A Fading Test of Inkjet Papers

Not just inks have a significant impact onto the fading performance but the paper in such test as well; I started a
fading test with a range of inkjet papers and measured as well the black level at the start of this test, it's the
L- luminance value of the Lab value of the black spot on the target test sheet, tested with the Epson 106 ink in this test, for all papers.

3.27___ Sihl 0769 Quickdry - the former Adli Sihl paper
4.66 ___Glossy 240---a PE/RC paper by AC Concept via Ebay
4.51___ Canon PT 101
4.76___HP Premium Plus Photo Paper-glossy - the only glossy paper w/o optical brighteners in the test
3.63___Tecco Baryta BT270
7.72___Mediajet PhotoArt White Baryta 310g
9.83___Hahnemühle Photo Gloss Baryta 320g
4.34___Truecolor metallic by Print4Life-Ebay
9.70___FineArt Bright Velvet by farbenwerk - a webshop for inks and papers

This quick test already shows quite a wide variance between the papers, and not even all Baryta papers are alike, the measured differences are visible in direct comparison, a good black level gives a visible improvement of the contrast impression and more details in the darker image areas.

I'm doing the above test actually with 2 different inks - the Epson 106 ink as a reference and another 3rd party ink - 'Tintenliebe' of unkown origin, it's already visible now after a few days that this a fast fading ink without measuring anything at this time. I got this ink recently - see my posting here

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/too-many-inks.15378/post-134253

The Tintenliebe ink fades that fast that I checked and scanned the patch sheet already after 5 days and get these numbers for the deltaE differences, I have not seen such high numbers for an ink since a long time, this in direct comparison with the results for the Epson 106 inks.
I don't don't know the origin of the Tintenliebe ink, the tintenliebe.de website does not exist anymore.
This is a record ink in a particular sense, this ink fades pretty much faster than the inks tested recently.

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-bottled-dye-inks.15247/post-134247

The table below shows as well that the fading performance of the same ink varies with the paper type used.

Ink stained Fingers said:

This is a record ink in a particular sense, this ink fades pretty much faster than the inks tested recently.

Click to expand...

Well that ink certainly failed Spectacularly, it’s just as well it’s not still in business, it’s so good at disappearing, they should have joined the Magic Circle…

You learn something new every day..

The Hat said:

Well that ink certainly failed Spectacularly

Click to expand...

The performance is indeed spectacularly - there are more measuements I typically do not show - e.g. the deltaE which has the largest single value - 68 for this ink - that's about half across the RGB color space - or from black to a light gray, and the average of the largest 10% values is still 51 indicating a complete disparity between different colors - cyan is pretty much gone.
I think such ink could be of interest for some artists trying to create and sell perishable art - printed posters and alike - a print will look different tomorrow .

The label on the 100ml bottle shows another mark - of a go-in webshop



The Tintenliebe.de webshop does not exist anymore.

A go-in webshop exists and sells refill inks, CISS, cartridges etc, but not Tintenliebe inks at this time (or not anymore).

https://go-in-webshop.de/Druckertinte.html

The 100ml bottles appear to be identical with those I got, the labelling is different, and the labels do not specifically state which printer the inks are for.

Ink stained Fingers said:

there are more measuements I typically do not show... I think such ink could be of interest for some artists trying to create and sell perishable art - printed posters and alike - a print will look different tomorrow cyan is pretty much gone.

Click to expand...

Who would have taught… Near Invisible Ink.. The good bit I suppose is you could reuse the same sheets again and again…

I wonder if you could class this ink as reusable… it would be great for nozzle checks..

I could assume that vanishing ink may be of interest for a secret service..............

I gave the patch sheets another 2 days of sun, to make it a full week of exposure which makes it easier to compare the results with previous tests, done on a weekly schedule.


The Tintenliebe ink on the Tecco Baryta paper excels with the highest fading speed of a deltaE of 31,56; the HP Premium Plus Photo paper gives the best protection against fading with a deltaE of just 2,68, significantly better than the Canon PT101 as another OEM paper in this test. This table shows the tremendous spread you can get with various different ink/paper combinations - OEM and 3rd party. The Truecolor metallic performs as well very good, 3rd party papers can compete here with OEM papers.
The Sihl paper does not fair that well in this test, but could this be a purchasing decision when such info is not available at all ? The Sihl paper rates best with the lowest black level - see table at the beginning of this thread, the gamut of the Sihl paper has a gamut size in the upper range and is about the lowest priced PE/RC paper in Germany, cast coated papers are out of consideration here.

I found the ink which will make all my testing much simpler - no separate inks anymore for Canon or Epson or Brother - I just use this refill ink which is claimed to be usable with all HP Canon Epson Lexmark Dell Brother printers

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223168395776?_trkparms=ispr=1&hash=item33f5df7a00:g:uygAAOSwme1br8JR&amdata=enc:AQAGAAABALhZbguWnzrYh/YwZo8HPjxNjzrq7YugtUZ33u+0Nyqcc3VWwYFICB3wp8vSGTJyEwcXjW1XOKw21uCpwDWqQXeu+cbqsiZgywtAMoHWZf+yq9/N0qE3Suet/qEiGsaBNGZNZAmkzYghZvu1AdrmBZc7bjdtUFtf7UuAztael3q89UPNj1pFku0rQnDcU0jFbBRua7HI6BCsoIP7t2+cmC3JNjSlNN8lhPRlXqJPho0XpoQuPWPn6MUq8Kt2m35wzBTWDVMjcf6xwhs/Z+YK9juYgQfSdusL2B07X33wPXTkloI9VHLhEJ5T3SAcmGTgBvAbwGlAv5V8HLOfEYVP6CY=|tkp:BFBMtJO31ohg

I think I'll switch to that ink once I have used up my current collection of ink bottles.......................