Digital BW, The Print

I am a printer/photographer who prints for a number of artists and
photographers on a number of papers and canvasses, using an 11 color
Endurachrome (dye) ink set to include a wonderful quad black, by a Colorspan
thermal head printer.  I know that it is now ³common knowledge² that dyes
are fugitive and pigments are ³permanent², that to suggest this is an
oversimplification is heresy.  Let me point out that tests of this dye set
on canvas have suggested an 80 year permanence, I believe without any UV
spray.  Admittedly, this is a particular combination of Colorspan canvas and
ink. 

However, I would direct your attention to the study done by Golden on the
effect of applying various numbers of levels of mineral spirit based UV
spray to both pigment and dye printed images and comparing the likely
longevity.  As expected, there is a tremendous advantage for pigments
without UV protection, but the expected longevity of both was pretty poor
without coating.  Above a certain number of spray layers there was little
real difference in expected longevity between dyes and pigments on the same
media.  This is why I stay with the beautiful 4K and 11 color ink (finest
gamut I have ever seen), but with the addition of mineral spirits UV spray,
6 to 9 layers.  Canvas often gets, in addition, brushed on Golden Acrylic
Gel with UV blocker.  J Vee (www.jvee.com)




On 10/24/07 7:04 AM, "babelfish" <babelfish2@verizon.net> wrote:

>  
>  
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> I know what you mean. I recently ran across some prints that we made
> with dye inks on H. German etching and photo rag papers that are
> stunning in comparison to anything we've been able to produce using
> Epson or Canon pigments. But you have to realize that dyes can be fickle
> and they're subject to many perils that pigments are much more resistant
> to. It's not reasonable to think that you're trading hundreds of years
> for decades, because in a bad environmental situation you could lose a
> dye print in months.
> 



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