What are water based inks good for? Water-based ink also has the advantage of being an excellent ink system for high speed roll-to-roll yardage printing. Such printing is done on large sophisticated equipment that has very large drying (curing) capacity. Water-base ink also is a good choice where ink penetration is desirable, such as in towel printing. The water-based pigment ink utilizes larger particles of its coloring material. The difference between the dye and pigment ink is the particle size of the coloring material. In dye ink, particles are dissolved in water at a molecular level, and they have less effect on nozzles and print heads. https://www.z-inks.com/water-based-inks.html