On Sunday, Feb 1, 2004, at 07:19 America/New_York, Nick Clark wrote:
What printer/inks/paper would you suggest for archival printing. That's always been my concern about selling inkjet prints - that they'd fade in a relatively short time. I have an Epson 1290 at present.
Wilhelm Imaging Research <http://www.wilhelm-research.com> has some data on image permanence for certain ink sets. Their most recent report is for the Epson Ultrachrome inks published in November 1993:
http://www.wilhelm-research.com/pdf/WIR_Ep9600_2003_11_01.pdf
I think it's generally agreed that among the Epson photo inks, the most archival of the Epson inks is the Epson archival pigment ink set used in the 2000P, 5500, 10000 etc., followed by the UltraChrome inks used in the 2100/2200, 7600, 9600. The dye-based inks used in the 1290, 1280 etc. are said to have the largest gamut but least archival. I think Epson claims up to 25 years for their dye-based inks on certain papers under certain display conditions. You might get better results from 3rd-party inks and/or papers although I'm told that Epson inks and papers are designed to work well together.
Bear in mind that when they talk about the number of years before noticeable fading, it's usually under display conditions behind glass. If you store them in dark storage they will probably last longer. If there's ozone pollution the prints will fade more rapidly.
--jc
