Wich is more fade resistant Hobbicolors UW8 or ImageSpecialists?

[dparadowski]

I have a ip4500 printer and print mainly on Kirkland (Made in USA) or Ilford Galerie Gloss papers. I was wondering if anybody has use both the UW8 Hobbicolors and the ImageSpecialists inks and can tell which one is more fade resistant. I will shortly be using the Ilford paper only because there is no Costco near Buffalo, NY.

 

[leo8088]

I refill with UW8 ink. It's a very durable ink. I had a stain on the lower leg portion of my jean by UW8 yellow ink. The jean has been washed many times still the yellow stain is there. It is getting lighter each time it is washed. But it has been there for at least 3 to 4 months. I certainly have no knowledge how its fade resistance compared with image specialist ink. But I can feel it that it is not like some cheap ink that some people said will fade in a few months. Believe it or not. The performance of UW8 ink is what that will really impress you. Once you use it you will not want to switch to other inks. I am completely sold on this ink. I believe you will be too if you try it.

 

[on30trainman]

David,
I am not sure you will find anyone who has used/is using both Hobbicolor and Image Specialists inks. Both seem to get very favorable reviews here and when a person picks one or the other he will probably stick with the choice. I happen to use Hobbicolor UW8 inks and am happy with them. I ran a fading test (not really scientific) last summer. The Hobbicolor inks do fade more than Canon OEM inks, but not real bad. The prints were placed in full sun of about 8 hours daily for several months. Yes Hobbicolor inks fade, but I don't keep my prints stored in full sun. Mostly in albums where they see very little full light except when I open the album and look at the prints. Is your situation such that the prints will be in strong light constantly?

Steve W.

 

[dparadowski]

I currently us the Hobbicolors inks and was just wondering about the Image specialist. I have custom profiles that I made at work the the 2 papers I use most, but was thinking if the fade resistance is as good with the IS ink it would be a closer match colorwise for other papers I don't have profiles for.

 

[stratman]

I currently us the Hobbicolors inks and was just wondering about the Image specialist. I have custom profiles that I made at work the the 2 papers I use most, but was thinking if the fade resistance is as good with the IS ink it would be a closer match colorwise for other papers I don't have profiles for.

One thing you could do is send Grandad35 some of your Hobbicolor ink. He will test it and report the findings of how well it correlates to OEM Canon and third party inks. He already has data on how well MIS/IS and Formulabs inks perform color-wise against OEM Canon ink. The link to his fantastic data is http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2681. See the spreadsheet for graphical interpretations of the data.

While this will not help you with the question of longevity/fastness of the ink, it will give you excellent data about color reproduction potential before you purchase the ink or another profile. And you would be helping the community with your donations too!

 

[leo8088]

Ink's fade resistance has a significant dependency on the medium the ink is printed on. OEM ink's fade resistance is no doubt very good but for the colors to really last as long as the manufacturer's claim the medium used must be the one specified by the manufacturer in their text condition. I normally do not print on Canon's paper because they are so expensive. Now that I print on cheap papers, such as Kirkland brand paper from Costco, I think it would be a waste of money to print on such paper with OEM ink. Alternatively, it is so cheap to print on Kirkland paper with Hobbicolors ink. The quality of photo I get is no doubt every bit as good as original OEM ink. I have a lot of portraits that I printed more than a year ago. I keep them in plastic sheet proctors made by Avery. I have albums full of such sheet proctors with lots of 8x11 photos. I have not seen any fading that can catch my attention. If the colors suddenly begin to fade I would be very disappointed of course but I doubt it would happen. So far I am completely sold for this ink from Hobbicolors. If Grandad35 can test and confirm (or otherwise) the fade resistance of this ink it would be a great help for people who use this ink.

 

[Grandad35]

If Grandad35 can test and confirm (or otherwise) the fade resistance of this ink it would be a great help for people who use this ink.

This link describes how we performed the fading tests - it is relatively easy for anyone to test their own ink/paper combinations and to compare their results against our results. Unfortunately, it is not easy to test the ozone fading.