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Author Topic: Archival Properties of Third Party Papers  (Read 1845 times)

John R Smith

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Archival Properties of Third Party Papers
« on: June 04, 2007, 09:11:34 am »

Folks

we see a lot of figures bandied about for the fade properties of different printers from the Wilhelm lab, but these (naturally enough) are for the printer inkset on the manufacturer's own paper. Are there any figures for light-fade for the Epson K3 inkset on third-party papers, as for example Ilford Smooth Pearl, which seems popular with the Epsons? Or indeed the new range of glossy fibre base papers, such as Crane Museo Silver Rag?

Or is it all just a case of pot luck and hope for the best?

John
« Last Edit: June 04, 2007, 09:13:48 am by John R Smith »
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Ernst Dinkla

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Archival Properties of Third Party Papers
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2007, 02:47:38 pm »

Quote
Folks

we see a lot of figures bandied about for the fade properties of different printers from the Wilhelm lab, but these (naturally enough) are for the printer inkset on the manufacturer's own paper. Are there any figures for light-fade for the Epson K3 inkset on third-party papers, as for example Ilford Smooth Pearl, which seems popular with the Epsons? Or indeed the new range of glossy fibre base papers, such as Crane Museo Silver Rag?

Or is it all just a case of pot luck and hope for the best?

John
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First of all with pigment inks the ink - paper coating combinations show less dramatic differences in fade properties than with dye ink and paper coatings. If the paper is meant to be archival of course, a paper that yellows on its own will not make a good combination with any ink.

There are third party paper manufacturers that did test or had the paper tested with some ink brands. For example Intellicoat (Magiclee). Ilford used to have one of the best fade test labs in the world, located in Switzerland so you should try to find some manufacturer's numbers for the inks you use.

Nobody will keep you from testing your ink/paper combinations yourself. Test it against a known combination at the same conditions. Half of both prints hidden in a cupboard,  the other half behind window glass but free from the glass itself. Not a scientific test but it will separate the good ones from the bad ones quite fast.

Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]
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John R Smith

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Archival Properties of Third Party Papers
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2007, 03:06:46 am »

Thank you, Ernst.

Yes, I have in fact been running my own window fade tests since I started printing, but of course if the paper is any good at all it can take several months for problems to show up. For what it is worth, I can tell you that the Hewlett Packard Vivera dye inks are amazingly good on HP Premium Plus paper - and pretty awful on any other paper  Let's put it another way - is there any reason to suppose, given the experience of those here, that the Ilford Smooth Pearl will be any less archival than Epson's own Premium Luster?

John
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