Inks

A consortium of researchers from four European countries is developing a way to tattoo microbes on the exterior of buildings. These "living tattoos" will be able to suck carbon out of the air, protect the buildings, and even make them glow.

Imagine having a picture on your wall that completely changes when the room gets too warm. Engineers at MIT have created a new printing technology called Thermochromorph to make full-color images that switch in response to temperature.

A new light-activated ink can change color on demand. It’s made up of colored microbeads that rise in response to different wavelengths of light to change a surface color, which could be useful for new displays or active camouflage systems.

A group of Polish entrepreneurs claim to have developed a pen that writes in almost any color, in the form of the Artera.

​For some people, one of the more challenging aspects of painting involves mixing off-the-shelf paint colors together in order to get the exact shades that they want. If you're such a person, then Picolor may be for you.

Living Ink adds a "time-lapse" element to artwork by bringing print to life when exposed to sunlight. Once applied to paper, the ink takes one or more days to show up, and needs to be put in a portable greenhouse to "grow" the ink.

A designer has created a rechargeable pen that can use any staining material as ink. Jessica Chan wanted to offer a non-disposable, environmentally-friendly option to people who like handwriting, drawing, etc. The pen is modular, easy to clean and uses a simple twist refill system.

Tag on That is a device that prints custom text or images on almost any surface.

The Sharpie Liquid Pencil writes like a pen but erases like a pencil.

Low-cost electronics printed on everything from plastic to fabric are possible thanks to the development of conductive silver ink developed by Xerox scientists.