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? ============================================================== _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]