THE LIFE OF A DIGITAL PRINT

 

Sven Westerlund, is an artist and a teacher of digital image techniques. He is also a board member of CRAC.

 

Digital printing techniques are very common today for artists to making their "out-puts" from a computer. There are, as you probably know, a range of printingtechniques, but Iīll focus on the popular inkjet printers. They are both cheap and easy to use. A "big-image" inkjet printer is in most cases affordable for a media-lab. Today, several printers use high 1440dpi output resolution together with a sixcolor system (some even 8 or 12 colors) for true continuouestone and a wide colourgamut. And you can print on almost any media - from paper and film, to cotton textile and vinyl. And in almost any size.! Sounds great!

But how about permanence? Does the image exist next year? In 10 years? In 50? Let´s have a look at the requirements; If ink and paper worked for Leonardo da Vinci, it really should work today too! Unfortunately thatīs not obvious. To produce an inkjet print with a long "display-life" we have to face three major issues first;

  1. The inks to be used.
  2. The coating of the media beeing used.
  3. The quality of that media.

Color or "paint" itself consist of: a colourant (dye or pigments), a liquid (water or alcohol) to "carry" the colourant, a "binder"(oil, acryl or egg) for the colourant to "bind" on the surface of the media.

Inks for inkjet printers do not have a "binder"! The principle is that the colourant goes into the paper and when the "carrier" evaporizes the colour remain in the paper. So, technically, a colourprint consist of a colourant, a "carrier", a binder and a surface on a printable media.

Conclusion: The "display-life" of an inkjet print depends on some very important conditions: It´s the amount of UV-rays which fade the colourants and stain the "binder"

  • Pigmented inks have more resistance than dye-inks.
  • A paper made of 100% acid-free rag has of course a longer "life" than a newsmagazine paper.
  • The popular "photo-glossy" papers have very different "binders" in their coatings. Starch from the arrow-root seems to be the best choice today!

Itīs not only difficult to get the right stuff, but it´s been proven that some combinations are harmful to "image-stability". I.e. two types of paper printed with the same inks or the same paper with different inks can range between 6 years to 150 in "display-life".

But, who knows this?

The manufacturers, as usual, don´t talk about these problems. They only want to make money. I found only one, but very important, independent researcher in this field; Henry Wilhelm, Iowa. US. ( www.wilhelm-research.com) Take a look at his "permanencelist" and you will be surprised over the diffrence of "display-life" for a inkjet print.

 

 

CRAC provides their members with: Epson 5000 A3+inkjet-printer HP 2500 CP 36" roll inkjet-printer and tomorrow: Roland HiFi-jet 6 colours-1440dpi-50" roll/sheet inkjet-printer