Samples needed for a fading test

panos

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Do you think a post on usenet linking to this topic could help?
 

Grandad35

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Panos,

We have been thinking of opening this up to other forums if we didn't get a response, so it's worth trying. I am not a member of that group, so would you mind making the cross-post?
 

Grandad35

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Panos,

Thanks for the attempt. That group is certainly a great place to request assistance, knowing that you will receive well reasoned, thoughtful, helpful and appropriate responses.

Given that there are a number of good (moderated) printing forums to choose from, why would a serious person waste their time on that one?
 

panos

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Grandad, I've learned to ignore (or have fun with) usenet trolls. A newsreader with killfile (user filtering) ability always helps of course. I wouldn't underestimate the usenet because of its lack of moderation. Some very serious people, like Arthur Entlich, still post there. I have gained from the usenet more than any web forum, excluding this one.

Anyway... I think we have some members of other related forums, so I hope one of them will help spread the sample request.
 

Grandad35

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A quick update.

We have now received 36 of 39 samples (the other 3 are either in the mail or about to be printed). Both the ozone and light/UV fading are going well, and we should have our all of our data collected within an additional 3-4 weeks. We have already tested over 1/2 of the samples, but the remaining samples contain the longest longevity combinations that are expected to take the longest time to fade. It will then take a little more time to process the data, document our observations and post the hundreds of images so that they can be downloaded.

As was mentioned earlier, we will not be giving "rated longevity" values, but will include baseline reference samples which have already been rated by Wilhelm so that interested parties can come to their own conclusions by comparing the appropriate images. Our tests have already made it very clear that there is no single value for how long a print/photo will last, and that a print's life also depends on such things as how saturated you make your prints and what colors are critical in the print. For example, a blue sky consists of magenta and cyan. If only the yellow fades in such a photo, it won't be noticed. Similarly, flesh tones typically have a low level of cyan, so the loss of cyan in a portrait isn't as noticeable (see the Fuji Crystal Archive sample posted below). OTOH, a loss of yellow or magenta in flesh tones is very noticeable. This is important because different ink/paper combinations have different fading rates with different colors.

Fadeaway, JV and I have already learned a great deal about the nature of fading from these tests, and we look forward to sharing the results and our observations when they are complete. It is also our intention to show how easy it is to conduct your own light/UV fading tests so that anyone can easily test their own ink/paper combinations for light/UV fading by comparing their results with the reference samples which we will present. There is no reason to go without fading data just because you use 3rd party bulk ink or prefilled carts.

Any comments/concerns about this approach?
 
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