# Mixing plastisol ink to make purple?



## ultimatetaba (Jul 10, 2007)

hi, i have really been wanting/needing to make a purple by mixing the inks that i have right now. i have red, blue, yellow, and white. i know that you can get purple by mixing red and blue, but when i do, i get a really darkish mauve color..almost black, but not quite. can anybody give me tips to be able to make a nice, rich purple? thanks.


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## neato (Mar 21, 2006)

Buy it.

You'll never get a nice purple by mixing it yourself, unless you have a mixing system.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

ultimatetaba said:


> can anybody give me tips to be able to make a nice, rich purple?


The most important thing to do, if you're not already, is to mix the dark colour into the lighter in small amounts. If you're having trouble with it being almost black, try using way less than you think you'll need and see how it looks - you can always add more if the colour is too light.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

neato said:


> You'll never get a nice purple by mixing it yourself, unless you have a mixing system.


So not true. I've mixed plenty of nice purples, mostly through trial and error.


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## neato (Mar 21, 2006)

But why waste ink through trial and error when you can buy a quart for $15?


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## ultimatetaba (Jul 10, 2007)

yeah, i'll keep experimenting with it. is there a specific ratio (blue to red, etc.) that i should be using as a guide? because i don't know exactly how much blue i should put for every amount of red. thanks for your responses, by the way.


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## rusty (Feb 9, 2007)

I've wasted a lot of ink trying to mix for other colors. I'd much rather just buy it if they have the color I need. When you consider the wasted ink and wasted time, you almost always come out ahead just buying the right color to begin with. If it takes you 15 minutes to do the trial and error of mixing, and you make $30/hr, that's $7.50 spent in just the time alone, and doesn't include the waksted ink.

Also, if you don't mix enough, it's almost impossible to remix the same color again to get more of it.


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## ultimatetaba (Jul 10, 2007)

yeah. i really want that rich purple color..so i might just end up buying a quart, if ever. i've come up with some pretty nice colors though mixing them.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

You can work it out by making micro-amounts using ratios. Get some precise scales, add a gram at a time.

Then extrapolate up.


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## titerewear (Jan 9, 2007)

Get yourself a pantone color chart, find the purple you need, and mix the closest colors you have with the ones in the chart, according to their ratios... parts, grams oz. ect.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Hmm... all this talk of wasted ink makes me wonder if waterbased is just easier to mix than plastisol. Colour mixing really isn't that hard... you're not likely to waste ink, and normally at worst you'll end up with a good colour you can't use for this project (but can for something else).

Even "wasted" ink can usually be rescued for a nice brown or grey or black, or if worst comes to worst used for test prints.


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