Dyes for ink-jet printing

Ink-jet printing is presently one of the fastest growing digital imaging technologies on the market. Invented in its modern form in the late 1970s, it was originally developed as a low-cost industrial printing method suitable for the home desktop/small office market. Today the ink-jet arena is more segmented than one might imagine. As technology has developed it has now moved into many other applications, in particular to large format printing, with quality requirements becoming more demanding and diversified. The possibility of matching the quality of a photographic print has now been realised - an achievement which, amongst other things, can be attributed to novel dye developments. These colorants, although one of the more important single components of ink-jet technology, are part of a whole integrated system, composed of dyes, inks, media, printer and computer software. This review takes a very detailed look at the dyes used in this rapidly-growing technology, their properties and the testing and selection criteria for choosing them.