Digital BW, The Print

(NOTE: This should also probably be labeled a Rant, but I 
haven't written it yet, but it's early, and I'm hung over, and I just got 
back from a long road trip and I've been shooting in a 
MaxSecurity prison, so I'm feeling pretty raw and 
impatient.-MT)(But not "raw" like "that"...)
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Road trips are good. Especially road trips away from computers 
and television. For me, I tend to get back into the big picture, and 
stop micro-managing so much.

What's hit me about this list, and about the Epson9000 list, and I 
guess the Piezo list too -- EVERYBODY just wants to know if their 
prints are gonna last (not fade). They also want to know if they're 
gonna shift color.

How many months (years) have we spent on these lists trying to 
figure this out? And in my eyes, we still don't have much of an 
answer. Wilhelm has flown the coop, or he's sitting in a 
mountain bunker somewhere with a window, a flourescent bulb, 
a tungsten bulb, and some ozone -- who knows? And what about 
these supposed tests at RIT? Does anybody have any info on 
those?

Personally, I'm ready to get on with it. I'm just at that point in my 
life where I'd simply like to start making and selling prints, and I'd 
like to shake a customer's hand and look them squarely in the 
eye as I receive their check, and send them on their way feeling 
solid and confident. (Right now, I honestly cannot do that). It 
seems like for every positive post about a certain paper/ink 
combination, there's another one a month later refuting those 
results.

I understand that quote that Clark Thomas published (4099), but 
at the same time, there's a point when you've got to stop testing 
and start printing. That time, for me, is now. I am prepared to buy 
almost any printer, if I can only be assured with some sound 
backup that the prints are chemically stable. Hell, I might even 
take the grandest leap of all, and get a PC machine to run my 
7000, if it turns out that Piezo is the most stable.

In my (uninformed) eyes, the two finalists right now are:

* Piezo inks on (?) paper.
* Color Pigment inks on (?)

I may be wrong. If I am, please correct me, and fill in the blanks 
for the papers. I have tried to start databases on this list, to try to 
get feedback from people on their success stories. That 
information never comes -- that leads me to believe that damn 
near everybody on this list is sitting on the sidelines, with that 
same puckered-up feeling that I have, wondering to themselves, 
"will my prints fade in five years?"

I am looking for hard facts. Solid information. I guess sticking a 
print in a window is OK, but I'd also like to hear from a chemist 
also about chemical reactivity between certain inks and certain 
paper coatings.

I like this the people on this list and all, but kinda like AA -- at 
some point, you just feel like you ought to be ready to "graduate" 
from it, and get on with your life. I'd say our goal, as a group, 
should be to some time get together for a beer, but NOT to have 
to talk about anything related to print permanence.

Restless,

Mark Tucker, http://marktucker.com