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Dye based inkjet fade test complete


Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

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I had finished up one of the last fade tests I was doing in March. I made some time today to scan it. Been working on the cine' film Archive which is fairly massive. No time for much else. At the end of the summer, I will have the other 2 sun fade tests done. A 1-year fade test of a 1980's dye transfer print and a 6-month fade test of a 1950's carbro print. Carbro prints are very, very rare. It will be interesting to see how it holds up in the sun. I've already done fade tests for 1950's 1960's and 1970's dye transfer prints. Kodak used to change the dye formula every few years and they all hold up differently in the light. 

Anyway, let's get on to the dye-based inkjet print. I've tested other dye-based prints at the beginning of my dye stability testing years ago. But I didn't bother to record all the printer info. I was just working informally for my own education at the time.

For me it was good enough to distinguish dye-based vs pigment-based inkjet. I've only tested a handful of dye-based inkjet printers, but the results are all the same. Terrible light fastness for them all. They fade in normal room light, let alone sun. But I redid the test with a known printer just to have a model number test done.

A proper anal lab tester would get all the data and lumens they received over a 6-month session down. That way they can say each test got all the same amount of light. But I'm not that anal. And in the big picture, this dye-based test is even more troubling than my normal tests, as it was mainly done in the winter. In the NE US, sun is weakest in the winter. So, it got less sun than my normal sun tests do in the summer. But I already knew dye-based inkjet is crap for light fastness, so winter sun is fine for fading it.

6-month sun fade test of a dye-based print made on a Canon MG2522 printer. Print was cut in half and one half exposed to the sun, one half kept in dark storage.


Canon PIXMA MG2522 dye based inkjet 6 months sun test D.D.Teoli Jr. A.C - Copy.jpg

Here is a master file of the image for comparison.

faces-of-gentrification-daniel-d-teoli-jr - 600kb.jpg

Faces of Gentrification
Here is a print from an old Epson R2000 pigment-based printer. 1 year of sun with it. Section that was in sun is marked with an S.



Gloss Optimizer Epson test 1 year sun D.D.Teoli Jr..jpg
 
Last edited: Apr 27, 2022 at 12:42 AM
 
Edited by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
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