More on Learning about Printing Ink

So I learned a little bit more about the Printing Process yesterday and there's this department that I'm slowly learning to get more interested in aside from the Creatives section.  It's called the Product Development Department where Quality Assurance and Research&Development are being done.  How do they do it?  Well, minus all the technicalities of the process, they basically test all the materials that are going to be used in a project.  Simply put, THEY GET TO MIX COLORED INK!  Woooo!  How fun!  I told the AVP-Technical Services that I wanted to see how it's being done once they do something.  HAHA.  

So I was telling him, "So when you do the LSD (an LSD is an abbreviation for Light Standard Dark.  It's a proof sample of what the design looks like when it gets printed in different gradient variations of lightness or darkness. There is a certain calibration that they are going for depending on the client's requirements)  it's like you're mixing paint and water to get the right shade? "  

And he goes, "Yes, if the requirement is water-based and if the substrate (the paper) is what matches the kind of ink being used.  If the substrate is of different material then we don't use water but we use a chemical solvent to mix the ink so it calibrates to the right kind of viscosity (WOW. NEW WORD. So it means Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. As per Wikipedia)

Being technical-minded in this manner is so wonderful!  Because to me it doesn't sound too technical at all.  It sounds like ART!  HAHA.  In the IT industry, technical really sounds like technical because it gets all geeky and it just sounds like Greek.  It's something I cannot naturally grasp.  But being in this industry and learning all the basics makes me feel like I'm a natural in understanding how the business runs from the core.  

There are tons of documented procedures from the 3 volumes of Manuals that are still sitting here on my desk.  Im trying to form my own process map in my head so that I don't get lost reading through all the details.  But at the end of it all, I am still very much grateful.