Gloss optimizer and fading of dye inks

[The Hat]

The way I used to improve my pigment yellow was to add 2% magenta and 1% cyan to 100 ml bottle, there was no visual difference to the colour, but it improved the stability for me...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

to add 2% magenta and 1% cyan to 100 ml bottle

an interesting approach indeed

 

[slackercruster]

GO in itself seems to have excellent archival characteristics. Since I use highly fade resistant pigment inks I an not that concerned with GO as a fad resister. I am more concerned if GO has a negative effect such as turning yellow.

nsfw

https://danieldteolijrarchivalcollection.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/409/

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

It's not the GO alone which may turn yellow over time, there is the paper base, the coating, the GO, the optical brighteners and the environmental storage conditions all having an impact onto the fading and yellowing.

 

[palombian]

The way I used to improve my pigment yellow was to add 2% magenta and 1% cyan to 100 ml bottle, there was no visual difference to the colour, but it improved the stability for me...

@The Hat , my hat off for your ingeniosity.

OTH, I have a sunflower print (behind glass) keeping it's colours very well.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I was running a fading test to check whether and which difference it makes to use 1x GO overprint or 2x GO overprint on dye inks, it is now 9 weeks since this test started, the dye inks used for this test are fading significantly after 9 weeks with the targets placed outside, no sun, gray clouds, humitidy, and not much UV radiation at all. The black has turned brown as typical, and Cyan got visibly lighter - all colors together +69 lightness increase. The patches with 1x and 2x GO don't show any visible fading yet, the patches with 1xGO just start giving a small measurable difference +2, the patches with 2xGO no change at all. +-0. I'm stopping this test here, it shows the significant improvement possible with 1x or 2xGO over dye inks, if you use that GO option it should be more a decision which prints look better - with 1x or 2x GO, both options give you a significant improvement with the fading performance of the dye inks in use. It is the look which differes between 1x or 2x GO overprint as shown above. There nevertheless may be variances of this effect - different inks on different papers may perform different. It is just not possible to test all combinations.

 

[peter D]

another 2 weeks are gone, and I can confirm the trend that a GO overprint on dye inks improves the fading performance by a factor of about 2, I tested this now for 8 weeks on a Netbit glossy and a Farbenwerk semiglossy with the Fujifilm DL dye inks. The effect is smaller - about a 1.5 improvement on a Tecco photo matte paper. Another test is running with pigment inks, but this test does not show any trend yet, the currently measurable changes are still within scanner and reading accuracy. I'll just continue the test with the pigment inks for the next weeks.

Might be an outrageous idea but I was wondering if it was possible that Canon might have incorporated part of a GO (their Chroma Optimiser) formulation into their ChromaLife 100+ dye inkset mixed into the individual inks. Of course it wouldn't be applied over the top of the image ink laid down but I was wondering if it worked as a fade reducer anyway.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I think I didn't do any fading test since almost a year, so I'm currently trying to reconfirm some findings from this and other previous tests - does a gloss opt. overprint help dye ink prints to fade slower than w/o a GO overprint.
I have started just a little test about 6 weeks ago with the Epson 106 dye ink - used in the Ecotank ET-770 model, an ink which turned out to be one of the best already w/o GO in respect to fading.
There are no significant changes yet to report after these 6 weeks, the test patches are placed outside exposed to the current weather conditions - temps around freezing or above, virtually no sun , snow is gone, but most likely still some ozone around - day and night. So I'll see over the next weeks whether some effect of the GO becomes visible , and I'll report it here.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

These are the first findings after 7 weeks, numbers start separating, a total of 5 or 8
for the lightness changes of all CMYK colors is not visible yet but numbers are coming
out of the reading noise. This confirms earlier tests that a GO overprint of dye inks
can slow down their fading.

Paper Fading Test Epson 106 - GO overprint
Total Lightness increase of CMYK patches (Range from 0 - 255)
(measured with a scanner, delta via the histogram vs.
a copy kept in the dark)
L800 Printer, Epson 106 inkset, Ultra Glossy driver setting, Sihl glossy paper


_____________________________after___week 1__week 4__week 7


patches w/o GO overprint______________1________4______8

patches w GO overprint________________0________3______5

 

[The Hat]

I found when I used GO on my Glossy paper with dye ink on the Canon printer made no difference to the overall look of the prints and they faded slower at the start of my tests, but later, they caught up to the prints that had no GO applied to them..

My conclusions: It wasn’t worth the effort, more effective to use pigment ink..