Patent attributes
The present invention relates to [1] a water-based ink containing water-insoluble polymer particles (A), an organic solvent (B) and water, in which a polymer constituting the water-insoluble polymer particles (A) is in the form of a crosslinked polymer; the organic solvent (B) contains a polyhydric alcohol ether; and a rate of change in viscosity of the organic solvent (B) as calculated according to the formula (1) is not more than 140%, and [2] a printing method of printing characters or images on a printing medium using the water-based ink described in the above [1], in which a water absorption of the printing medium per a unit surface area thereof as measured by contacting the printing medium with pure water for 100 milliseconds is not less than 0 g/m