short answer: i mix ink.
long rambling explaination: i make color blends for industrial printing presses. our company specializes in ultra violet curing ink (uv ink) but we also carry convential ink (also called rotary and a bunch of other shit) that cures by air and absorbtion. see, we have a bunch of base colors: yellow, warm red, rubine red, rhodamine red, purple, violet, reflex blue, process blue, green, black, opaque white and transparent white (also called tint base) that we use to make any fucking color you can think of or find. theres this company that makes a book with 9 bazillion colors in it called the Pantone Matching System that is the industry standard for colors. the PMS colors all have numbers (199 red, 288 blue, 430 grey etc), not that 'arabian breeze' and 'sea foam kiss' bullshit like paint colors. our customers order the colors they want and we make them. we already have formulas for most of the PMS colors, made in the lab at our corporate office in Richmond, VA. some of our customers only order the Process base colors: yellow, cyan, magenta, and black (some of you may recognize these from your color printer) which you can use to replicate most colors pretty well and at a lower cost than ordering the PMS colors separately (i think this is a special kind of press, i dont really know that side of it, just the ink). sometimes people want a special/custom color that isnt in the Pantone book and we have to match it for them. we have different series' or ink for printing onto different things: paper, coated paper, plastics, labels etc. also, this ink isnt liquid. its like a gel or a goo, i dont really know how to explain it but it has a body to it. some of it is so thick that it takes some real fuckin muscle to dig that shit out of the tubs it comes in. so we mix the ink, pour it into 5.5lb tubs (the heat/friction of mixing makes it more liquidy) slap a label on that bitch and throw it in a box with 7 of its bestest friends. i also tape the boxes. i tape lots of boxes. and blah blah a bunch of other mundane tasks that i wont bother you with or remind myself of. so there you go, probably more than you wanted to know.
