Please Help-Longevity of Ink Jet Photos

[maple]

Hi Prue,

Thanks for your input.   I realize that they must be stored correctly.  I intend to keep all of my photos in albums or special storage boxes.

I bought an Epson printer, but not the one that I mentioned earlier.  A few months ago I bought the Epson Artisan 800.  What surprised me was that the scanner wasn't any better, and possibly not as good, as the one on my Epson RX600.  I am glad that I did not buy the Epson RX580.  The scanning capabilities on that machine were inferior to the RX600.   My old RX600 was still running very well when I gave it away.

I would like to keep scanner, etc separate, but my home office just isn't big enough for all of those different machines.

[Aberdeen Archives]

When manufacturers say that things will last for so many years, it always make me laugh - is it suddenly going to disintegrate when it reaches a certain age?

It's mainly down to storage.  If you're going to have photographs on display, no matter what material they have been printed with or on, they are going to fade.  If you keep them according to archival standards (for photographs there are a whole host, such as ISO 14523:1999, BS 5687 (ISO 3897), ISO 5466, ISO 6051, ISO 18902, ISO 18918, BS ISO 10214, BS 5699: 1979) then they will last longer.

Digital preservation is a whole different matter - who knows if jpeg or tiff will still be a useable format in 50 years?!

The main thing is to store them properly and not worry about them too much.  Keep an eye on ones kept in storage to make sure no insects or mould are present, but more importantly enjoy them!  After all, what is the point in keeping something unless it's going to be looked at or used?

[Darlingtonian]

That makes perfect and understandable sense Aberdeen Archives..... will have to look up the 'BS' numbers. 

Hope this helps Maple.

Thankyou
Jean

[Nick29]

Longevity of inkjets vary depending on the inks used and is a subject that is really still open to debate - after all who can claim 100 years when inkjets haven't been around for that long.

Inkjet printers haven't been around for that long, but inks have.  As far as I understand it, early inkjet printers used inks based on vegetable dyes, and these inks don't last very long, but will last rather longer if kept in darkness.  Later inkjet inks are pigment based, and should last rather longer, but even these will be affected by light eventually.

Laser printers use plastics rather than ink, and these can be affected by contacts with other plastics, so storage has to be done carefully.  Lasers also aren't that good at rendering photos anyway.

The best printer to get for printing photos is a dye-sublimation printer.  These printers use special cartridges of ink and paper, because the "ink" isn't liquid at all, but is a dye which is heated and transferred to the paper.   The longevity of photos printed with dye sublimation is supposed to be between 50 and 100 years.  The downside is that it's quite expensive, but then inkjet isn't that cheap either, when you count the number of prints you can get from a cartridge, and the quality of dye-sublimation is much better than inkjet, because inkjet ink spreads, and ruins the definition. 

http://www.systeminsight.co.uk/InkjetvsDyeSublimation.html

[newburychap]

I personally prefer to keep my peripherals separate, i.e. dedicated scanner, dedicated printer.  Combination machines always seem to compromise on something in my experience. 

Whilst I agree with this in general I have recently bought an all-in-one from Brother (MFC-6490). It gives me an A3 scanner (with sheet feeder) at half the price of any alternatives and I get a free A3 printer and colour photocopier thrown in. Sometimes all-in-ones really are worth it.

[emmsthheight]

Hi  Thank you!

Loads of brilliant information here!  printer's really struggling with over work, mostly on things that don't really need a photoprinter!

I just bought the cheepest and best all in pone which is grewat for saving the day for copies of forms etc at the push of a button, and I can actually get a photocartridge for it, so at £30 I'm not complaining!

You've given me loads of food for thought though  for when I can replace the photo printer - or even try the photo cartridge for this one and hold fire until I sdee what comes out of the woodwork!

You've also spurred me to copy somehow the sixties black and whites now fading from the sixties printed at home!

Thank you again.

Best wishes

Emms

[Gaille]

Hi  Thank you!

Loads of brilliant information here!  printer's really struggling with over work, mostly on things that don't really need a photoprinter!

I just bought the cheepest and best all in pone which is grewat for saving the day for copies of forms etc at the push of a button, and I can actually get a photocartridge for it, so at £30 I'm not complaining!

You've given me loads of food for thought though  for when I can replace the photo printer - or even try the photo cartridge for this one and hold fire until I sdee what comes out of the woodwork!

You've also spurred me to copy somehow the sixties black and whites now fading from the sixties printed at home!

Thank you again.

Best wishes

Emms

Just another thought for you when you DO come to change it - get one with individual ink cartridges.
I work for a stationers & believe me it works out a LOT better to just replace the colour you need to replace rather than thowing out a cartridge with maybe 2 part used colours in it.

Also - dont look at the price of the machine itself - you will only have to pay for that once.
Look at the price of the cartridges - they are what you will have to keep replacing, and check if they need seperate 'printheads' as well.
THIS is where the shops & manufacturers make their money - they market the printers at a low price knowing people will see the printer itself as a bargain & not everyone will check the price of the cartridges before they buy the machine.

Gaille

[Charlie Bucket]

As well as light, inkjet photos need to be protected from high humidity and pollution. Both the paper and the ink can be affected by these factors.
Some dye ink manufacturers now claim a long life for their prints. However their humidity test seems less than rigorous.
Most of the A4 printers use dye inks. The exceptions are Kodak printers which use pigment and a now discontinued Epson. Most of the pigment ones are A3 sized and are big.
I, personally, am waiting for the possible new A4 Epson but it is like waiting for Godot.

Charlie.

[emmsthheight]

Hi

Thank you for al the extra advice.

The last one was one with six colour, separately, and I haven't totally given up, but the print heads need aligning every few sheets and it's had a hard life.  - An Epsom Stylus Photo R200.  I needed something for admin and this was the quickest and cheepest.  I've been pleasantly surprised though!

Thank you again!

What a wealth of advice Rootschatters give!

Best wishes

Emms