This invention pertains to an aqueous inkjet ink with a certain chelator additive, inkjet ink sets based on this aqueous inkjet ink, and to a method of printing with these inks and ink sets, whereby optical density (OD) of a printed image is increased. The chelator additive is particularly advantageous for increasing the OD of inks with a self-dispersing pigment colorant, and particularly the combination of such colorant with a multivalent cation additive.