Dye-Based or Pigment-Based? Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks

Here's an interesting article on inkjet ink technology by Tony Martin,
President of Lyson USA

Dye-Based or Pigment-Based?
Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks

http://www.ink2image.com/files/Photo...es_article.pdf

I first read this article some time ago, and I just reread it. I came
to the same conclusion then as I do now. Much of the information is
accurate, but it is constructed in such a way as to draw some possibly
incorrect conclusions.

Yes, perhaps some older pigment inks settled out after a year without
agitation. But the newer inks are better, and who leaves their inks
sitting for a year without agitating them. Ink in cartridges above the
movable head are continually in movement during printing, and the ones
with stationary cartridges, if they aren't used up in 4-6 months should
probably should be removed and agitated. It's no big deal.

Iris printers were pretty good for DYE inks back in 1998. Wilhelm gave
them up to about 40 years in the accelerated aging tests with a variety
of art papers, while most other dye inks were rated under 3 years (the
Ilford Archiva inks were rated at 80 years with Ilford's infojet
papers). However, at the same time, Novajet Encad pigment inks were
rated at over 150 years.

Iris prints were typically treated with a UV coating to improve their
fade resistance.

Although dye inks have improved over the years, pigment inks are the
highest rated inks for fade resistance, relative to the best dye ink,
although the gap is narrowing. With that, so is the color gamut.

With today's quality pigment and hybrid inks, one would be hard pressed
to know which was which with most subjects.

Lastly, although I would agree that with most printers designed for dye
inks with pigment inks is problematic, it is not a great issue with
Epson printers. In fact, the heads for each are pretty much identical.
The difference is in the duration and regularity of the cleaning
cycles. There are many people using Epson 1270/80/90 printers which
came with dye inks which are being used for pigment inks now, with few
issues.

Lyson sells primarily dye colorant inks, and although some of the
fundamentals of the linked to article are good basic information, the
conclusions appear to me to contain some bias leaning to dye inks, such
as those sold by Lyson.

Art




TC wrote:
> Here's an interesting article on inkjet ink technology by Tony Martin,
> President of Lyson USA
>
> Dye-Based or Pigment-Based?
> Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks
>
> http://www.ink2image.com/files/Photo...es_article.pdf