burkphoto wrote:
If you're just looking for cheap prints, they won't be inkjet prints. They will be conventional 'C' (chromogenic, silver halide, wet process) prints.
Ink used in the best HIGH END inkjet printers (from Canon, Epson, and sometimes HP) is pigment based. It is very expensive, compared to 'C' prints, and the printing process is relatively slow and labor-intensive. Inkjet prints are made by better professional color labs and imaging service bureaus. Many of those same labs make conventional 'C' (chromogenic silver halide) prints.
mPix and Millers (same company), Adoramapix, Shutterfly, Bay Photo, Full Color, UPI lab, H&H, and many others you've never heard of are out there. My suggestion is this:
Use Google to find a professional lab near you. Download their catalog if possible. VISIT their facility and have a conversation about how to best use their services. They will usually discuss things like monitor calibration, soft proofing, color space for submissions, file sizes vs image dimensions in pixels, and their specific products and processes available.
About print life: Wilhelm Research tests various photographic processes. They have found that under comparable conditions, the best type 'C' color prints last, at best, 50 years. Typically, print life is 20 years or so before significant fading has occurred. I know this from making retrospective video slide shows from scans of peoples' prints.
Wilhelm's tests of the best dye-based inkjet inks shows print life of around 100 years (i.e.; Epson Claria). The best pigment-based inkjet inks (various Epson Ultrachrome variations) can last more than twice that long.
I have a 20x16 print framed under glass in my ping-pong room that I made in 2004 on an Epson 9600. It looks almost exactly like the image on my calibrated monitor does today. I have a 10x8 type 'C' print of the same image made on a Noritsu mini-lab at the same time. It's been in an album in an archival sleeve. The image is slightly faded, has less overall color saturation, and the edges are starting to turn brown! As I remember it, it NEVER looked as good as the Epson print, and could not be made to look that good. (Both were made in the lab where I worked back then... I ran the digital printing departments from 2000-2005.)
The good thing about digital images is that IF PRESERVED, the files never change. But you have to store them on a currently readable medium, and that medium has to survive the test of time.
If you're just looking for cheap prints, they won'... (
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Burkphoto, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I think I will contact my local print company and see what they say. Again, thanks for all the info!