Investigating the Possibility of Obtaining Various Color Spectra by Combination of Nano and Micro Pigments in CMYK System

In this research ceramic nano pigments including CoAl2O4 (cyan), Au (magenta), (Ti,Cr,Sb)O2 (yellow) and CoFe2O4 (black) which were applied by ink-jet printers for decoration of ceramic tiles, were combined by the Colors software. The target was to examine the possibility of obtaining different colors spectra using CMYK system. For comparison, equivalent micro pigments namely CoAl2O4, Cd(S,Se):ZrSiO4, (Ti,Cr,Sb)O2 and CoFe2O4 were also examined. The compositions of the magenta micro and nano pigments used in this research were totally different. The red micro pigment was a cadmium sulfide pigment, while the nano one was mainly constituted of gold nano particles. It was observed that using the present nano pigments, it was possible to cover the fourth quarter close to a+ in CIELAB system. It also was revealed that reaching the colors of gray, brown and beige shades was possible by both nano and micro sets of pigments, while making orange and yellow colors was difficult.