April 14, 2008, Addison, IL – Toyo Ink America, LLC announced today the launch of UV Kaleido Ink, the new zero-VOC, ultraviolet-curable system in the Kaleido Ink series of wide-gamut inks. Kaleido Ink formulations expand the CMYK gamut to nearly the full Adobe RGB gamut, resulting in inks that offer richer, deeper colors than conventional four-color process inks.

Near Adobe RGB Gamut Reproduction via 4- Color Process Printing

Digital printing data is currently using the RGB color space as seen in picture files, prepress monitors and digital photography.  Since the CMYK color gamut is narrower than that of RGB, it is impossible to reach the original RGB color range.  Reproducing a picture which included colors beyond the CMYK color space requires a printing process using six to seven colors as well as a costly investment in sophisticated equipment. Toyo’s Kaleido Ink series has been engineered to resolve narrow-gamut issues related to four-color process printing by expanding the gamut to the equivalent of that to six or seven.  This allows designers and print professionals to produce a wider spectrum of colors that offer vibrant, true-to-life reproduction with the use of fast and affordable four- color process.

How Kaleido Ink Works

Leveraging its pigment production expertise, Toyo Ink completely reengineered the four CMYK process colors by developing dedicated pigments with substantially more brilliance relative to existing inks. The new pigments enhance the chromogenic properties of secondary and tertiary colors, thereby improving the transparency of yellow, magenta and cyan.  As a result, magenta and pink hues appear vivid, and blue and red tones are notably improved. Other benefits are superior glogradations from yellow to red.

In addition to demonstrating cutting-edge color reproduction capabilities, UV Kaleido Ink dries instantly and contains zero-VOC for an environmentally safe formulation.

For proofing, the Kaleido Ink lineup offers a wider color gamut than inkjet printers and even high-end direct digital color proofers.   It also has its own ICC (International Color Consortium) color profile for efficient color matching.

Bringing Life to the Cover of Graphic Arts Monthly

Toyo Ink America partnered with Graphic Arts Monthly, a leading trade publication for the graphic arts and related industries, to produce a customized color cover for the December 2007 issue.  The cover showcases the cutting-edge ink capabilities and versatility of UV Kaleido Ink.  The expanded gamut, zero-VOC UV ink system was applied to Mohawk Options 100% PCW recycled matte stock.   Lake County Press, a seven-year Toyo Ink user located north of Chicago, was tapped to print the magazine’s 78,000 front, back and inside covers on a 8-color 40” Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 with interdeck UV curing  from IST.

The UV Kaleido Ink series is now available in the US market, following the successful introduction of the soy-based, sheetfed version at Graph Expo 2006.  For more information on Toyo’s Kaleido Ink series of enhanced-gamut process inks, call Toyo Ink America at 1- 866-969-TOYO (8696).