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Author Topic: Dye ink and pigment ink printers  (Read 845 times)

Deardorff

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Dye ink and pigment ink printers
« on: April 14, 2015, 01:21:45 pm »

In reading as well as looking at prints coming from friends printers I see both dye inksets and pigment inksets.
The printers with 8 and more inks may do a finer job but most can't tell any difference.

The dye inks are not supposed to last as long - but isn't 80-100 years fine for most uses?

The dye ink prints I have seen in direct comparison to the pigment prints of the same image often look 'better' to me when viewed side by side. Separately either are fine.

Is there really that much difference in print life expected to make pigment printers a 'no brainer' for so many?
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Some Guy

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Re: Dye ink and pigment ink printers
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2015, 01:47:54 pm »

Dye inks are getting much better.  More water-fast too.

I have a little Epson Charm portable and I thought the inks in it were pigment as Epson marketing posts about the prints off it lasting 125 years.  Turns out it is dye ink made on their paper since the ink cart and paper are bundled.  Could be a combination of the paper and ink as to the longevity.

Problem I see is with some 3rd party dye inks that they fade out in a few days in the sun.  The Charm, I left a print out in sunlight for 2 weeks and was surprised it still looked good.  Just a simple black card on one half and uncovered on the other half to see the fade - if any.

Dye seems to work better for metallic papers to let them shine through rather than get covered with pigment, and why some of my printers have dye ink in them (3rd party) too.  But they fade so they will go back to pigment until I find a dye that lasts longer for the price.  I don't care if it fades in 10 years, but less than a week in sun is just awful.  Seems some local photographer's storefronts show a lot of faded prints after a few months being in them too.  Cheap processing, papers, or inks.

SG
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Dye ink and pigment ink printers
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2015, 01:49:12 pm »

This can only be answered by each person based on the type of work they do, and perhaps none of us really know if any of our images will have any value to anyone in the distant future.  But for the past 40 years I have seen many people pay large sums of money to get old photographs restored, and over the past 10 years or so the desire to fix color fading issues has become more common.

Fading is not the number one concern when evaluating print longevity, as physical damage is far more likely to be the end of a print before it seriously fades, but if the image has value and is cared for then it seems prudent to make sure what you do now doesn’t limit the ability of the image to last into the future if you feel there is a possibility someone will still value it.

Interestingly enough, I think portrait and people photographers should have the most concern for this, as those are the images which probably have the greatest likelihood of maintaining some value to future generations, yet many of them seem content with processes such as c prints or dye based prints.
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