An ink jet recording apparatus includes an ink composition, an ink encasement in which the ink composition is encased, a recording head that ejects the ink composition, and a carriage configured to move the recording head back and forth. The carriage carries the ink encasement, with the ink encasement integrated with the carriage. The ink encasement has an ink fill port that opens and shuts as a port through which the ink composition is loaded. The ink composition contains a water-soluble dye and a polyhydric alcohol with a normal boiling point of 270° C. or above, with the percentage of the polyhydric alcohol being 26.0% by mass or less of the total amount of the ink composition.

An ink jet printing ink composition contains a pigment, colloidal silica, trimethylglycine, and water, and in which a content of the colloidal silica is lower than or equal to a content of the trimethylglycine.

A method for producing a printed product is provided. The method capable of producing the printed product is superior in a friction fastness and a texture. And, a printing system is also provided. The method includes a printing step in which an ink composition for inkjet, containing a colorant and a crosslinkable binder component, is inkjet-printed onto a textile good to obtain a print body; and a heat-treatment step in which, by heat-treatment of the print body with steam, the crosslinkable binder component is caused to melt or soften, and to crosslink to be a film, thereby fixing the colorant to fibers of the textile good. The printing system includes a printing apparatus and a heat-treatment equipment with which a print body after printing is heat-treated with steam.

An inkjet printer for preventing ink flow, color blurring and color mixing during multicolor printing when image formation is performed with aqueous ink on a web-shaped printing base material, and an inkjet printing method using the inkjet printer. The inkjet printer is configured to perform image formation by discharging aqueous ink to a web-shaped printing base material, and includes: a conveyance mechanism configured to continuously convey the web-shaped printing base material; a single-pass system inkjet head configured to discharge the aqueous ink to a surface of the web-shaped printing base material conveyed by the conveyance mechanism; and a surface pre-heating unit arranged on an upstream side of conveyance from the single-pass system inkjet head and configured to heat at least the surface of the web-shaped printing base material. Image formation is performed on the web-shaped printing base material heated by the surface pre-heating unit.

An aqueous pigment dispersion includes at least one dispersing agent having the general formula: ##STR00001## The aqueous pigment dispersion can be used in an aqueous inkjet ink which is useful for printing on textile fabrics.

The invention relates to an ink jet printer having a print carriage, a curing unit and a holder arranged to move a recording medium relative to the carriage assembly in a sub-scanning direction, wherein the print carriage is movable in a main scanning direction normal to the sub-scanning direction, and a print head unit arranged on the print carriage for printing a swath of an image onto the recording medium in each scan pass of the print carriage, the print carriage further having a mirror assembly arranged to deflect light from the curing unit onto an exposure area on the printed swath.

A method of operating a printer separates the image content data for a sheet in a print job into multiple color separations and operates a digital air curtain between the printhead modules that print the multiple color separations. Image data of the printed color separations are used to adjust operating parameters for the digital air curtain.

Solvent-based pigmented ceramic inkjet ink compositions including a solvent blend consisting predominantly of one or more hydrophobic solvent(s) (preferably one or more hydrophobic long chain hydrocarbon solvent(s)) are capable of achieving superior print quality when applied over unfired glazes by the inclusion of less than 10% by weight of the composition of a water-soluble solvent, especially glycol ethers. These ink compositions are particularly suited to ceramic tile decoration via the double fast firing process, with resulting improvements in absorption, color strength and print definition.

An ink set includes an inkjet ink and a recording head filling liquid. The inkjet ink contains a pigment, water, and 1,2-alkanediol with a carbon number of at least 7 or 8. The recording head filling liquid contains a specific surfactant, water, and a specific alcohol compound with a carbon number of at least 10 and no greater than 12. The specific surfactant has an HLB value of no greater than 5.0. An amount of content of the specific alcohol compound in the recording head filling liquid is at least 0.1 ppm and no greater than 1.0 ppm.

The method is an ink jet recording method, which uses an ink set being composed of a plurality of aqueous inks and including a combination of a first ink containing a coloring material and a second ink containing no coloring material and by which an image is recorded by applying the first ink and the second ink onto a recording medium so that an area to which the first ink is applied and an area to which the second ink is applied overlap at least in part with each other. The coloring material of the first ink contains fluorescent dye, the second ink contains a first water-soluble organic solvent, and an SP value S.sub.S of the first water-soluble organic solvent and an SP value S.sub.D of the fluorescent dye satisfy a relationship of the following formula (1):
|S.sub.S−S.sub.D|≤4.0  (1).