.

Inks are formulated for specific print methods. Offset lithography uses oil-based or water-based inks with pigmented resins and a drying system. Gravure inks are often solvent-based to enable fast drying on high-speed presses. Flexographic inks are typically solvent- or water-based and designed for web printing. Screen printing inks tend to be paste-like for opaque, thick layers, while digital inkjet inks are designed for jetting and can be water-based, solvent-based, UV-curable, or latex-based.

Drying and curing mechanisms vary: some inks dry by evaporation or absorption, others cure chemically or with UV light. Properties such as color strength, opacity, gloss, rheology, and jetting behavior influence print quality and process compatibility.

Environmental and safety considerations include VOC emissions, pigment restrictions, and regulations governing printing inks. Modern painoväri formulations often aim for lower environmental impact, better recyclability, and compliance with national and international standards. The term derives from paino, meaning printing, and väri, meaning color.