A reverse microemulsion method was applied to prepare ceramic inks for formation by jet-printing. Different reverse microemulsion systems were studied and optimized in order to obtain high concentration ceramic inks, and an AEO(9)/alcohol/alkane/water system was chosen for preparing these ceramic inks as a result of its excellent water-dissolving characteristics. In this paper, different kinds and amounts of alcohol as a co-emulsifier and n-octane as oil, respectively were used to systematically investigate their effects on the microemulsion region in the quasi-ternary phase diagram of the system studied. These were mixed with water to form reverse microemulsion after vigorous stirring. The microemulsion region was determined and the conditions for maximum water-dissolving were given. Additionally, the effect of temperature on the reverse microemulsion region was studied. It was shown that the AEO(9)/n-butanol/n-octane/water reverse microemulsion system exhibited excellent behavior in enhancing the amount of water-dissolving and the best composition for maximum water content was AEO(9):n-butanol:n-octane = 25.7%:16.8%:57.7% in mass. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.