Printing & Copying

We've come a long way since the very beginning of printing. In the days of the hand-scribed documents, the ink used was water-based inks that didn't hold up for very long. By the time when Gutenberg came along with his cool new printing press, he also started using an oil-based ink that would be much more durable.

Fast forward almost 600 years. As you can imagine, ink technology has changed as much as the printing presses that apply the stuff. They've been formulated in labs to figure out exact drying times, effortless applications and near perfect results.

They've also gotten greener too. Not until a few years ago, consumers started demanding soy-based inks for environmental concern. It's a welcomed change not only for the obvious use of petroleum, but also because of less volatile organic compounds (VOCs) seeping into the air. This makes breathing a whole lot easier for everyone near a printing press and better overall quality of air for all of us.

The newest of these is vegetable-based inks. This is what Independent Printing currently uses standard. You may ask, "Well, what's the difference, isn't soybean a vegetable?" Truth be told, soy-based inks are made with soybean oil, and vegetable-based inks are made with vegetable oil. They're 2 different substances. But vegetable-based is that much better yet than soy inks. So those requesting soy inks as a green solution probably don't know there is a greener solution out there.

In fact, being vegetable inks as the newest technology, they emit less VOCs than soy-based. The ink Independent Printing uses contains a percentage of alternative vegetable oil, ranging from 14% to 27%. It's formulated with organic materials that do not contain any animal-based byproducts. We also use a hybrid UV-cured ink. It contains no vegetable oils and is dried (cured) with UV energy. UV inks do not contain any volatile organic compounds (VOC) making them a very green choice.

So there's more to it than just printing on recycled paper. It's only half the story. You also have to be aware of what you're putting on it to be eco-conscious.