Basic Flowchart

Next up in this year's survey were UV inks, which have found their way onto 48 percent of respondents' presses. Solvent inks weren't far behind with 46 percent usage reported. Finally, soy-based inks netted a 9 percent usage level.

Water-based may have achieved the lion's share of collective usage, but did not come up as the dominant type used with every print process or every package or label end use. In fact, the survey shows that each ink type still dominates a specific niche.