Digital BW, The Print

>> Of course, all inks fade.  I suppose even silver prints fade.
>>(I'll eventually make some silver test strips for comparative
>>fade testing.)
>
> In the Conservation and Archives communities, this is exactly one of
> the points being made in developing standards for digital archiving.
> Silver prints do fade, even when kept in ideal conditions. ...

The copying, restoring, & printing I do for our little museum and others
seem to mostly involve albumen prints.  They are often very faded after 100
years.  Copying can restore the contrast and make a huge difference in
appearance, but every iteration of copying and restoring is going to lose
some information.

I must say, however, that the fading is easier to deal with than the
physical damage that has occurred to many if not most of the old prints that
I work on.

One reason for my interest in the toughest possible inkset & coating is in
the hope of getting something that will last as long as possible in this
context.

>In the end it will become clear that we never should have
>abandoned the asphalt process of Niepce.
>The first and last print on earth.

Hmmm, an asphalt inkset ...

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com