Paper

[greg]

So would you suggest that for phto prints I should stop using photo paper and just use heavyweight matte from epson?

[thomasgeorge]

Greg, At present the Matte paper, when used with standard inkjet dye type inks, gives the longest print life and is also less expensive than the glossy photo papers. The new Colorlife paper from Epson is suppost to have good "staying power" but I have not read very much about its actual performance. Tom

[Sharon Brunson]

I ordered the MIS VM hextone black and white inks and tomorrow I'm ordering Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308 paper. I'm wondering who else is using something like this? I like the Epson HWM put wanted to try something else.

I joined the Epson-Leben list and the Digital BW lists mainly to learn about different papers and inks but there aren't many people on those lists talking about restoring photographs.

I'll let you know how this combo works when I get it. If some of you try something different let me know.

By the way, is anyone using Epson Watercolor?

Please forgive me if you have already hashed these things out.

Sharon

[BigAl]

Tom is right in that you must get your prints behind some kind of protective layer as soon as the inks are dry. As I said on another thread, I use NuJet inks with Epson Glossy/Photo Papers (not archival papers), and some of my prints look as good as the day they were printed, nearly 5 years down the road. These prints are all behind glass hanging on walls. I once had a test print (Epson inks on Glossy paper) on my window sill (bright light but no direct sunlight), and after a month the reds had almost disappeared, and after 6 months you could hardly make out the image. I also made a bunch of prints on 4x6 paper to test the printer as well as scanning resolution and dumped these in a shoe box. These also still look good after 5 years.

On another thread someone was querying a cold press laminator. I'd really like to know how long the colors would last with the standard papers using a laminate to seal the print. The only thing I'd be worried about here, is if there's a reaction between the plasticiser in the laminate and the ink/paper combination.

Has anyone tried using archival papers with the pre-870/1270 printers and inks?

BTW Sam, I'm really battling to get Epson papers at a reasonable price at the moment.