3rd Party dye ink fade Test...!

[The Hat]

Here are the Final results of my destruction ink tests that were started back in May 2016 https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/fade-test-on-i-s-inks.10844/

I never meant to give these sheets this length of exposure, and this is how they turned out, as one might expect.
This sheet was Laminated..
These sheets are Copy paper, Photo Matte paper and Premium Copy paper.
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Just to show that dye inks do last if they are displayed in a friendly or protected environment, here is an older thread.
This is the original sheet from a 2011 thread..

This is how it now looks after 7 years, and if you didn’t see the original you would think it didn’t fade at all, even the bottom one printed with pigment has fade just a little...

An old thread from Jun 2017
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/3rd-party-dye-ink-fade-test.11694/#post-98866

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Wow - very interesting - I must be doing something wrong - my color patch prints don't last that long during my tests - def. not since May 2016. What inks did you use for these prints - Canon inks ? Your tests confirm again that the paper type makes a big difference indeed how inks fade - fading is not just a characteristic of the ink alone.
If you want to know more how dye inks fade, here is a more scientific document from 2001, not up to date anymore in all aspects but it shows that ink fading has been investigated already for a long time.
https://www.image-engineering.de/content/library/diploma_thesis/barbara_vogt_inkjet_stability.pdf

 

[The Hat]

https://www.image-engineering.de/content/library/diploma_thesis/barbara_vogt_inkjet_stability.pdf

A very interesting article...
All my tests are done with I.S. inks and haven’t used OEM ink in years, and you can get the strangest results when you least expect it and 3rd party dye inks work very well in normal home conditions on Sihl glossy paper.

I will have my other test concluded next week and will post the results on a new thread as promised, here are the test photos I am referring too...

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/3rd-party-dye-ink-fade-test.11694/page-4#post-102656

 

[martin0reg]

It's a commonplace, which I really got to know while testing some inks and changing the paper to LH 180g
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/refilling-canon-with-oem-ink.10712/page-2#post-90875
(ISF just found that even the weight of this one paper brand may change fading results)

The tests on the balcony under real life UV and Ozone or under a full spectrum bulb certainly are not standardized - I made a very rough calculation of the equivalent "lux per hrs" of my test conditions (one post above the linked) - but all these tests are showing at least the same tendancy of fading... which we must admit can vary quite a lot depending on light and gas and other factors.
To me these are useful tests.
The conditions of light and gas do vary also in our homes...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

We are getting some trend, some tendency out of our tests - everybody is running the fading tests with quite different conditions, and that's good since it covers the widely varying conditions inkjet prints are exposed to. We are not getting any accurate number down to the decimals out of the tests - something like this ink is 15.7% better than another ink without going into the details how such result was acheived. And any other condition - light, ozone, humidity, paper etc would quickly change that number. A variation of one variable - different inks under otherwise the same conditions - or the same ink on different papers etc gives a ranking which of these combinations perform better than other combinations, and doing several of such tests can stabilize that ranking and allows some grouping like 'better' or 'much better' or 'poor' or 'useless' . Yes, I'm buying inks by their fading performance, but I'm not using those inks for all of my printouts - I just don't need that performance for lots of the prints and use other budget inks for that as much as I don't print all of the images on the most expensive photo paper. And there are other options like a gloss opt. overprint or pigment inks etc as needed but can complicate the subject of ink fading. Or even using a swellable paper ......giving the inks great performance but are not easily available anymore.

 

[Dean]

Apparently VO5 hairspray is effective in reducing the effects of UV on inkjet printed pages. It is supposed to help increase their resistance to fading and also help to waterproof water based inks. I haven't tried it myself but apparently it helps. Has anyone heard or know about this?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Hairspray - it may work - or not - I'm not so clear about that. Hairspray gets advertised for its easy handling, non-sticky touch, easy to brush out in the evening etc - that would be an indication for me that the adherance to the surface of a glossy paper is not that strong. And I rather would assume that the effect is more closing the microporous surface of the photo paper than filtering UV very much. Anyway - it may be worth a test ...I'm happy enough with an overprint with a gloss optimizer, as well dye ink prints to get an additional protection effect.