A process for preparing a printed rigid plastic substrate is described, the process comprising: providing a rigid plastic substrate comprising a primer on a surface of the rigid plastic substrate, the primer comprising a primer resin; printing a liquid electrophotographic ink composition comprising a thermoplastic resin onto the primer on the surface of the rigid plastic substrate; depositing a cross-linking composition comprising a cross-linker onto the printed electrophotographic ink composition disposed on the primer; and laminating the rigid plastic substrate with a flexible film such that the ink composition and the cross-linker are disposed between the rigid substrate and the flexible film and wherein the lamination of the rigid substrate with the flexible film causes cross-linking of the thermoplastic resin of the ink composition and of the primer resin.

A recording apparatus that causes less degradation of image quality due to blurring caused by dot misalignment between an ink containing a coloring material and a reaction liquid includes a recording unit configured to record an image on a recording medium by applying an ink containing a coloring material and a reaction liquid containing a component that aggregates the coloring material, an acquisition unit configured to acquire multi-valued ink data to apply the ink, and a generating unit configured to generate first multi-valued reaction liquid data based on the multi-valued ink data and, when a tone value of a pixel of interest in the first multi-valued reaction liquid data is lower than a tone value of any one of a plurality of surrounding pixels around the pixel of interest, generate second multi-valued reaction liquid data by increasing the tone value of the pixel of interest.

Provided are compositions and processes formulated and practiced to reduce the friction-coefficient of the printed area and also of the non-printed areas around the image, wherein the compositions are formulated for use by wet-on-wet techniques in-line of the pre-curing printing process, without pretreating the fabric for softness and smoothness prior to the printing process. The compositions comprise at least 15% by weight of a friction-coefficient reduction agent and having a pH lower than 6.5 so as to effect upon contact immobilization of an ink composition that is being digitally applied on the substrate.

A form of an ink set is an ink set including a flocculant-containing treatment liquid and an ink jet ink composition and is for use in recording on a low- or non-absorbent recording medium. The ink jet ink composition is a water-based ink containing at least one colorant, at least one water-soluble organic compound, having a solubility of more than 10 g in 100 g of water at 20° C., and at least one organic compound sparingly soluble in water, having a solubility of 0.1 to 10 g in 100 g of water at 20° C. The organic compound sparingly soluble in water includes a diol or glycol ether having a normal boiling point of 180° C. to 300° C., with the diol or glycol ether constituting 2.3% by mass or less of the total mass of the ink composition.

The present invention provides an ink jet recording method capable of recording an image having good abrasion resistance by using an aqueous ink and a reaction liquid. In the ink jet recording method, the aqueous ink containing a resin particle and the reaction liquid containing a reactant for aggregating the component in the aqueous ink are ejected from a recording head of the ink jet system and applied onto a recording medium. The reaction liquid contains a compound represented by the general formula (1) (n in the formula represents an integer of 0 to 3). At least one of the aqueous ink and the reaction liquid contains a surfactant having an HLB value of ≤ 15.

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An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing printed material on which active energy ray-curable ink is printed, the method being capable of improving print density without impairing gradation expressivity.

The present invention is a method for producing printed material, the method including, in order: a transfer process of transferring ink to a transfer target surface of a substrate; and an impression process of bringing each of impression cylinders into contact with the transfer target surface to which the ink has been transferred, and at least one of the impression cylinders has a patterned impression part.

A treatment liquid is a water-based treatment liquid and is used for a recording method of adhering a water-based ink jet ink composition containing a colorant and the treatment liquid to a recording medium. The treatment liquid contains: an organic acid; and at least one selected from an organic acid polyvalent metal salt and a cationic polymer, a content of the at least one selected from an organic acid polyvalent metal salt and a cationic polymer is 1 to 15 percent by mass with respect to a total mass of the treatment liquid, and the treatment liquid has a pH of 5.5 or more.

A recording method is for performing recording by ejecting, onto a recording medium, ink and a reaction solution including a flocculating agent that flocculates a substance contained in the ink, and the recording method includes ejecting the reaction solution as a droplet onto the recording medium, and ejecting the ink as a droplet onto the recording medium. A relationship of Op1≥Op2 is satisfied when an ejection amount of the reaction solution during ejecting the reaction solution in a first recording mode is indicated with Op1, and an ejection amount of the reaction solution during ejecting the reaction solution in a second recording mode is indicated with Op2, the second recording mode having a recording speed lower than the first recording mode.

A method for manufacturing printed products contains the steps of applying at least one colored and water-containing ink to image regions on a printing material in a drop-on-demand process. An essentially colorless and water-containing liquid is applied a) to non-image regions and/or b) to image regions that have only little ink in the drop-on-demand process. The printing material is dried. The printing material has a coating that contains at least one acid. After the application of ink and the application of a liquid, a water-containing further liquid, for instance a varnish, is applied both to image regions and to non-image regions of the printing material, and that the liquid and/or the further liquid contains at least one substance that at least partly neutralizes the acid. The undesired formation of waves and glossiness fluctuations between varnished image regions and varnished non-image regions may thus advantageously be avoided.

The disclosure concerns an applicator (e.g. printhead) for applying a coating agent (e.g. paint) to a component (e.g. motor vehicle body component), having at least one nozzle row with a plurality of nozzles for dispensing the coating agent in the form of a jet in each case, the nozzles being arranged along the nozzle row and in a common nozzle plane, and having a plurality of actuators for controlled release or closure of the nozzles. The disclosure provides that the individual actuators each have an outer dimension along the nozzle row which is greater than a nozzle distance along the nozzle row.