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Re: Xerox transfer et al
> > Check with the Wilhelm Web page cited in a previous message. He has done
> > extensive testing on all these materials.
Frankly, nowadays I don't know how to read/interprete Wilhelm anymore. His
research is supposed to be an independent research, but if you go to his Web
site now, on the front page there is an article by one of his workers, and
the person is also a "co-owner of a fine-art printing and publishing
company." The article is about the "test???" of a particular ink used by this
printing company. When you get into a situation like this, it is hard to read
much useful information and often time marketing is subtly included.
If you download and read the article, you'll know what I mean. It is quite
typical of this type of articles. You have some information which *sound*
like objective tests, but you also have lots of personal opinions like
superior printing characteristics, the most beautiful prints, etc. etc. and
at the end there is a typical disclaimer saying that you cannot generalize,
there are other parameters to consider, blah blah blah.
So far it sounds to me that the color printing technology (as far as
permanance is concerned) has improved, but not too much (at least not as much
as they sound). The marketing director and lawyers have improved on how they
can publisize the improvement though.
An example would be an improvement from 1 month to 5 months is not a big
deal, but it is 5x improvement, or 500% improvement.
Years ago, it is ok to put on the lable of a bottle to say that it contains
100% orange juice but the content is not 100% orange juice. It simply says
that the bottle does contain "100% orange juice" although the "100% orange
juice" can already be diluted. Now that type of practice is illegal. I
suspect the same thing with "pigmented ink." It might contain just some
pigments to slightly improve the characteristic or it might contain pigment
that is not permanance, but it is true that it is "pigmented."
They say that once you notice this type of things (or once you bring them out
from the subconscious mind to the concscious mind), it is easy to detect
them. You can see the same vagueness and careful use of words and not wanting
to be specific in almost all articles that describe improvement of inks.
Check it the next time you read an article on ink improvement!
Dave Soemarko
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