Digital Dish: January 2019

Each month, Sylvamo's Digital Expert writes a Digital Dish newsletter to fuel your digital cravings. This New Year edition provides three tips to prevent drying issues in the press as a result of different ink limits on HP® Indigo and Digital Inkjet Papers. 

1. Ink Coverage on Indigo

When it comes to printing on an Indigo press, the paper performs best when ink coverage is limited to 270% or less. Indigo presses use liquid ink suspended in mineral oil, so if more ink is used, this could result in drying issues due to the residual oil left behind. It's best to allow 24-36 hours after printing for the oil on the paper to fully dissipate, which helps ensure the image is stable and sticking to the paper fiber.

2. Ink Coverage on Inkjet

As for inkjet printing, most printing issues arise from the inefficient combination of the water-based pigment ink levels with the drying capacity of that press. Some inkjet presses have the ability to lay down more ink because they have extended dryers with more capacity to dry the ink and prevent tracking. However, in general, the paper performs best when ink coverage is limited to 280% or less.

3. Treated Digital Papers

For optimal digital print performance, Sylvamo recommends using a treated paper. Our specially formulated, treated digital papers help facilitate ink adhesion on Indigo presses and dispel the high water content on Inkjet presses. While the treatment in each of these digital papers differ, they both enable successful post conversion and reduce issues in overall print quality.

New Year, New Website!

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If you have a topic you are hungry to learn more about, please send us an email at DYK@sylvamo.com.