On Behalf Of Laurence Winram > At the moment I use Epson inks which look good but I have > noticed that several prints I produced less than a year ago > have seriously discoloured. They were produced using black > ink alone on a glossy Epson paper and have now gone a very > chocolate sepia. A friend refered to this as bronzing. The > prints have been kept in a very shaded area.
To my mind, this is fading. If the prints are unframed, it is possibly due to ozone / gas fading rather than light alone. Dyes can fade even in the dark due to chemical interactions with gas... like air-con, or chemical vapours from plastics etc. > This is not very reassuring. Is this a one off or is Epson > prone to this? Are Lyson inks any longer lasting? I > understand dyes are much longer lasting but are they not much > harder to profile and work with, bearing in mind I'm still a novice. I think you must mean pigment here. Any ink can fade. Pigments tend to mean 'longer-lasting prints' - but in truth we should now consider the following: Pigment = 'little coloured rocks in suspension' = long lasting prints with less colour gamut Dye = 'Colourant in solution' = shorter life prints with greater colour gamut ...to be two ends of a scale. E.g. Epson Ultrachrome inks have brighter colours but less longevity than Epson's previous pigment inks (e.g. 2000P printer and 7500 etc), but still longer longevity but less colour gamut than their dye inks. There is more oin these kind of issues here: http://www.mwords.co.uk/pages/supportArticles.htm I hope this is of interest, Nij Nigel Rheam www.mwords.co.uk Digital Fine Art =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
