The newest printers use pigment ink instead of dye ink because it resists fading for up to 99 Years. This improves family snapshots, but doesn't help the making of UV opaque positives. The nano porous structure of the coating controls the ink spread for image sharpness. Pigment ink particles are coated with a resin so they can be controlled with piezo print heads. Modern inkjet inks used for positives are water based and still need time to evaporate and dry. Ink manufacturers need to balance nozzle maintenance and the desire to have an ink that dries fast after printing, so a positive can be used to make a screen. Glycol or glycerol humectant additives in the water based carrier that are used to keep the pigments in suspension, retard drying, and prevent nozzle blockage need to evaporate the same way stencil coatings need to dry.
- Ink dries on the nano particles of the coating
- Very fast drying and instantly dry to the touch
- Anti-Static coating prevents sheets from sticking together
- Absorbent coating prevents ink moisture from sticking to stencil materials under vacuum contact
- No heat needed to fuse ink, film is more durable than vellum
- Film positives can be used repeatedly to make new screens
- Even with heavy ink loads, positives are dry when the next film comes out of the printer
- Positives move smoothly through the printer and are stackable
