Digital BW, The Print

Hello Everyone,

 

I am curious what your thoughts are on dye based inks sprayed with some type
of "fixer."  I need a large format printer such as a 7600 or 7800, but I
will not use the printer enough to keep from having clogging problems due to
pigment inks.  I also prefer the price on a used 7600 vs. a new 7800.
Could I use a dye based printer and spray all the images for archiving
purposes?  I hope my question isn't too off the mark.  Thanks in advance for
your thoughts.

 

 

 

George Payne

Cajun Images

 

www.cajunimages.com

"Documenting Louisiana's Living History -- One Image, One Sound Byte, and
One Story at a time."

 

 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I have a dye-based HP designjet for this very purpose. I bought it
mainly for printing on glossy media so what they have now is good: HP
Vivera ink on swellable polymer.

For non-HP glossy and fineart you must coat or the prints will fade
very quickly. However in a test using Costco Kirkland as well as
various other microporous types I found the prints just as fade
resistant as HP's own paper. These papers are coated using my own
recipe based on various Golden paint polymer mediums and varnishes.
But my test is low tech in that I subject the prints to direct
sunlight for months at a time and compare against the HP's
combination. I have neither UV nor gas fade testing chambers.

For fineart media you must also coat the back of the prints as I found
such ink as HP's Vivera fades more due to gas than UV - the back of a
fineart media is very porous. For this media coating the front with
PrintShield for minimal changes in print characteristic and the back
with a water borne coating may be ideal.

You must perform your own test to make sure the print's longevity is
acceptable. For me this is good enough.

--nick

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "George Payne"
<mail@...> wrote:

> 
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I am curious what your thoughts are on dye based inks
> sprayed with some type of "fixer."  I need a large format
> printer such as a 7600 or 7800, but I will not use the
> printer enough to keep from having clogging problems due
> to pigment inks.  I also prefer the price on a used 7600
> vs. a new 7800. Could I use a dye based printer and spray
> all the images for archiving purposes?  I hope my question
> isn't too off the mark.  Thanks in advance for your
> thoughts.
>