A New Black Water Based Ink Prepared by Chinese Traditional Materials for Screen Printing Ancient Books

Abstract

Ink is one of “the four treasures in the study”. Inks prepared by the traditional materials is usually in the form of Chinese ink and ink stick, which are unsuitable for the modern printing technology such as screen printing, offset print, gravure or flexo printing. On the other hand, modern commodity printing inks most prepared by modern chemical pigments and chemical reagents, which would emit a certain amount of pollutants. Reproduction of Chinese ancient books, if printed by using modern commodity printing inks, would lost their lasting ancient charm such as antique, quaint, hoary, vintage, archaic, etc. In the present research, a new black water based ink is prepared by Chinese traditional materials such as, Chinese wood oil soot, bone glue, borneol, musk, pepper, etc. not including any modern chemical reagents which could cause pollution of the environment. The viscosity, fineness and rheology property of the ink were characterized. As an application example, the ink is used to duplicate the Tripitaka book sample by screen printing on Xuan papers. The original is the Tripitaka printed in the Ming Dynasty and from the temple of Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China. The Reproduce is lasting ancient charm and durable.