Patent ID: 8153195

Claim:
A method for printing an image on a surface of a substrate, the method comprising the steps of: applying a primer composition onto at least a portion of the surface of the substrate to conform to the image to be printed, wherein the primer composition comprises a first part comprising a monofunctional alkyl acrylate monomer having a surface tension in the range of 23 to 31 dynes/cm, in which the alkyl group has at least 8 carbon atoms; a second part comprising a photoinitiator; and a curable third part comprising any of an oligomer, an acrylate monomer, or a mixture thereof, wherein at least a portion of the third part of the primer composition is multifunctional, and wherein the acrylate monomer is selected from the group consisting of alkoxylated diacrylates, alkoxylated triacrylates, amino acrylates, monofunctional acrylate monomers, and multifunctional acrylate monomers; curing the applied primer composition; and printing a UV curable ink jet ink on top of the surface of the cured primer composition; wherein the first part of the primer composition is included in an amount that is selectably adjusted to produce a desired dot size of the printed UV curable ink jet ink.