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INKJET PRINT LONGEVITY
June 2004
April 2006
Even the cheapest current inkjet printer will
produce a near perfect print when it’s brand new. The important
differences between printers only show up when you change cartridges,
leave the machine unused for a couple of months, or look at your prints a
couple of years later.
I’ve had a few inkjet printers and I’ve
looked many times on Google for good sources of information about them,
without ever finding a holy grail. Magazine reviews of the printers always
stress their latest features and the official Wilhelm Research longevity tests are conducted under such ideal laboratory conditions
they bear little resemblance to real life. I can’t believe such basic
information doesn’t exist somewhere on the web, but as I can’t find
it, I decided to write my own guide. I was particularly frustrated by my
prints fading ridiculously fast, even when shielded from sunlight. Last
year my mum, who’s an artist, was also getting concerned about the
fading of her digital prints, so I set up my own tests (see below).
SUMMARY
If you have an Epson, your prints won't fade, but your whole printer may
clog up and have to be chucked out if you leave it unused for more than a
few weeks.
If you have an HP or a Canon, the inks fade because they react with the
air, so laminate your prints to stop them fading.
Its worth buying the manufacturers own ink cartridges, but not their own
papers.
Hewlett Packard, Canon and Lexmark/Dell inkjets heat the ink
to boil droplets and project them onto the page. Epson inkjets use piezo
elements to vibrate the droplets onto the page. Both systems have
advantages and disadvantages.
Hewlett Packard’s domestic printers have the
nozzles and heating inkjets built into each ink cartridge, so when you put
in a new cartridge, the quality should be literally as good as new. It
often isn’t though – because their system requires a large number of
electrical contacts all to be perfectly made when a new cartridge is
inserted. I’ve had difficulty getting them to print well after changing
cartridges whenever I’ve attempted to refill one, and also when using
cheap brands of cartridge – I think the problems were due to dodgy
electrical connections, though also possibly airlocks. With HP printers,
I’ve taken to buying their own brand high capacity cartridges, as they
do seem to work well. A big drawback of HPs ‘heating’ system is that
the heat affects many of the best dyes so the colours are generally less
stable and fade quicker than Epson’s (see test below). An advantage of
HPs inks is that they seem naturally resistant to clogging (compared to
Epson’s) when the printer is not used for a month or two. And even if a
cartridge does clog, a new cartridge has new ink jets, so should restore
the printer perfectly.
Epson’s printers come with pre-installed piezo ink
heads, so the ink cartridges are simply reservoirs of ink. The problem
with their system is that it’s easy to end up with an airlock between
the ink and the jet after changing cartridges. (I always had a particular
problem with the yellow ink, I think the path for the ink must have been
slightly longer).
This airlock is why Epson introduced ‘chipped’
cartridges that alert you before they’re completely empty. This is a
good idea, though in order not waste ink, some inkjet cartridge suppliers
will sell you a chip re-setter. In my experience this wasn’t successful
as the ink then ran out and I never got the printer to run properly again.
Epson’s own brand cartridge have an amazingly complicated air vent
system inside to release the ink at a controlled rate whatever the
temperature or atmospheric pressure - the cheap compatible versions
don’t have anything like this. I’m not sure how important this is.
Epson inks are generally more resistant to fading
than HPs as the dyes do not have to be heat resistant. My own tests with
their recent ‘long lasting’ pigment based cartridges is impressive. (I
did use an Epson with cheap cartridges for a while, and prints from these
have faded just as quickly as those from my HP printer.)
Their airlock problem is made worse by the fact that
their inks, though longer lasting, are more liable to clog up. The
printers have a head cleaning function (this is what makes all the strange
noises when you first switch on an Epson) but in my experience this is not
always effective. If the inkjets heads are badly clogged, which can happen
if there’s an air lock or if the machine is unused for a few weeks, it
often means scrapping the whole printer as the heads are built in. There
are companies who replace the inkjet heads. I did this once, but
it was relatively expensive and the printer failed again within
months.
Canon’s printers are similar to HP though the
heating inkjet heads are a separate replaceable unit, not built into the
ink cartridges. This causes fewer problems with the electrical connections
but more with airlocks. Canon printer’s main advantage seems to be that
they are particularly fast. I don't have any experience of Lexmark/Dell
printers.
All manufacturers state the importance of using their
own brand papers. HP claim that their papers seal over the dyes to protect
them from the air. To test their claims I printed a test strip of primary
colours with my HP deskjet 130 (a wide format printer that uses their
recently introduced ‘dye based’ inks) on a variety of different
papers, and hung them up in a south facing window for 9 months
(Feb-Nov 2005). Gary
Alexander kindly printed the same strip on the same papers
with his Epson R800, which uses Epson’s recently introduced
‘pigment’ based inks.
The results are dramatic. Epson produces
colours on all papers that have good resistance to fading, left in the sun
for nearly a year. There appears to be little need to buy their own brand
paper. The test strips were photographed in daylight with a Canon S85
digital camera.
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Epson R800
using
Epson inks, printed
on Epson heavyweight
matt
inkjet paper |
Before
After |
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Epson R800
using
Epson inks, printed
on artists watercolour paper |
Before
After
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HP black ink fades really badly, though the other
colours aren’t quite as bad. With standard inkjet paper, or artist’s
watercolour paper, the black was pale grey after the test. HPs own papers
are much better, but no better than the no name brand photo paper.
None are a match for the blacks of the Epson, even on plain paper.
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HP Design Jet 130 using HP dye based inks, printed
on cheap inkjet paper.
(smudging from condensation in window) |
Before
After |
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HP Design Jet 130 using HP dye based inks, printed
on
artist's watercolour paper |
Before
After |
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HP Design Jet 130 using HP dye based inks, printed
on cheap photo paper |
Before
After |
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HP Design Jjet 130 using HP dye based inks,
printed on HP proofing paper |
Before
After |
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SUMMARY
If you don’t want your prints to fade, buy an
Epson and use Epson inks, and then you can use any paper you want.
If you’re likely to leave your printer unused
for a few months, buy an HP.
If you have an HP and want your prints to last
as long as possible, print on photo paper, not on inkjet paper. And as I
have since found - laminate them immediately (See update below).
If you don’t want hassle when changing ink
cartridges, buy the manufacturers cartridges, not re-manufactured ones or
refilled ones – and avoid chip resetters.
UPDATE In
March 2006 I laminated 4 posters (printed on my HP130) in a hot mounting
press with a protective matt pvc film. These have now been in an outside
window for 6 months and show little sign of fading. So if you want
ordinary photos printed on any printer to last longer, laminate them.( A4 pouch
laminators are now cheap - about £20, from office suppliers). If
you're keen, you can watch a recent interview with Henry Wilhelm, he's
much more eloquent in person than his website might suggest. |
