Digital BW, The Print

Though some of us believe that Arches uncoated watercolor paper may outlast inkjet papers, the fade tests of it have usually shown that the image stability on the best inkjet papers can be better than on Arches. My fade testing has generally been consistent with this, but a potentially important exception may be the Arches print that was sprayed with a light coat of Lascaux Fixativ (non-UV blocking #2070). The neutralized carbon image subject to that treatment has been remarkably stable. After 16 weeks in my fader, which I believe to be roughly similar to a bit more than 100 Megalux-hours of AaI&A testing, the only significant change in the neutral Arches image was due to bleaching of the paper. I have placed some numbers and graphs for the Arches results at

http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/16-Week-Arches-Neutral-sprayed-Fade-test.pdf .

You can also see a scan of the test strips at

http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/2nd-8wk-Fade-test-7-26-2015.jpg .

The Arches neutral, sprayed results are the top 2 test strips in the third column.

Note that the toner used for this test strip was version 1 -- the Canon blue plus Epson cyan. I've substituted the Canon cyan for the Epson cyan now due to some test results that indicated the Epson cyan may have compatibility issues with my generic base. I will be testing the carbon + 100% Canon toner formula on Arches in the next fade test session. I think the important information, however, is that Arches and a light Lascaux spray make a very good combination.

Paul

PaulRoark.com -- Paul Roark's Photographic Home