Category: Letterpress for beginners
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Custom Letterpress Ink

Is there a good website that anyone can recommend for buying letterpress ink that is a custom color?

Granted I’m a newbie, but my biggest challenge now is mixing inks and I’m just wondering if it might just be easiest to order ink premixed to match a pantone color. Is that was people usually do, or does everyone pretty much just mix their own ink?

Thanks….

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I use The Oldham Group for all my ink purchases, they ship across the United States.

Oldham Group
ask for Joe or Becky
(817) 554-0041

  • Lammy
  • on 10 Oct 08 (12:03)

you can look at it this way, you can buy each color you want premixed. There will be a minimum amount for each color you buy (usually 1/2 lbs tubes or 2 lbs cans) and you will need to store what you don’t use. Conversely you can buy a scale and the 15 inks needed to mix all the colors and mix only the amounts you need per run. It’s going to depend on the volume and variety of colors you intend or will need to use.

I typically keep a supply of a half-dozen standard colors, and then mix my own “by eye”. This works well if one is not trying to get an exact match.

it takes a little practice to know how to mix colors properly without a guide… and you end up mixing/wasting alot of ink if you don’t know what you are doing

for certain colors, particularly lighter colors, in my opinion, sometimes it is easiest to just order them in small amounts… of course, if you pay $40 for a custom color for one customer, you should have the customer pay for it

Thank you! Yes, I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to get pre-mixed or just mix my own. I never thought of getting a scale. On boxcar.com they have listed custom inks you can order, but I think it was in 1 lb. cans, which would just be way too much I’m afraid. Casey I’ll try that number, thanks so much….

Mixing your own is much less expensive than continually paying to have colors custom mixed. Mixing most colors isn’t particularly difficult if you have a Pantone Formula Guide (or some other “recipe book”) and a scales or another way of fairly accurately measuring parts, but without those I don’t think I’d recommend trying it (without experience). If 1 lb. cans are too much ink, I do have a variety of colors available in 1/4 lb. tubes, and can sometimes special order specific colors or mix as needed. If you know what you want, e-mail me and I’ll see if I happen to have it or can get it, or I can send a list of what’s on hand.

Dave (the Ink in Tubes guy)

Perfect Dave, thanks!