Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Doyle" 
<jdoyle1713@c...> wrote:
> Hogarth,
> 
> Bob Is still in the dark ages.. ..Bob pay attention to the 
list ..You may
> learn a thing or two..

I've been paying attention to this list and to lots of other 
photography or printing-related lists I'm on, and I see complaints 
about mysterious color shifts and fades from users of ALL different 
brands.   Lots of times it's the PAPER itself that shifts color, so 
it can't just be a matter of using the wrong ink for a particular 
paper.

I don't think that the third-party makers are either the cause or the 
solution to this problem.   

The correct solution will come about when we understand the 
underlying chemistry of these products.  One problem with inkjet 
technology, in general, is that it encourages a "black box" mentality 
among users.   The technology is so complex and proprietary, and 
people today are so impatient and have so short an attention span, 
and schools today do such a poor job teaching science, that very few 
people who aren't actually in the business of making inks and papers 
actually understand inks and papers at a technical level.  That's why 
even on a forum like this that's DEDICATED to the topic we can't do 
any more than SPECULATE about the problem.

When I first started in photography about mumble-mumble years ago it 
was common for advanced AMATEURS to make their own developers and 
other darkroom chemicals.   Advanced photography magazines routinely 
had articles and discussions on the topic.  Some of the British 
photography magazines looked like chemistry textbooks!