Screen Printing with Magna Colours

Magna Colours are the world-leading manufacturer of water based textile screen printing inks. They are our go to when we want high quality ink we know we can rely on. We sent them a few questions to find out more about the products they produce and the new technology they are working on.

For anyone who doesn’t know who are Magna Colours?

MagnaColours® are innovators in water-based inks for textile screen-printing and our mission is to make the industry greener and more sustainable. For 40 years, we’ve been developing and manufacturing inks that push the boundaries of water-based technology, creating superior alternatives to plastisol. The MagnaPrint® is produced in Barnsley, Yorkshire and distributed all over the world featuring on the products of major brands including Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Super Dry.

Magna Colour Reflective Clear Ink

What would you say are the 3 main advantages of water based inks over plastisol?

There’s a huge number of advantages to using water-based inks over plastisol alternatives but if we narrowed it down to just 3, we’d have to say:

• Environmentally sensitive – containing none of the harmful chemicals that plastisol inks have, which means they are healthier for the environment and the end user. MagnaColours® even have their own chemical compliance standard called GNA®, which is created to give peace of mind to retailers and printers.
• Performance on the garment – this is a key advantage, water-based inks are super soft and have a great hand feel. They also have high stretch performance and excellent wash fastness properties.
• Broad range of special effects – so many different special effects can be created using water-based inks which their plastisol counterparts just can’t offer. There’s a huge range of glitters, metallics and pearlescent inks in the MagnaPrint® range, alongside tactile vintage/crackle effects, high-build, suede and puff type pastes – the options are growing all the time too!

Magna Colours Aqua Flex V2 Ink

This year is your 40th anniversary, what would you say have been your most significant developments over the last 4 decades?

 The introduction of AquaFlex V2 in 2015 is one of the most significant developments for Magna and water-based screen printing inks. It was the first water-based high solids ink, with low temperature curing, high opacity, slow-drying in the screen, quick flash times and without the need for any additives. Edge, launched earlier this year is a really exciting new technology – developed to enable the printing of multi-coloured designs on to light or dark coloured garments, whether wet or dry, without the need for numerous flash units in-between. Being able to offer ready-made special effect inks to our customers is really significant too – we’ve developed industry first one-pack reflective systems and devoré inks. 

Magna Colours Multichrome 2 3D Ink

What’s your favourite MagnaPrint range and why?

It’s really hard to pick a favourite – it’s great when you see printers using our inks in combination to make fantastic effects. Our two-tone MagnaPrint® MultiChrome and MultiShine inks work really well with our high build pastes and create some stunning effects. It also shows how Magna have designed the range to be compatible and provide printers with a huge range of options.

And which ranges would you recommend to someone who is just getting started with fabric and garment screen printing?

For light coloured fabrics, you really can’t go wrong with our non-drying, wet-on-wet MagnaPrint® ND Extra ink system. For dark coloured fabrics, AquaFlex V2 is the perfect water-based high solids ink for beginners and experienced printers alike.

Visit the Magna Colours website to see the full range.

To purchase ink and other screen printing materials head over to over to our shop.