Thanks to functional and smart inks, the adoption of UV-curable inks, and the use of improved inkjet technology, the ink industry is quickly evolving into a high-tech and sustainable market for sign, graphics, and digital printing companies.

One such company, DPI Laboratory in St. Petersburg, Florida, initially focused on UV inks and coatings for different applications when it was founded in May 2024. In 2025, the company expanded into UV printers.

“It’s our ability to design the product that fits into our customer workflow,” said Lon Riley, founder and owner of DPI Lab. “We’re really talking to customers, finding where the gaps are, and developing products to fit those gaps.”

GRIMCO is a St. Louis, Missouri-based distributor of apparel decoration and sign-printing inks. The company offers several Avient ink lines and provides aqueous, dye-sublimation, eco-solvent, solvent, latex, and UV inks compatible with printers and plotters from several brands.

“There [are] a lot of different options when it comes to ink. Some are more opaque than others. Some are low-cure, just pliable or easy to work with,” said Lauren Salzman, director of marketing for GRIMCO. “It really is a preference based on the printer’s needs.”

Mimaki manufacturers ink jet systems and specialized inks focused on dye sublimation and direct-to-film (DTF) printing technologies for apparel printing, said Josh Hope, director of marketing for Mimaki USA in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

DPI Laboratory is extending the color gamut of its inks for a wider range of options and through the mixing of colors, an expanded palette. The inks also have better adhesion, so they can stick more effectively to different substrates.

“We’re consistently trying to improve the chemistry to get better adhesion on a wider range of materials and a wider variety of color options, which helps our customers to be able to expand their color options,” Riley said. “The wider the color gamut you have, [the more] you can reach different tones [and] different colors that weren’t available before.”

As DPI Lab expands its UV printer line and has stronger equipment sales, its ink sales follow suit.

“People are moving from sublimation and screen prints to faster digital applications,” Riley said. “As machines and technology get faster, the ink consumption will follow. You can do more in a shorter amount of time.”

GRIMCO offers the components of ink or mixes them in-house for the desired Pantone, the exact color consistency according to the Pantone Matching System, or global color system.

“We sell the base of white, and they drop in the pigments, or we mix the ink in-house using the DM4 ink mixing system,” said Salzman.

Avient also has its own mixing software that customers can use to mix their inks, providing directions to help them get the consistent Pantones they want. The DM4 DispenseMaster is an automated dispensing system able to deliver a large array of colors for plastisol ink screen-printing jobs. The system uses a base of white mixed with different pigments to create different Pantones. The base that’s selected depends on the type of material to be cured.

“Avient makes it very user-friendly,” Salzman said. “They give customers a lot of options and also provide their own software where they can log and mix their own colors — the software makes it easy to deliver that Pantone color.”

Mimaki’s eco-solvent and UV-curable inks are durable and can withstand varying weather conditions, and UV inks have elasticity and can be built in layers to create texture. UV inks are used in UV-DTF, where the printing is still done to film, but using UV ink. The ink can be applied to uneven surfaces and used in one-off printing jobs with individualized graphics.

“In the printing industry, if you wanted to put printing onto a coffee mug with a handle, the way they do that requires specialized printing equipment,” Hope said. “If you wanted to do a short run or customized print, using DTF would allow for personal printing — and you still have the benefits and durability of the ink.”

DPI Lab’s inks are compatible with multiple types of materials and are fast-curing, able to bond to plastic, glass, metal, and other materials.

“Some substrates are designed to keep the ink chemicals off of them and need special compounds to bond the material better,” Riley said. “Especially with high heat, they need the chemistry to be able to get a good bond with those materials.”

DPI Lab’s multipurpose inks can be printed on materials such as paper products, book applications, and photo paper, instead of requiring separate inks and printers for the different applications. This allows for more printing jobs to be done on a single device, consolidating operations into a single system without having to use individual printers and inks.

“The more we can do with a single ink chemical, the easier it is for our clients to do more with their business,” Riley said. “We’re trying to do more and more with the ink chemistry — making it compatible with the media types, and print heads it’s designed to be used with.”

Previously, mechanical pressure needed to be used to apply the ink, resulting in a short working time, while with UV-cured inks, there isn’t a timing problem with the ink remaining in a liquid state. UV inks can then cure instantly when exposed to UV light.

“We don’t have a work-time problem,” Riley said. “It’s a really easy, economical way to get a coating on some of these surfaces.”

DPI Lab also offers a full line of UV coatings in matte, glossy, outdoor uses, and whiteboard applications. The outdoor coatings have a different chemistry to withstand varying environmental conditions, while UV-cured whiteboards have a highly durable and nonporous finish.

“If you did a mural on the side of a building and UV coatings are sprayed over it as a protective coating — it jets on clear — when it’s exposed to UV light, it cures it into a nice, protective coating,” Riley said.

In summer 2025, DPI Lab released a fluorescent ink that, when exposed to black light, is able to glow, revealing lettering and images not visible in regular light. The ink can be used in security applications for hidden codes and things like security badges. It can also be used for embellishments, such as on specialty liquor bottles that glow in black light, custom cups for a nightclub’s customers, and a hidden company logo.

“It’s a decoration you wouldn’t see until it’s exposed to black light,” Riley said. “The security applications are popular to be able to have hidden security applications. The rest, I’ll admittedly say, are fun. It’s a kitschy, fun way to use technology — to make fun, cool things.”