Digital BW, The Print

Hello Tariq,

>Here is an excerpt from a great site on Artist Materials:
>Taken from this page: http://www.trueart.info/paper_chemistry.htm

>So, given the choice, 100% Cotton would be the safest, most tested 
>archival material to use


I went to that site to have a look, and found this at the top and
bottom of the article:

"(Excerpts from ART HARDWARE: The Definitive Guide to Artists' 
 Materials, by Steven Saitzyk © 1987)"

That was written 18 years ago.  When I did some research the other day
I found several sites saying in effect that modern techniques reduce
the pulp to pure cellulose, which is basically what cotton is, and has
the same longevity.  Enter it in google and see what comes up.  Here
are a couple of sample quotes:

"Today there is a process designed to isolate the cellulose from the
wood resins to produce "high alpha cellulose" which promises to be
comparable to most rag papers in longevity."

"High Alpha Cellulose: A very pure form of wood pulp which is
considered to have the same longevity as cotton or other plant
fibers."

I also found a lot of material similar to the one you quoted, but the
ones that had dates were all older.  I even found a site that had
industry standards, but even the latest standards were last revised in
2000.  I've had several conversations over the past months with the
tech people at some of the inkjet paper companies, and they all say
the word they're getting from the manufacturers where they buy their
stock is that new technology is advancing and the new AC papers are
essentially pure cellulose without any lignen.

Maybe you are right in that we probably won't know for sure for
another 200 years or so.  But with the fast pace of technology today,
I think these new papers are not something we have to worry about.

I'm also being told similar things about OBAs, that the technology has
improved and the modern stuff doesn't have the same adverse effects.

So who do we believe in all this?  Are they outright lying or
stretching the truth?  We each have to make up our own mind I guess. 
One drawback about the web is that old information is still floating
around out there, so we have to do our research carefully.  But you
are certainly correct that 100% cotton is the safest choice - you
can't go wrong using that.  One big question in my mind, though, is
what about the coatings?  I hardly ever see that discussed.  


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm