# Average Cost Per Print: Plastisol vs. Water-Based Inks



## Cheesyphily (Jun 15, 2010)

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster. This forum is a great resource and I hope to make some contributions down the road once I gain some experience. As a start-up needing to order my inks I am currently debating whether or not to just start off with water-based inks. I understand that WB produce a higher quality end product. 

My question is... how much would it cost to print the same color, of the same design using plastisol vs. water-based inks?? Also I see that purchasing the same volume of each ink i.e. 1 gallon is not TOO much of a price difference however, I also know that you cannot get as many prints out of a gallon of wb vs. a gallon of plastisol. 

Appreciate any feedback you guys can offer. Thanks!


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

I think that the difference is neglible. The only big difference that I see if the cost of high opacity waterbased inks such as Matsui HO or Permaset Supercover inks. They are usually $30-$50 more per gallon than normal waterbased inks. We buy Matsui Brite discharge base by 5 gallon buckets which comes out to $26 per gallon + shipping. If we are printing waterbased ink on light colors, we don't add the discharge powder to the base. If we are printing on dark garments, we add the powder to activate the discharge base. The only thing about discharge inks is there is alot of waste. The base only stays active for a certain amount of time, so if you mix up too much base, it usually gets thrown out if you aren't using that particular color in the next day or so.


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