Fading Test Epson 106 107 114 T54C bottled inks

[Ink stained Fingers]

a mix ratio of 30:70 or 1:2 is not so much different, but you may as well use the 107 light inks instead - or the T54C light inks - check the pricing

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I concluded a fading test with the Inktec dye inks vs. the Epson 106 inks - on 4 different papers - 2 OEM - Epson and HP - and 2 cast coated budget papers LogicSeek and Hayatec - both via Amazon.

Using OEM inks and papers makes a big difference vs. the budget level consumables - the worst combination is the Inktec ink on the cast coated papers.

By far the weakest color is the InkTec black - the DeltaE is shifting by about 50 - 60 , that is through about half of the Lab color space - from the starting black point to a medium light chocolade brown end point - just after 3 weeks. All CMY colors shift significantly and an image turns visibly lighter. Using the Epson 106 inks on a cast coated paper may ease the situation somewhat - this combination would use the more stable black , but this as well suffers from the weak coating of cast coated papers. Using the Inktec inks on OEM papers does not really make the situation much better . Only OEM inks on PE/RC type papers really give good longevity of dye ink prints,
3rd party PE/RC papers perform just slightly weaker as I have shown in earlier tests - in this case with the Glossy 300.

 

[Werwolf1985]

So i would conclude that using original Ink on CC paper is not a total waste of money, and still better than using cheap ink on RC Paper? Surprised, how bad the Inktec performs!
I recently put out some prints out of the drawer, from around 2004, printed with cheap refill ink on an HP 5550 on Aldi Paper (most likely the Sihl RC paper). Printouts still look good to me. So i have hope, that prints with the 106 ink on CC paper will not behave worse, when not put in direct sun but stored dark. Thanks for sharing your comparisons, i highly appreciate this! 😉

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

So i would conclude that using original Ink on CC paper is not a total waste of money, and still better than using cheap ink on RC Paper?

Yes, relatively seen performs the OEM ink on a cc paper better than the Inktec ink on OEM paper. But please be aware that there is second fading effect completely separate from the fading under light - UV - ozone exposure, prints fade as well in the dark and away from any of these agents. There is no accelerated test possible for this effect - darker than dark is not possible to get some faster results. But this dark fading will overlap the other fading effects over time.
I don't know how large these changes will become over time - I started a separate test about dark fading

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/fading-of-patch-sheets-in-the-dark.16099/post-139683

but it'll take a while until the results will give a good long term picture.

It was about 25 years ago that the printer companies came out with a new generation of long term stable inks - Epson with the Claria inks - Brother with the Innobella inks - Canon with the Chromalife inks and HP as well but they didn't give a marketing name to their inks. So yes - it is quite possible that you got some good looking prints from longer time ago. I got both - good prints and bad prints depending on the inks I used at those days.