Fading away or is it..

[The Hat]

Here is just another one of these run of the mill fade things, this one was done quite accidently and I only discovered this test sheet in my hallway today.

It’s just been sitting there since the middle of May 2011 with no special precautions have been applied to it, in short it had been dumped and forgot about.

I can only find the original Jpeg on my computer which was never printed and it’s the top one of the three, the other two are on the sample sheet which has been exposed to natural daylight and a 25 watt CFL light at night.

So after three and a half years of exposure I don’t think it has done badly at all, one was done on a 3 colour printer and the other was on a 4 colour all I.S. dye inks..

 

[palombian]

This confirms my own random observations.

I am switching my photo printing more and more to ordinary cheapo (Canon) dye printers.
Results of a 4 colour printer are comparable with a 9 colour PRO9500 pigment.
Splitting of magenta and cyan over 3 nozzle rows makes 8 colours in reality.
And adding a gray tank makes them 9 colours !

Faster printing, cheaper ink available from many suppliers, and most people love the shining glossy prints (the LIDL Sihl paper is not bad at all, absorbs pigment very well too).

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Hard to tell without seeing the original printed version, but it looks like cyan may have faded a little. Nothing severe, however. Congratulations!

 

[Paul Verizzo]

@hat: how would you describe the environment; dim, indirect sunlight, what?

 

[The Hat]

@hat: how would you describe the environment; dim, indirect sunlight, what?

During the day it’s goes from dull to bright, indirect sun, full sun and back again, in fact many light sources from 3 different directions, so all of the above..

 

[Smile]

During the day it’s goes from dull to bright, indirect sun, full sun and back again, in fact many light sources from 3 different directions, so all of the above..

But this is not direct light sources right?

 

[peter D]

Was the test strip protected behind glass or open to the air?
I've had a print on Canon Pro Platinum (Gloss) done with IS inks using a Pixma Pro100 fade out badly in just two months when left uncovered but out of direct sunlight ie. in the shade all day but inside near floor level with lightly tinted windows at coastal location some 300 metres from a surf beach.
A framed glass covered print with the same ink set on Canon Pro Lustre paper hung higher up less than 2 metres away from the faded print for about the same length of time shows no sign of fading.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Dye inks are more prone to fading than pigment inks, and there are wide quality differences with dye inks from different refill suppliers in this respect , orignal inks form Canon or Epson perform quite well in comparison to most refill inks. Glass is a pretty good UV shield, but it does not matter whether it's direct sunlight or just indirect light, just the total dose matters. The Wilhelm Research Institute has done lots of such testing. And please be aware, ozone as well contributes to fading

 

[Smile]

Papers used for photos that are framed and showed on the walls should be printed with pigment or OEM dye inks.

 

[Harvey]

Was the test strip protected behind glass or open to the air?
I've had a print on Canon Pro Platinum (Gloss) done with IS inks using a Pixma Pro100 fade out badly in just two months when left uncovered but out of direct sunlight ie. in the shade all day but inside near floor level with lightly tinted windows at coastal location some 300 metres from a surf beach.
A framed glass covered print with the same ink set on Canon Pro Lustre paper hung higher up less than 2 metres away from the faded print for about the same length of time shows no sign of fading.

That fast fading is common to IS inks, I contacted one IS ink seller and he was elusive about the fading problem. I will stay away from IS ink from now on. I switched to Hobbicolors and the problem that I was getting were eliminated. Big hoorray to Hobbicolors.