What’s the difference between Permaset Aqua Standard and Permaset Supercover? Thoughts from Whitney Teska, Permaset Printer @ Orchard Street Press.

Whitney: I’d say Permaset Aqua Standard is more of a traditional waterbased ink, while the Supercover is a heavier water-based ink that has many of the advantages of a plastisol without the solvents and nasty chemicals.

The first difference you notice out of the bucket is the consistency. The Standard inks have a much thinner consistency, whereas the Supercovers are much thicker.  This holds true for the feel of the print as well. With the standard inks there is much less of an ink deposit.  The finished product has a lighter hand/ softer feel. This means if you close your eyes and hold a shirt printed with Permaset Aqua Standard inks you might not be able feel where the print is on the shirt.  Conversely the print with Supercover inks bumps up on top of the shirt and is much more tactile.

Two cover overlay creates a third unique color

The Standard colors work well on light colored garments but are fairly transparent.  So say you were to print them on a heather gray t shirt. Since the shirt is a fairly light color, you will get bright vibrant colors. But since the ink is fairly transparent, you’ll still be able to see parts of the heather pattern through the print. If you print these inks straight onto a black or dark colored t shirts, they really won’t turn out well at all.  The advantage is that they are much cheaper inks.  They are good to have on hand for printing on light substrates or for printing on dark shirts with an underbase of First Down White.  An additional advantage to the transparency is that you can create a third color out of a two color print.  The included photo is that of a two color print using transparent waterbased ink to create a third color.  It is on a heather gray shirt, though I’m not sure how well you can actually see the shirt through the ink in the photo.

TIP: It seems a lot of the clientele of Permaset are teachers and crafters who may not have access to a full print shop set up.  It is good to note that to print with a white underbase, or to print a color over another color, you will need a flash dryer. Wet-on-wet multi color printing is doable with Permaset Aqua Standard inks, but will get muddy if the colors overlap.

Supercover ink acts more like plastisol, leaving a heavier deposit of ink on the garment. They are more expensive, but the advantage is that they are fantastic on dark colored garments. Since they cover so much better, you can cover up a print with another print. This can help with registering multi color jobs. You can make an overlap in the artwork, and the top color will cover the bottom color giving your a tight crisp edge, but won’t take as much time to register. Again, it is pretty tough to get full coverage on dark garments without a flash dryer. That isn’t to say that you can’t do some good looking prints. I like printing Supercover inks onto dark garments through 305 mesh and just hitting them once or twice to create a really worn soft vintage look. It works great with the right designs and makes a brand new shirt look like its been washed 300 times.