An ink jet ink composition includes water, a plant-derived carbonized color material, and a lignin resin.

A recording method includes: recording a first image on a recording medium; reading the first image to determine whether the first image is correctly recorded; and when the first image is determined as not being correctly recorded, recording a second image over the first image. The water-based recording ink includes a water-soluble organic solvent which is at least one selected from the group consisting of a glycol ether and a diol compound having six to eight carbon atoms and two hydroxyl groups, at least one of the two hydroxyl groups not being bonded to a terminal of a carbon chain of the diol compound. A content of substances having a vapor pressure of 0.03 hPa or less at 20° C. in the water-based recording ink is 10 mass % or less and a surface tension of the water-based recording ink is 30 mN/m or less.

A radiation curable inkjet ink composition that includes (A) a mono-ethylenically unsaturated oligomer, (B) a mono-ethylenically unsaturated monomer, and (C) a solvent, wherein the radiation curable inkjet ink composition is substantially free of a photoinitiator and wherein a total weight of the mono-ethylenically unsaturated oligomer (A) is less than or equal to the total weight of the mono-ethylenically unsaturated monomer (B). A printed article including the radiation curable inkjet ink composition in cured form, and a method of forming an image with a thermal inkjet printhead are also provided.

Provided is a method for producing at least one carrier material provided with a print decoration. The print decoration is applied to the at least one carrier material by means of digital printing. The water-soluble CRYK ink used for the digital printing has the following composition: Colour component C: at least one cyan pigment; Colour component K: at least one black carbon pigment; Colour component Y: at least one yellow pigment; or a mixture of at least two different yellow pigments or a mixture of at least one yellow pigment and at least one red pigment; and Colour component R: at least one red pigment, or a mixture of at least two different red pigments or a mixture of at least one red pigment and at least one yellow pigment.

An ink set for single-pass printing including at least a cyan ink, a magenta ink, a yellow ink, and a gray ink, wherein the magenta ink satisfies a specific condition regarding spectral reflectance, and the gray ink has a spectral reflectance at a wavelength of 500 nm of 20 to 70% and satisfies the specific condition regarding spectral reflectance.

A processor identifies print defect locations where printing defects occur and a assigns different sensitivity values to different zones of a job image being prepared for printing by a printing engine. The processor changes the orientation of the job image to a revised orientation, relative to print media, to avoid locating one or more high-sensitivity zones of the job image in the print defect locations. The high-sensitivity zones are ones of the zones having a sensitivity value above a threshold sensitivity value. The printing engine prints the job image on the print media at the revised orientation.

An ink contains water, a pigment, and a polymer having a structure unit represented by the following Chemical structure 1, ##STR00001## where R.sub.1 represents an organic group having at least carbon and oxygen.

An inkjet ink contains a pigment, a pigment dispersion resin, a water-soluble organic solvent, and a polymer nonionic surfactant. The pigment dispersion resin has an acid value of at least 55 mgKOH/g and no greater than 97 mgKOH/g. The polymer nonionic surfactant has a mass average molecular weight of at least 7,000 and no greater than 12,500. An inkjet recording apparatus includes a linehead and a conveyance section which conveys a recording medium. The linehead ejects the above inkjet ink onto the recording medium.

A printing apparatus, including a discharging head for discharging ultraviolet-curable ink droplets, an energizer to supply energy to the ink droplets, a carriage with the discharging head and the energizer mounted thereon movable in a main scanning direction, and a controller, is provided. The controller forms a dots-linked portion having a plurality of the ink droplets landed on the printable medium being linked with one another and cured in a shape elongated in the main scanning direction. The controller forms both a dividing dot and a divided-dots linking portion or the divided-dots linking portion alone. The dividing dot is formed of a single one of the ink droplets cured independently at a position to one of adjoin and overlap the dots-linked portion in the main scanning direction. The divided-dots linking portion has a plurality of the ink droplets being linked and cured in a shape elongated in a sub-scanning direction.

An image forming apparatus includes a liquid discharge head, an irradiation unit, a carriage, and a moving unit. The liquid discharge head discharges a liquid onto a recording medium. The liquid includes a metallic ink and a color ink. The irradiation unit irradiates the liquid on the recording medium with light. The liquid discharge head and the irradiation unit are mounted on the carriage. The moving unit alternately perform a main scanning movement and a sub-scanning movement. The liquid discharge head discharges the metallic ink in a region of the recording medium in a former main scanning movement and discharges the color ink in the region in which the metallic ink has been discharged, in a latter main scanning movement after the former main scanning movement. The irradiation unit irradiates the region in which the color ink has been discharged with the light.