Digital BW, The Print

From: "nick90290" <NickBrandt@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 7:25 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Lysin Small Gamut Inks - Shifting Green


> I have been having huge problems with Lyson small gamut inks
shifting
> from sepia to greenish hue in a matter of months. These are
prints
> that are both framed and sealed under glass in low-humidity,
> primarily
> incandescent light settings, and also prints simply stored in a
> drawer. They are printed on Hahnemule Cotton Rag paper, and
sprayed
> with coats of Lyson Print Guard. In other words, you couldn't
do
> everything more right if you tried.
>
> I have called Lyson in the US and the UK and both technical
> departments say that they have never had anyone call about this
> problem before. And yet in limited reearch, I have already
> encountered
> a few other people with the same problem. Lyson have all along
> adamantly maintained that their inks have an archival value of
70
> years. To me, this is clearly irresponsible, inaccurate
marketing, to
> say the least.
>
> So my question is...is there anyone out there having the same
> problems............

No experience with Small Gamut but enough with Fotonics and
Hahnemuhle coating. They are not made for one another despite all
what Lyson will tell you. In general you should avoid dye inks if
you are not printing on swellable coatings (gelatine, PVA).
There's also some evidence that not only the humidity has a nasty
impact on fading in time but that the humidity at printing time
has an influence on the fade properties later on (swellable
coatings). Don't fall for the tale that Lyson's own rebranded HM
paper has a better coating. Check the Lyson site for Fotonics and
Lysonic E inks and see which printer has been used for Fotonics,
which for the Lysonic E inks and which for the competition.
There's a nice switch each time between 4 and 6 colour printers
to get the data that they want. My experience (and I'm not the
only one) dates back about 3 years and I have not seen a change
in attitude by Lyson since then.
It is a pity that there isn't a pigment small gamut set
available, on 6 colour printers it could work very well.

Ernst