Epson 106 vs. 114 ink fading performance

[stratman]

faded by a value of 19

What is the value comparing that is faded by 19?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The '19' is petty much an arbitrary value for the luminance change over the mentioned time, I do this

- I place a small patch sheet - with CMYK patches into the sun and I keep another one in the dark

- the sun , the weather is doing the fading - the ozone, UV , nitrogen oxides and all that

- I scan both patches after a week or two or ....

- I display the histogram (luminance) of the patches with PaintShop Pro 9 , but newer versions will do as well

There are 3 peaks - one for the black patch - one for cyan and one for the white paper at the right side.

The cursor is located at the peak of the black patch with a display of some variables - the count of pixels of the scan which have the luminance value of 22 - along the x-axis - from 0 - 255 - some pixels are slightly lighter which I don't count - I just look at the luminance value of the resp. peak.

I do the same with the ref. patch sheet kept in the dark - and I may get a black luminance of 20 , this tells me that the peak luminance shifted from 20 to 22 - a delta of 2

I do the same for the other 3 colors C M Y and get as well a delta number for these three colors , and I add them all up - 19 in my last posting above. The luminance of the colors patches shifts from week to week - the patches are getting lighter ; and please be aware that I'm not measuring any color saturation shifts this way to avoid any complexity; this type of test could be done effectively by everybody - you don't need any calibrated instrument, the reference is the dark copy, and you need a histogram tool.

I got a luminance shift of 19 in 4 weeks with the 106 inks here, and the same number 19 within 3 weeks with the 114 inks. These are changes not visible yet but measurable, this let me assume that the 114 ink has a slightly weaker fading performance than the 106 inks under otherwise the same conditions. This test does not cover the impact of different papers which is rather strong actually - you could get a better result with the 114 inks on paper A than with the 106 inks on paper type B - but that's changing 2 variables at the same time - with the risk of confusion - and the possibility to draw up fancy 3D diagrams and such - but that's not my business currently.

 

[stratman]

@Ink stained Fingers

Thank you for the excellent explanation.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm describing above in posting #12 how I do the luminance change tracking to compare the fading of inks, there is a detail which needs some attention when you do it a similar way. I'm using a scanner to scan the patch sheets every week or so, I'm using an Epson 3490 scanner, pretty old but this does not matter and it does not need any calibration or profiling since I'm scanning both the test patches at the same time together with the ref. print kept in the dark.
The scanner settings need to be the same for all scanning activity, scanner software frequently gives you an option for an easy mode or a detailed mode to access scan parameters - deactivate all functions like descreening, color adjustments/enhancements etc and look to the histogram like this one which I get with a pre-scan

the input luminance range is truncated to a range of 15 to 244 and mapped to a range of 10 - 245 for the output, with a gamma of 1.02, this an estimate by the scan software, and this may vary with the next pre-scan if something has changed - colors - lightness.

This introduces an error into the readings you do the next step - reading the peaks of the colors as described above. It is necessary that you use the same scanner settings every time - I can save these settings as a preset for the next scan. I'm using these values

You can use other values - e.g. truncating the paper white away - just use the same settings for all scan steps.
There is a wide range of scanners out there with detailed or not so detailed and supportive software, if your standard driver does not work then try Vuescan which typically gives you many more options than your OEM software.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I kept a fading test with the 106 vs. 114 inks - ET7750 vs. ET8550 (European nomenclature) going for another week, the 114 ink is slightly weaker than the 106 ink - not by much - in the range of 10% when you measure the time until a particular level of luminance change is reached. Just look for the pricing of these inks in your country and choose the 106 inks if you can - and just use the 114 gray since this is not a 106 ink.

- Inks with different colors fade with different speed - the photo black - both 106 and 114 - are very stable - much more than any other color

- cyan is the weakest ink - in all cases - with these and many other inks - much weaker than the black

- magenta is more stable - generally with all dye inks tested over a longer time

- yellow stays even better overall - so the actual fading of an image very much depends on the color composition as well, not just the ink itself, and the differences in fading speed create a color shift over time - e.g. the color loss of cyan - the print is typically reddening.

I tested these inks on two different papers - two RC - resin coated PE papers - the HP Premium Plus Photo paper and and a no-name PE paper from Ebay - this one is weaker and let the dye inks fade faster than on the HP paper - by about 30% - it is a user decision whether he accepts this for a lower price - about half of the HP paper price. The performance difference to cast-coated cc-papers is even bigger, those are much cheaper, a separate test is currently running.

A test of the ET-8550 has been published by a member of the German druckerchannel forum

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65121465

 

[The Hat]

Inks with different colors fade with different speed

The one big advantage you have with all this ink testing is , you can choose the best preforming inks you like to make up your own longer lasting dye ink set, and because you use a Epson printer you’re not limited to their inks but also HP and Canon..

P.S. and you can do your own profiling..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Another test with the Epson 106 and 114 inks confirm the previous findings above that the 106 inks have a better fading performance than the 114 inks - by about 10 - 15% - but numbers can vary as well on different papers.

 

[The Hat]

Over the years any of the photos stick to my wall show as much as 40% fade all over, but the one colour that doesn’t fade, is the black, it just turns to a chocolate brown, I have some text notices that were printed with just the C,Y,M and they have all but disappeared..

I am still using the FotoRite BK black from Cityink Express bought in 2008.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Yes, inks fade with different speed, and black is quite stable overall. And it is changing the color in most cases, just look at this image from an older test



That's the same ink on different papers - chocolate brown is available as well and quite typical.

The HP Premium Plus Photo Paper is an exception - it lets black inks fade into gray, not a brown of any shade. There must be some special agent in the coating.

 

[gabrielgg]

Does anyone know if the t555 and T114 are the same ink?