Originally inks were made from soot suspended in vegetable oil 50 centuries ago in ancient China. As technology progressed, petroleum-based inks became cheaper and more popular. 

However, they also pose a host of hazards to the environment, containing a range of heavy metals (barium, copper, zinc) that leach into the soil and groundwater and emit VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into the air.

Vegetable-based printing ink is made with vegetable oil, such as soybean or corn oil, as a substitute for petroleum. These inks significantly reduce the amount of toxic metals and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) released into the air during printing.

Added Benefits

Vegetable Inks often result in brighter colors – due to their greater translucency. Using brighter colors enables the same amount of ink to produce more impressions (images) than the same amount of petroleum ink, which translates into a 5 percent to 50 percent increase in transfer efficiency.

Some printers also believe that vegetable inks are more forgiving, making it easier to run a high-quality job on older equipment. It is sometimes easier and faster to change from a dark-colored to a light-colored ink with soy than with petroleum-based inks.

Vegetable inks have broad applicability. They are used primarily in lithographic printing processes for newspapers, books and magazines. But they are also effective for packaging, business forms, and other commercial printing applications.