Digital BW, The Print

Hello All,

I got an email today inquiring about the latest results of my
windowsill fade testing, and whether I am testing K3. It's been some
months since my last report, so here is the latest (please pardon the
dots, it's because of the HTML):

Print.........Start Date....Elapsed Time...Visible Fading
----------------------------------------------------------
Eboni BO/EEM....11/05/03....26mos..10days......None
UT7(Eboni)/EEM..02/08/05....11mos...7days......None 
K3/Merlin.......09/14/05.....4mos...1day.......None

This is not a scientific test in any way, but is just FWIW.  The fact
that an unprotected BO print is getting some direct sunlight every day
for over 2 years without any visible sign of fading may have some
relative significance.  The K3 hasn't been there long enough to deduce
anything from it.  The UT7 is about a year now.  Just for reference,
back in the days of pigments with small amounts of dye toners I saw
fading as early as 4 months (Septone) and 6 months (early version of
UT7).  Dye inks would show fading in a few weeks.  So this UT7 has now
more than doubled the life of it's early version.

Here is a description of my test environment for anyone unfamiliar
with it (if you've read this before, nothing has changed). 

All test prints are unprotected, with a strip of 4-ply mat board taped
across it in such a way as to cover a full range of tones.  I
periodically peek under the strips looking for any visible fading.

The window is a large south facing picture window in south Florida
(sub-tropical zone), covered by an awning, so it's mostly bright
daylight without direct sunlight. However, during early morning and
late afternoon, direct sun gets in under the east and west edges of
the awning for a while.  So there is some direct sun every day, but
not the intense mid-day type. During the winter when the sun is lower,
there is a larger % of time with direct sun (it gets under the awning
for longer periods).  In summer when the sun is higher the % of direct
sun is lower, but because the days are longer there's a much longer
period of bright daylight.  So there's no way (without some sort of
instrument I suppose) to know the actual amount of lumens or UV
hitting the prints.  

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm