Herein we present the development and printability of three different categories of nanostructured water-based inks and namely, conductive, fluorescent and simultaneously conductive and fluorescent inks. These specific products are very promising materials for advanced applications in the field of anti-counterfeiting applications, printed electronics and smart packaging. The preparation of conductive materials was based on functionalized graphene derivatives and hybrids with strong hydrophilic character that combine high dispersibility in water and remarkable electrical conductivity affording highly conductive inks. The fluorescent inks were prepared by dispersing carbon dots (C dots) in water based resins. In the third case, conductive reduced graphene oxide was effectively decorated with fluorescent C dots in order to induce more security features to the derived inks. The fluorescent C dots were synthesized using hydrothermal heating or microwave-assisted pyrolysis; a low-cost, facile and efficient one-pot method. In each case, a standard commercial resin system for gravure printing has been used for the preparation of water-based inks. All inks were studied in a gravure printability tester for various substrates (e.g. commercially available special or common coated and uncoated papers) giving promising printability properties. Also, the luminescence intensities of the printed matters were directly proportional to the thickness of ink layer.