Stupid question on Printing....

[GT98]

I just got myself a Sony MVC CD300 3.3 Megapixel Digital Camera a couple weeks ago and I've been thinking about this question: How long does a Color printed page from an Inkjet printer last? Reason I ask is that say 20 years down the road when my 3inch Mini CDs that are used for media for this camera are hopelessly outdated and the USB connector has gone by the way side, how can I show my kids photos that I took? I know that I could save the photos and just upgrade to what ever is the lastest and greatest media out there but theres always that Disc that might escape the upgrade. At least with a hard copy theres something tangeable that you can touch. Any suggestions???


Scott

[Maggi]

hate to say it, but usually you put it into sunlight for half an hour and all colors are bleached already ...

I'm looking for something to fix it for myself, some sort of sunblocking/covering spray or something like that, but didn't find anything yet.

Cheers,
Maggi

PS: you should definately back up your digital pictures onto CD for lateron use ...

[Jorden]

PS: you should definately back up your digital pictures onto CD for lateron use ...

Ofcourse, at some point in time you have to backup all the CD's to DVDs or whatever is coming next, as no future DVD player will be able to read your own burned CD's

As to preserving the pictures, why not print them and put them in a photobook? And keep the photobook stored in your bookcase.
Anything you put in (direct) sunlight will discolour within a matter of time. Even CD's. So just don't do that

Jord.

[ALBPM]

Have them framed using UV glass. Most places that do framing have glass that blocks UV light. I have some framed prints that are about 5 years old and don't show any signs of fading or yellowing.

Paul

[LvR]

Check out the second question on this link this link :

http://www.edigitalphoto.com/jan_feb_2001/content/q_a/questions.htm

The Guys at edigitalphoto.com produce a really good quality mag with lots of informative articles and unbiased reviews. If you also check the contents of back issues you will find your concern popping up every now and then. There are also reviews of various brands of paper wrt durability

It would seem in general that the ink is more of the problem and not so the paper (as long as you stay with well-known brands). I cant find a quick link to the page but remember reading about EPSON? making a dedicated archival ink.

Personally, I have been using a HP930 printer (previously Hp710,815 and 840) and original HP cartridges on Ilford Inkjet Photo Paper (cat 192 1948) with very good results. I have a few prints up in the office, and with a mix of normal indoor and outdoor lighting with no direct sunlight, some prints have been up for about 2 years with no noticable fade. I have a few prints on HP paper up with the same results.

I have also tried other "cheaper" photo paper, but have found them all to show serious signs of fading after about 3 months, eventually ending up looking very milky indeed .

I only print when I absalutely have to. I keep all my pics on a CDRW (Organized by catagory) in TIFF format (JPEGS does not like being edited and it quickly starts showing on good quality prints), where software enables one to put up a serious performance on a TV or PC monitor in the form of a fullscreen slideshow

Maybe some of the other guys can report on their results as well?

[ALBPM]

Yup, what LvR said is true. Save your images as .tif files instead of .jpg files.

Also both Epson and HP are making better ink these days. Epson had an issue with some of their newer glossy paper but I hope they fixed it. I have been using an Epson 1270 with their new waterproof ink with excellent results. It appeared that the paper in question was sensitive to ozone. I did some testing and would see an orange or magenta shift on prints that never saw any sunlight.
I'm using some of their older paper with no bad effects.

Paul