The color drift occurring in inkjet prints during the hours, days, and weeks after printing can be significantly influenced by the relative humidity of the environment in which the print resides. Especially for dye-based systems, the amount of color drift caused by real world humidity levels (e.g., 65–80% RH) is great enough to affect the accuracy of color management profiles if they are made too soon after printing and/or at humidity levels which differ greatly from later print making conditions. The short term drift or “dry-down” behavior reported in this paper also indicates the need for careful print conditioning procedures or data compensation techniques when designing image permanence testing procedures that are intended to examine other modes of color change such as light-fastness or thermal aging. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, when a failure criterion for allowable color change over time is chosen with regard to assessing the long term humidityfastness of a product, the inclusion or exclusion of the short term drift component can lead to major discrepancies in the life expectancy prediction.