In today's market, the consumer has a wide array of technologies to choose from when making photo prints. The most prevalent of these include piezo inkjet, thermal inkjet, silver halide, color electrophotography and dye thermal imaging. Some of these are available as inexpensive printers for the home or business, and some through use of a kiosk or retail supplier. This presentation provides the results of testing of representative samples of each of the technologies that are readily available to consumers.Due to a growing awareness of the need for image longevity, consumers are recognizing the value of using a technology that will provide a lasting image. To date there is no industry standard or test methodology, so TPR has used commonly used methods and procedures for accelerated exposure under several conditions that have been shown to affect image stability. The tests include the effects of long-term UV exposure, gas fastness, dark keeping and humidity exposure. Prints from the following sources were tested:Desktop Inkjet PrintersCanon MP600Epson RX580Epson CX7800HP Photosmart 5180Kodak EK5300Lexmark X9450Desktop Laser PrintersDell 3010HP Color Laserjet 2600Konica Minolta 2400WRetail KiosksAltech CW01 (thermal)HP Edgeline Kiosk (inkjet)Kodak Kiosk (thermal)Mitsubishi CP-9550 (thermal)Sony (thermal)Photo LabsFuji Crystal Archive (sliver halide)Kodak Professional Super Endura (sliver halide)Kodak Royal (sliver halide).Tested prints included fine lines and bleed patterns as well as color density patches and typical photos. Absolute predictions of image life can be contentious, so a comparison of each technology and its image stability performance is made and conclusions are drawn. No attempt has been made in this test to assess or compare image quality parameters.
Peter Mason, Len Carreira, "Image Permanence: Comparing the Technologies" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication (NIP23), 2007, pp 732 - 732, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2007.23.1.art00053_2