bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

That's exactly my point! We can obsess over how long our prints will last and forget about who may actually want to look at them. I laugh when I think about my kids trying to figure out what to do with my prints, computers and HDDs when I croak. Even my newest cameras will be old technology.

My parents-in-law left behind 5,000 Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides of their world travels. My DW bought a scanner, picked the best 100 and made DVDs for the family. He was a Boeing engineer for 40 years and his hobby was flying on airlines that had bought "his" product. 4,900 slides were pictures of Boeing airplanes!

Unless you really are in the same league as Stieglitz, Adams, Bullock, Curtis, etc., nobody will want you prints to last very long! If you are in that league, you should be getting your images in to Getty or somewhere they will be seen and used. Printing on a home printer is a wonderfully fun thing to do. Worrying if they will last a 100 years, not so much.

phkowalchuk Loc: Aurora, CO

I very strongly think you underestimate the love of family and friends. While most of us don't have the audience and worldwide reputations of the greats you mention, I know well that despite that, I have family and friends who appreciate, even love, many of my images. Will they ever make it to the Getty? A dream. Will they make the walls of families and friends? Yes. Will they be passed on? Who knows. But if they are, they will be ready to last many more years than memories of my often stupid "adventures."

Pigments, despite their tendency to dry and block nozzles if not used every couple of days are for me until the ink makers are able to make dye inks that will last as long without being cloistered in darkness.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'll second this. SOME dye inks last 100 years in extrapolated testing. Most fade much quicker. If you sell work, it should last. When I worked in a lab, we made our best and largest prints with EPSON Ultrachrome inks, on EPSON archival photo papers and canvas.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

I have used the new Epson Artisan 1430 dye printer, the newer inks are very good for lightfastness (nonfading). I have been selling prints displayed in a gallery window and on gallery walls with a big picture window and have not been able to detect any fading whatsoever. This has been the case for Epson inks even on the older Stylus Photo 1280. On my first Epson 1200 there was noticeable fading. This comes from personal experience of having framed prints with regular glass hanging for periods of months, over periods of years. Epson claims like 75 yrs. The artists in the gallery claim their paintings fade, especially watercolors, from window exposure, so the photographs hold up better than that as far as I can tell. (Old oil paintings with varnish tend to yellow and blacken over decades and centuries, it is extremely difficult to restore them, only by removing the varnish without removing any paint, very difficult, and it is done by hand) A digital photograph I have just realized, can be saved indefinitely as a file because is a "code" not an image, and can always be reprinted exactly as the original. In theory any way. It would be hard to find the original printer model after some years, but you get my point.

Kuzano

Excellent point. They really only have to last as prints until I show them to the three people I am concerned about seeing them as prints.

Otherwise, they can sit as digital files until true archival printing technology arrives, and even then be printed fresh again on that newer technology. The files don't darken in a closed storage drive..... do they?

wlgoode Loc: Globe, AZ

An allied question: How about nozzle clogging with pigment inks. The problem is plenty big enough with dye inks.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

You'll have to consider whether they will have to be post processed again as any future printing technology may not give true colors/luminosity values with your current processing.

So if you're no longer here when this happens, who should be considered the owner of any new print? Jus askin' ya know.

mel Loc: Jacksonville, Florida

When I'm gone, who cares. My wife will probably take all my prints to Good Will or give them away, maybe even trash them, but again if I'm not here anymore, I'm not going to worry about it.

Collie lover Loc: St. Louis, MO

This would be easier to read if it wasn't one long sentence without any punctuation.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You should use labs if you can't keep an inkjet printer busy.

Print at least once a week to keep the heads clear.

Use all your ink within six months of opening, or discard/recycle the cartridge.

Trust that I learned these lessons the expensive way.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

:thumbup:

wlgoode Loc: Globe, AZ

I've had Canon, Epson, HP and Dell inkjets with every other day nozzle check prints they still got clogged. I have a closet full of has been printers.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I've violated all your rules for three years with one dye ink printer. I've done two nozzle cleanings after extended rest periods.

wlgoode Loc: Globe, AZ

I've just ordered the Canon MX 922 with fingers crossed.

Collie lover Loc: St. Louis, MO

Instead of having a closet full of has been printers, see if there is a place that will take them for the parts. Try to recycle them.