Mark,

It depends on the substrate (media) used,  as well as on a spray-on
lamination coat.

One of my buddies on a photojournalists listserv ran an experiment.  He
printed up some posters,  using JPEGs of photographs plus varied colored
copy. The printer was an Epson Stylus Color 400 (720x720dpi.)

Three went on inkjet lightweight cardstock, three on HP Hi-Gloss (about
$1.00/sheet), three on Kodak PhotoQuality Gloss (almost $2.00/sheet.)

He allowed three days drying time (inkjet inks contain little, if any,
Japan or other drying agents, to prevent 'caking' and the resulting
clogging of the inkjet cartridge's jets.)  If you scrape the ink off
prior to three days,  on any coated (glossy) stock,  it is still damp to
the touch on the underside since its volatiles cannot evaporate
throughthe weave of the paper fibres,  the only path for evaporation is
from the top-surface of the ink globules and,  as it forms a tough skin
fairly rapidly, evaporation of solvents is retarded.

He then sprayed one set of the prints with a Krylon UV protective
laminate coat (be sure to turn can upside down and give a short burst,
away from prints, to clear the nozzle each time before starting to
spray.)

He placed one of each print in its own manila folder as an archival copy,
 and two of each outdoors, one sprayed and one unsprayed of each print
(supported on plywood) where it was exposed to the elements,  being
careful to face them North (he lives in Central PA.)

In one year:

Cardstock:  The unsprayed was almost white.  The sprayed had its reds
faded to almost a dull bubblegum pink,  the greens washed-out to yellows,
 and the blues starting to fade. The archival unsprayed was fading
similarly,  but at a much slower rate.

HP Hi-Gloss and Kodak Photo Quality:  unsprayed,  reds were faded to dull
pink,  greens washed-out to yellow,  darker blues faded to lighter blues.
 Sprayed, looked as good as the day whenthey were first sprayed. He ran
off fresh copies for comparison purposes, let them dry for three days,
then sprayed them,  and left that to dry-back for another two days,  then
compared to the sprayed copies which had braved the elements.  After
wiping with a dampened sponge (to remove dust and grime) he made a visual
comparison inspection,  asked others to tell which had been outdoors for
a year (at standard viewing distance of fourteen inches,  he showed them
the sprayed new prints, the sprayed outdoor exposed prints, and the
unsprayed archival prints,  side-by-side) and most picked the archival
copies (which had begun to fade slightly)!  There were no recognizable
differences between the HP Hi-Gloss version and the Kodak Photo Quality
version as far as ink-fading is concerned.  The Kodak does give better
reflectance for professional display purposes (almost as good as a real
glossy photo print would.)

All very unscientific, to be sure, but good practical empirical test
nonetheless, no?

HTH,

Opie                            [log in to unmask]
==============================================================
On Monday, June 08, 1998 12:56 PM,  Mark Powdermaker wrote:

> I'm not sure if laminating will be of any benefit. I know that it
doesn't
> stop newsprint paper from yellowing. I seem to remember reading
> that inkjet  inks last for about a year then begin to fade.

> Anyone have an idea how permanent the inks used in color
> printers are?
==============================================================

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