Patent ID: 7384991

Claim:
An aqueous ink comprising a dispersion in which a colorant is encapsulated with a polymer to make it dispersible in water, wherein the polymer has aromatic rings in an amount of from 20% by weight to 70% by weight based on the weight of the polymer, and further, the ink contains a compound represented by the following formula: wherein R represents a bivalent organic group, PO represents a propyleneoxy group, EO represents an ethyleneoxy group, x, y, a and b are each the number of repeating units, x represents a number of 1 to 200, y represents a positive number of up to 50 but excluding 1, a represents a number of 1 to 30, and b represents a number of 0 to 20, wherein the compound represented by the formula has a mol % ratio of EO and Si (EO/Si) of from 0.8 to 1.5.