Over the past several years there has been a trend in retail towards water based and discharge prints, especially in the mid- to high-end fashion markets.
I don't know if it's related, but I also get people asking for 'eco-friendly' water based printing. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but water based printing is not eco-friendly. There are other ingredients in water based ink besides water, and many of them are not 'drain safe' and not friendly to the environment. I'm not saying that water based ink is dangerous or polluting the environment... it's just not any better or worse than plastisol ink from an environmental perspective. In fact, in most cases, there is less waste and less chemicals involved with plastisol ink.
Water based ink has lots of things going for it. The main advantage of water based and discharge inks are the soft hand of the print. Water based inks dye the fabric, and discharge ink bleach out the color of the shirt, whereas plastisol inks place a layer of... ahem... well, plastic on the shirt (PVC resin to be exact, like those white pipes used in plumbing). Because water based ink dyes the fabric the prints can withstand wear and washing longer than plastisol prints. Same deal with discharge, but in reverse... and with more not-so-friendly chemicals.
I see the merit of water based ink and discharge printing, and I do work with it from time to time, but for many reasons -- which I won't go into here -- I still prefer plastisol. That's what I've been using for most of my 14 years of printing. You could say I'm a little old fashioned. Or just plain old. Nah, be nice. Old fashioned.
And one added advantage of me being old fashioned is that I believe that the customer is ofte... er... I mean, always right. If your project requires water based ink, I will be more than happy to accommodate your needs with a minimum of old-man grumbling. Kids these days...
