How Long Will They Last? An Overview of the Light-Fading Stability of InkJet Prints And Traditional Color Photographs

摘要

InkJet printing of photographs has become the most common form of output from digital camera files and in 2002 inkjet printing will start to expand from the desktop to higher volume minilab and stand-alone kiosk applications. At the same time, the proliferation of digital silver-halide printers in minilabs, and increasingly in centralized wholesale labs, has brought traditional process RA-4 silver-halide photographic papers firmly into the digital output world. This paper gives an overview of the various factors affecting the light fading stability of both types of color prints. The similarities and differences between inkjet prints, made with both dye-based and pigmented inks, and traditional chromogenic color prints are discussed in the context of image stability, and certain improvements in test methods are proposed.