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Re: Permanence of dye-sub prints
Sil Horwitz wrote:
>
> At 2000/03/08 11:48 PM +0000, Andy Darlow wrote:
> >Why aren't these very permanent? The toners used in color printers are
> >wuite lightfast and the papers are usually acid-free.
>
> No toners or inks used in inkjets are totally lightfast. Even the best have
> lives measured in 5 years or so. To get permanence in computer printers you
> need dye-sub, or the dye-sub mode in the ALPS printers, and even then the
> litefastness is perhaps 20 yrs or so.
This is contrary to my personal experience with dye-sub prints. I got
rid of my dye-sub printer after finding to my horror that the prints
were fading and color-shifting markedly within just a few months in
indirect daylight. It was the cyan dye that faded the most, leaving the
prints mostly yellow and magenta. Maybe it was the particular printer
brand and others use better dyes, but I would recommend doing your own
lightfastness tests on a sample print before buying a dye-sub printer if
your hope is color permanence. I'll stick with gum myself.
Katharine Thayer