Adding dispersants and wetting agents to water-based inks during the production process is beneficial to improve the properties of water-based inks. Dispersants and wetting agents are always added to water-based inks during the production of color pastes.

Generally, the fineness of water-based ink is required to be between 101 μm and 25 μm, and the water-based ink is too fine or too large. It will affect the fluidity and rheology of ink. The viscosity of water-based ink refers to the consistency of water-based ink, which is an indicator of the flow of water-based ink. Excessive viscosity results in poor fluidity and slow drying; low viscosity water-based inks have good fluidity, fast drying, thin ink layer and less ink consumption. If the viscosity of the water-based ink is low, the toner content is required to be high; otherwise, the toner content is low.

Since the viscosity directly affects the ink transfer and the quality of the printed matter, it is very important to control the viscosity of the water-based ink. In the printing process, if the viscosity is too low, it will cause light color, and if the viscosity is too high, it will cause the phenomenon of dirty and paste.