hobbicolors ink fading

[KnightCrawler]

The new stuff

OK, are you saying I should throw away the remaining ink and buy this one. I still have enough quantity for tens of refills. And why the "new" ink should be any better?

Email hobbicolors about your fading problem and see if they can't send you some new ink for free. Show them the pictures.

It might be a bad batch of ink.

 

[nikivan]

Email hobbicolors about your fading problem and see if they can't send you some new ink for free. Show them the pictures.

It might be a bad batch of ink.

Thanks for the advice. I will do that.

on30trainman, how is your test with the direct sunlight going? I also placed a test image on a direct sunlight. The window is getting an average 3 hours of afternoon sun. After 3 days I can see visible fading, I don't even need to compare the image to my control which is stored in a cabinet. If your images are holding, KnightCrawler might be right I have a bad batch.

 

[on30trainman]

nikivan,
My prints have been in the window for three days now - two days of at least 6+ hours of full sun each and today about three hours - we are finally getting some sorely needed rain, but there was some sun this afternoon. No fading that I can detect. I put Post-It type paper patches over a section of each print so that fading would hopefully be easier to see. If I get a chance in the next two weeks - before I leave to visit my kids in Texas - I want to put some prints outside where they will get the full effect of the sun - not behind the window glass which is two panes thick. Right now they are calling for clouds and rain well into next week. Will post when I have more info.
Wonder if it could have something to do with the paper, but you said you were using Canon and Fuji - should be excellent papers. All my prints over the last year have been on Costco Kirkland paper.
BTW - anyone here using the newer Hobbicolor inks in the older Canon printers - ip4000, ip5000 or ip6000? Probably would need to generate a new printer profile, but wonder if they will work. Guess I could ask Dave at Hobbicolors.

Steve W.

 

[nikivan]

on30trainman, thanks for your response. Well, it is encouraging that you don't have the problem. Today I've scanned my test images and I am posting them bellow. Both where printed on Fuji paper and scanned with Epson 1240U in a single pass. The top one was behind dual layered window glass and has 3 days of exposure, but only about 8-9 hours of combined direct sunlight. Note that the top 3/4 inches, and the bottom 1/4 inches of the photo where partially covered for some of the time. The second photo was stored in a cabinet and it looks as fresh as when printed.

KnightCrawler, I've already contacted hobbicolors and I've received quick response from Dave that he will contact their supplier to investigate. I will keep you posted.

 

[Tin Ho]

Just a quick question for you. When you scan the photos was the epson scanner's auto exposure on?

 

[CanonPhreak]

Your papers are apparently not gas fast. I use weink.com inks (ultraflo brand) and they recommended using Red River Polar brand papers (which are gas fast) with their inks.

As I promised, here are the scans for the pictures in question. The bottom of both photos where covered (but not air tight) and don't show visible trace of fading. I think such dramatic shift is not acceptable, but I want to hear your comments.

This one was printed two weeks ago on Fuji paper.


This one was printed two-three months ago on Canon paper.

(note, the vertical lines in the left where caused by deffective cartridge, so they are not related to this topic)

 

[nikivan]

Just a quick question for you. When you scan the photos was the epson scanner's auto exposure on?

I can check, if this is important. The scan on my monitor (calibrated with spider) looks pretty close to the real pictures.

 

[on30trainman]

nikivan,
Today I ran a test with prints outside in direct sunlight. I made three prints with each print having two copies of three different test prints. One is similar to the lastest one you used, but doesn't have the gray scale on the right border. The others are two test prints that I have seen others use - one came with Profile Prism. One print from each sheet was taped to a piece of cardboard and exposed to 8 hours of full direct sun - from 10AM to 6PM EDT. The second set of three were also taped to a similar piece of cardboard and stored out of light. The three prints were done thru Qimage, using my ip6000D and one of the Profile Prism profiles I generated for Hobbicolors ink and Kirkland paper. The printer profile was enabled in Qimage and disabled in the Canon print driver.

At the end of the 8 hours I compared the two sets - yes there was some fading - not a lot but some. Probably similar to what you got from the prints behind glass. BTW my prints behind the window with two panes of glass don't seem to be showing any fading yet. One point - the prints only dried for 1 hour before the test. One day of drying might have been better, but today was sunny and tomorrow is calling for clouds possibly and I wanted to do some testing.

One thing I did notice on your scans was that the gray scale mid values seemed to be taking on a magenta tinge in your faded picture. Is that what you see also? In my case the mid value grays seemed to take on a slight greenish tinge in the faded print. Interesting in that is why I bought Profile Prism - before my prints with Kirkland paper seemed to have a green tinge (and some skin tone problems, when first printed - the profile totally corrected both those problems) - now the faded one has green tinge. Could that be a paper issue?

Again just the results of some not so scientific testing. Be interested in what Dave at HC comes back with.

Steve W.

 

[Tin Ho]

The botton 4 steps on the grey scale on your faded photo are completely white out. That's why I am asking. I wonder if that's the scanner that did not capture what's left in there. A histogram view of the faded photo does not show more fading from one of the 3 primary colors. Normally one color would fade faster. The hisogram view actually shows similar density loss across all 3. This may be the scanner that did not capture the image correctly. An inkjet print of a grey scale typically is not grey. It's usually a little colorful. Before and after fading it's supposed to look colorful. So it's hard to judge the extent of fading from an inkjet grey scale print.

 

[nikivan]

So it's hard to judge the extent of fading from an inkjet grey scale print.

I agree. In this case the faded image did loose most of the gradient grey scale in the middle.

The hisogram view actually shows similar density loss across all 3.

I wonder if this is because the test image was partially covered (Ive put a note about this in my post). If you look carefully at the top and bottom of the two images, they are almost identical. It is the middle section (that was exposed all the time) that is mostly affected. The worst are the skin tones. You may want to redo your histogram analysis after cropping the middle of both images.

One thing I did notice on your scans was that the gray scale mid values seemed to be taking on a magenta tinge in your faded picture. Is that what you see also?

Yes, the shift is toward red/magenta.

At the end of the 8 hours I compared the two sets - yes there was some fading - not a lot but some. Probably similar to what you got from the prints behind glass. BTW my prints behind the window with two panes of glass don't seem to be showing any fading yet.

This is interesting. I assume the fading is proportional to the light intensity and exposure time. I am located in British Columbia, Canada and the sun is not very strong here, at least this part of the year. Where are you located?

I wonder if the paper type printer setting some how affects the rate in which the pictures will fade. I know this setting manages the amount of ink that is laid on the paper. Maybe more ink will mean less fading? In my case I am using Photo Paper Pro setting when printing on my Fuji paper. This gave me the best result in my ink density test I initially run to determine what is the optimum setting for the combination paper/ink prior printing the ProfilePrism target.