A colorless ink jet ink composition is provided for printers for printing on both porous and hybrid glossy or semi-glossy media. The ink composition comprises a water soluble polymer or dispersed latex. The ink formulation provides substantially air fast, stain resistant, and light fastness to the printed image. Further, the ink formulation evidences improved overall image quality.

Cyclic bisamides may be used to formulate inks for jet ink printing. The cyclic bisamide may be prepared from a cyclic diamine and acylic monocarboxylic acids. Conversely, the cyclic bisamide may be prepared from a cyclic diacid and acylic monoamines. The performance properties of the product may be enhanced by adding some additional difunctional reactant(s), e.g., diacid or diamine. A blend of bisamides may provide better performance properties than either of the component bisamides alone, where the blend includes at least one cyclic bisamide. The bisamides, in combination with an image-forming material, and optionally in combination with other materials, is taken to a molten form and then applied to a substrate to provide a printed substrate.

A method for reducing rub-off from a substrate having a front side and a back side with at least one side bearing a toner or a printed image by depositing a substantially clear phase change composition on the image bearing side of the substrate as a plurality of dots, with the plurality of dots cumulatively covering an area of the image bearing side sufficient to reduce rub-off from the image bearing side. The dots may also be applied only to the images rather than both the image-bearing and non-image-bearing surfaces of the substrate and may be used on both the front side and the back side if both bear images.

A method for reducing rub-off from a substrate, such as paper, having a front side and a back side with a toner image on at least one side of the substrate by depositing at least one phase change composition on at least one image bearing side of the substrate as a plurality of dots, with the plurality of dots cumulatively covering an area of the image bearing side sufficient to reduce rub-off from the image bearing side, the dots being characterized by being one of colored dots, a combination of colored dots or a combination of colored and clear dots. The dots may also be applied only to the images rather than both the image-bearing and non-image-bearing surfaces of the substrate.

This invention features a hot melt ink composition. The composition includes a vehicle; a pigment having a modifying group on a surface of the pigment; and a polymeric dispersant including a group which associates with the modified surface and a backbone which is miscible with the vehicle.