Pigment

the colour that is in dyes. the pigment is what gets into or onto the material that changes its colour.

Often pigments used to colour textiles or food are called dyestuffs, pigments used to write inks and pigments used for painting paints or just pigments. Dyestuffs tend to be solids that are soaked in water to extract them, and then fibres are added which soak up the water soluble dye. A mordant is added as a setting agent to make the dye stick to the fibre. Paints tend to require more opacity than dyes. The same ingredient from the dyestuff may be used, but fine sawdust or other filler agents (eg rag scrapings) are added to give the dye bulk. This pigment is intended to mostly sit on the surface of the object, not soak through it. Extra ingredients are availible as paints eg ground lapis lazuli, that do not have water soluble colour, they only need to be ground fine enough to be able to be picked upwith a paintbrush.