15 Apr
2010
15 Apr
'10
1:05 p.m.
On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
I've made the mistake of filing manufacturers'
FAXes printed on
thermal paper without first copying them, thinking that surely such
stuff would last more than a decade or two. ?Big mistake--I should
have invested in a plain-paper FAX machine. ?I've also got some
blueline prints that are equally illegible.
A lot of plain-paper faxes use inkjets. Inkjets /per se/ aren't bad
for longevity, it's the ink that's the issue.
There are 2 types of ink, using either dyes (liquid colourants,
possibly soluble) or pigments (solid colourants in a suspension of
fine particles.)
Dye-based inks tend to fade. They don't always even need light to do
it; age can be enough.
Pigment-based inks deposit particles into the matrix of the paper as
they dry and tend to be far more robust.
I've also seen clapped-out or badly-adjusted laser printers that
failed to properly melt and bond the toner onto the paper, where with
age the print simply brushes off the surface of the page.
Print longevity is a tricksy issue.
This is one of the best articles I've seen on it:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2007/04/21/The-Inkjet-Investi…
http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2007/08/12/The-Inkjet-Investi…
http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2008/04/29/The-Inkjet-Investi…
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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