Paper & Gloss Inks

Paper and board printing needs different ink chemistry from textile work. These inks dry through a combination of solvent evaporation and oxidative curing. They don't need heat the way plastisol does, but they take longer to reach full cure. We carry standard and fast-cure formulations, plus a transparent foil ink for specialty film work.

F/C Paper Gloss

Fast-cure variant of paper gloss ink, formulated with modified alkyd resins and accelerated drying agents for dual-mechanism drying. Lighter solvents evaporate quickly for initial set (touch-dry in 15-30 minutes), then oxidative curing crosslinks the alkyd resin over 4-8 hours for full hardness. Designed for high-speed production where standard paper gloss drying time creates bottlenecks.

Where it's used

High-volume poster runs, POS displays, packaging that needs to go to finishing (die-cutting, lamination) quickly after printing. When your turnaround is tight and you can't wait overnight for the ink to cure, this formulation lets you keep the production line moving.

How to use it right

Print through 62T-90T mesh. Set-to-touch in 15-30 minutes under normal conditions. Full cure 4-8 hours. Faster curing doesn't mean you can stack wet sheets. Still allow air circulation between printed sheets on drying racks. The fast-cure chemistry means shorter open time on the screen, so work in manageable batch sizes and keep the screen flooded between prints.

Watch out for

Fast-cure ink dries faster in the screen too. That's the tradeoff. If you're doing long setup times or slow production, the ink can start skinning in the mesh openings. Keep a spray bottle of retarder handy. Also, overprinting before the first layer is fully cured can cause inter-coat adhesion problems. Don't confuse touch-dry with fully cured.

Storage & handling

6-9 months sealed. Once opened, skin formation on the surface is common. Peel the skin off before stirring. Keep lids tight. The accelerated drying agents mean this ink is less forgiving of poor storage than standard paper gloss. Don't leave the can open on the bench.

Common Questions

What's the difference between regular paper gloss and fast-cure paper gloss?

Same basic chemistry: alkyd resin, pigment, solvent. But the fast-cure version has modified resins and accelerated drying agents that reduce initial set time from 30-60 minutes to 15-30 minutes, and full cure from 12-24 hours to 4-8 hours. Use fast-cure when production schedule demands it, when you need to die-cut, laminate, or ship the same day. Use standard paper gloss for routine work where overnight drying is acceptable. Standard version has slightly better gloss and levelling because the slower cure gives the ink film more time to settle into a smooth surface.

Can I print on transparent foil with regular screen printing ink?

You can put any ink on any surface, but it won't stick. Regular screen printing inks, plastisol or paper gloss, are formulated for porous or semi-porous substrates. Film and foil substrates have extremely low surface energy and zero porosity. The ink has nothing to grip. Transparent foil ink uses adhesion-promoting resins and solvents chosen to bite into film surfaces. Even then, you need the film to be corona-treated (38+ dynes/cm surface energy) for reliable adhesion. Using the wrong ink on foil is a guaranteed production failure.

Paper gloss inks are straightforward products, but getting the curing right in Kerala's humidity takes some experience. If you're new to paper printing or switching to a different ink line, come in and we'll share what works for printers in this climate. We've been doing this long enough to know which shortcuts work and which ones don't.

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