Ive been printing my pro prints for 5 years now using a canon pro10s printer and very happy with the image quality. the only thing im not happy with
is the reds fade only after 18months on an unprotected print on good quaintly paper.
Ive been reading up about the Epson et-8550 a dye based printer and wondering if anyone has had any experience with this printer. and what the print longevity
is like. i know the canon printer will print much better B&W prints but thats not the reason im looking for another printer. Im after something more economical.
June 1, 2023
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I don't have that printer but I do have an Epson P600 that uses pigment inks.
I am mentioning this because your thread title mentions pigment inks.
Everywhere I read they say the colours from pigment inks will last many, many more years than the colours from dye based inks.
I have pictures on my walls printed on the P600 that are 6 years old and still look like they came straight off the printer. I use Epson's glossy papers and the pictures are framed behind glass.
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I used to have a Canon 24" Designjet 130 printer. Ink for that lasts about 10 years, even behind glass. I've got some which face a large picture window and the sun has defintely faded them. I do have others from that printer which still seem OK. I've now got another more modern one (Designjet T230) which I am about to start using.
I've also got an Epson P900 (can do up to A3 prints) but I haven't had that long enough to be able to judge.
I have no idea whether they use dye or pigment based inks. How does one tell?
Alan
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The printer specs will tell you the type of ink it uses.
This is the P600's
www.epson.com.au/products/inkjet/SC-P600_specs.asp
The P900 specs should say pigment ink as well since it is an upgraded model.
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As a side note, shouldn't this thread be moved to the "Printers and Printing" forum?
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how are your reds ? are they still really good, can you see slight fading ? ive just noticed skin tones are a little flat and my dog images are faded. but the images are just blue tacked on my walls.
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All the colours still look very good, even the 6 yr old prints but obviously I can't say with absolute certainty they haven't deteriorated at all.
But for all intents and purposes and as far as I can tell the prints still look as they did when they came off the printer.
Before getting the P600 6-7 years ago, I did some online research regarding print longevity and at the time, rightly or wrongly, came to the conclusion that if I wanted reliable at least 3 years print longevity without noticeable fading I needed to use pigment based inks - hence the P600.
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Canon says the dye inks for the Pixma Pro 100 are good for 300 years, but I haven't yet been able to verify that.
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I used to use dye based inks from Canon and then used protective sprays. That made a big difference. I converted to Epson pigment inks many years ago and have had no fading issues on I sprayed prints at all. For B&W printing, I converted an Epson to MIS K7 carbon pigment prints which should last many generations.
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Hard to believe. Let's look at your prints in 2323 again!😋
In generally dye ink prints last months, pigment ink prints tens of years when displayed at your wall.
I recommend www.aardenburg-imaging.com/ and www.wilhelm-research.com/
For example this was interesting: www.aardenburg-imaging.com/compare-k3-hd-ex-ink-sets/
I have vasted barrels of K3 inks😎
