Extender (ink)
Transparent material added to printing inks
title: "Extender (ink)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["inks"] description: "Transparent material added to printing inks" topic_path: "general/inks" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extender_(ink)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Transparent material added to printing inks ::
An extender, also known as a filler,
| last = Chatfield | first = H. W. | contribution = Extenders | year = 1962 | title = The Science of Surface Coatings | editor-last = Chatfield | editor-first = H. W. | pages = 201–226 | place = London | publisher = Ernest Benn Limited | last = Apps | first = E. A. | title = Printing Ink Technology | publisher = Leonard Hill Books ltd | year = 1958 | location = London | url =https://archive.org/details/printinginktechn00apps | url-access = registration
They generally have little colouring power.
Composition and properties
Extenders are typically white inorganic solids. Their transparency in inks is frequently due to their refractive indices being similar to the ink, as opposed to opaque pigments, which are generally substantially higher.
Use
Extenders primarily serve to reduce the cost of the ink, but can also impart useful properties to it. They can reduce the colour strength of the ink without adding any white colour to it, which is useful if the pigment in the ink is very tinctorially strong. Extenders can also be used to adjust the ink's consistency and viscosity.
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::