Advise for archival black printing

[WorkerDrone]

Hello everybody

after a few hours googling, I found this forum. I admit, my knowledge about inks is some points below that of many users here, so after reading here some articles here and still not finding the answer I would like to ask for help on my problem:

Goal:
I want to print large amounts of texts (Black) for archival purposes. This is because I want print important information for a scenario without electrical power (called doom or TSHTF). If you think this is crazy imagine a lawyer which needs documents for a long time readeable. What ever you feel comfortable with.

Actual situation:
I have a Canon MP700 (AIO) using BCI-3eBk and the colors are BCI-3e.

I did test on printouts and they faded pretty fast behind glass exposed to sun. This could be, because I used refill-ink. Although the dealer has a high reputation (own forum, many references in the internet) his pigmented ink ist not so good. A second opinion from you would be helpful.


Confusion:
There is a lot discussion about lasting prints but they are all about color prints (photos).
On the other hand, I found an article which states that PGI-5Bk is good for archival. Then another stating that BCI3eBk is the same ink as in PGI-5Bk.
I got the impression, that I bought the wrong brand, Epson should be better. But then, I read in this forum that Epson has this patent-thing going on forbidding the sales of other inks.

OMG.....

Best case scenario:
Because the original ink is very expensive and the large amount of prints I will do, I would like to use the possibility to refill the inks. Does somebody knows a ink supplier which has an ink which lasts (printed) 100 years or so for my MP700?
Second best scenario:
There is another printer which I can buy (even refurbished if necessary).

Thanks in advance for tips.
WD

 

[Smile]

Why don't you use laser printer instead. Laser prints with toner that is "plastic" that will be more durable than any pigment inkjet you can buy.

 

[WorkerDrone]

Why don't you use laser printer instead.

Because plastic does not merge with the paper and can therefore be loosen from the paper. I experienced this by myself as I last year opened old scripts from my studies (astonishing what i knew then...). The papers came out of a copier. The paper (or better the toner) sticked together. I had to use (light) force to seperate two papers and they were not very well readeable anymore. I assume this is the same technology like lasers. Both use toner. You may say, something was not correct adjusted during copying... ok,perhaps but a local books repair man says the same about laser prints. He handles daily ancient books. Ok, he hates modern technology...

Why is it not easy for the industry to produce something that monks centuries ago already had????

 

[qwertydude]

Well my advice would be what I do for my cheap printer. There's a brand of fountain pen ink called Noodler's Ink it is well known in the fountain pen community for being the most indestructible ink ever. Completely ph neutral, archival, UV proof, and chemical proof once on paper. In fact they have a challenge that if you can safely remove it from paper without destroying the paper you win $2000. I've tried all sorts of chemicals and bleach even, the paper will disintegrate before the ink even begins to fade. Refill a dedicated black printer with it, mine is an hp so if it clogs I can just replace the cartridge, so far no clogging after 3 refills so I think I'm safe.

http://www.pendemonium.com/ink_noodler_info.htm

Here's a little info about one guy's testing of the permanence of the ink.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The BCI-3eBk ink is pigment and the colors are dye which will fade on plain paper and run if they get wet. There is an improvement in the PGI-5Bk ink over the BCI-3eBk in that it is less prone to smear when a highlighter is used which tells me that if you get a solvent on the printed ink from a BCI-3eBk cartridge then it will also smear.

So for your first best scenario you can use a good 100% pigment black refill ink. I use Inktec and you can get it from:

http://www.inkjetcartridge.com/bci3ebk.html

Don't buy the cartridges already refilled--they are not Inktec. You need to get the small bottle for $2.95 each. You can also get the ink in larger bottles but it is very difficult to find a supplier in the USA.

There are several other brands of 100% black pigment ink.

See this link:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630

 

[WorkerDrone]

Hey qwertydude, that Noodler ink impressed me. They had a written paper eight months on a window exposed to sun and no detoriation.....Wow. The monks would be envious.
I believe I will try that....I mean, such experiments are very interesting.

ghwellsjr, thanks for the link to the thread and the hint to inktec inks. I bought the wrong ink it seems. You even knew that only the bottles contain the good ink.

I'm impressed about your knowledge. Thanks a thousand times!

I will buy a used old printer for the pen ink tests and the inktec inks for my MP700 (no experiments with that device).

I'll keep you up to date with my experiments if you are interested.

Best regards
WD