On Behalf Of Simon Leibowitz > Should I stick with the Lyson DYE ink philosophy and try their SG set ? Dye insk can be fun... but I have yet to gain anbsolute clarification from anyone over what exactly goes into the Lyson inks - my personal feeling is that the Lyson SG inks and Quads must be dyes - or substantially dyes - they print too well on the majority of glossy papers to be considered otherwise. However, their longevity statistics do seem quite good for dyes - but again, there are no published stats for these inks on different papers - which can themselves give a clue for an inks makeup.
> Or, are pigment inks the way to go ? Is anyone using the new Permajet > range? I used some inks from the 'original' supplier of the system once. It has it's strengths but one potential weakness is a relatively high dye content that (relatively) rapidly fades - particularly on some papers. This has the effect that the dyes fade leaving the image underneath tending to warm rather quickly. Depending on the image, this may be rather pleasant... or it may not. My experience here is limited though. > As I understand it, pigment inks can not be used on > gloss/semi-gloss papers [...] Essentially Yes. Even when you do find a paper that prints well with pigment inks, you will often also find that the inks reduce the gloss of the paper, so for one reason or another you may aswell print on matte papers, then spray or use a really nice sleeve to protect the print. Polyester Sleeves, Glass, and spray coatings will all increase the apparent dMax of a print... and should also improve the longevity compared to the unprotected print. > [...] but they do not suffer metamerism and have better longevity. Is this true ? NO. Pigments typically do tend to suffer metamerism. Pigments are 'rocks' in suspension and do get increased longevity as a result of their physical size. However, we now need to think of 'Pigments' and 'Dyes' as being two extreme ends of the same scale. In the terms of inkjet inks, 'Pigment' = longevity, but reduced gamut.... 'Dyes' means Bright Colours (high gamut) and low longevity. Inks can and are being made at varying points along this scale - dyes are being 'pigmented' to increase longevity but tends to reduce gamut. 'Pigments' are being ground into smaller particles, which in turn raises the gamut and ease of handling, but reduces the longevity. Take your pick! > Is it really possible to produce photographic quality inkjets that can be > sold on with confidence ? That would depend ;) What for you is 'confidence'? I know that Colour Galleries etc tend to be far less interested in longevity, for example, than monochrome galleries - which is perverse because the traditional colour print is well known to be less stable than the equivalent traditional monochrome print. You may like to refer to some of our Articles and other Support FAQs etc: http://www.mwords.co.uk/pages/supportArticles.htm of course, we can not and do not discuss every possible option... but I hope that our Support pages discuss both strengths and weaknesses of all the products that we sell... Best Regards, nij Nigel Rheam MWORDS Limited www.mwords.co.uk Digital Fine Art =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
