The Epson P2000, 5000, 7000 etc. use pigmented inks- no dyes- for
permanence. There are now specialty black and white photo-proccessers
printing large format images on these Epson printers. Time will tell. Right
now they are not as good as silver based images in tonality and permanence
but they are good.

If you use an Epson printer you must use Epson-brand archival paper with the
Epson pigmented inks- it's not just a scam to sell their product. There are
unpredictable chemical interactions between coated archival photo papers and
inks of different manufacturers. Companies test their own products for
compatibility and can't control other manufacturers' formulas.

'Archivability' and 'accessibility' compete with one another and
accessibility seems to be winning. We should learn to write great detailed
captions for our digital images.

Dennis Piechota
Conservator
Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
University of Massachusetts at Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
TEL: 617-287-6829
FAX: 617-287-6857

> From: Margaret Green <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:24:59 -0500
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Archiving photos
>
> I don't think the problem is the paper, it's the ink. Inkjet ink is dyes
> that fade. They are working on it. Epson has inkjet ink (black -  possibly
> color, too) and paper that is supposed to be archival for around 50 years. The
> Canon printer (color) that I bought a year or two ago is supposed to print
> with archival quality of around 25-30 years.
> They all say, of course that's with their brand of ink and paper that are
> specified archival. Ilford has some nice archival printer photo paper. It's
> cheaper than the printer brands but as far as I know is only carried by photo
> stores, if you can find one still in business.
> Marge Green
>
>> That's discouraging. There must not be any truly archival photo paper for
>> the printers. Archivists tell me that laser printer and photo copier ink is
>> archival, but of course they are talking about their use on archival
>> quality copy paper rather than photo paper.
>