Printing ink is made using four components: resins, solvents, pigments and additives. Resin binds the ink together into a film that sticks on the printed surface. Solvents ensure consistent ink flow.

Gloomy, dusty, noisy, and smelly—that’s what I thought a print production floor was. It was 1985, and I was a child visiting my aunt and following my cousins around the ground floor of their home in a ...