LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting has been widely used as a major light source to illuminate photographic prints. But it is not clear how aggressive LED lighting affects to image stability of prints. The light stability tests were carried out using some commercially available white LED lamps and fading behavior was compared to the standardized xenon light testing which simulates indirect sunlight indoor. It was clarified that fading under LED lighting is less than xenon lighting but it correlates well to the xenon testing in the order of prints in light stability.
The photographic industry has had a long-standing concern over the use of materials containing poly vinyl chloride (PVC) materials. This caution was warranted due to PVC materials and plasticizers causing damage to silver halide photographic prints in the 1970s and early 1980s, often from album covers and print storage sleeves, among others. Several international standards for safe storage of photographic materials specifically forbid the use of PVC-containing materials. However, as the photo book industry has grown, new imaging materials are now in use, such as pages produced with electrophotographic printing technologies. In addition the actual materials used in construction of the photo book itself have changed, including the use of modern PVC-containing materials. Given the historical concerns around the use of PVC, an extensive test was designed to explore a range of modern PVC-containing materials in combination with the typical range of imaging media in use today. This includes silver halide, electrophotographic, inkjet, and thermal dye transfer imaging systems. This paper will review the design, implementation, and results of this test, as well as provide recommendations and test procedures that can be used to determine the compatibility of photo book construction materials with various imaging systems.
There are a wide range of digital print technologies available today for use in photo books. This includes Inkjet, Electro Photographic, Dye Sublimation and Silver Halide. Silver halide paper, incorporates imaging technology and image quality that allows print providers to exceed consumer expectations for photo book image quality and the ability to offer a premium product in this growing, but crowed category. KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Premier Paper is a silver halide photographic paper which incorporates new technology specifically for digital printing and continues to advance the state of the art of silver halide technology. Within the growing photo book market, the use of ENDURA Premier Paper provides the optimal balance of high image quality, long-term permanence, high productivity, and low cost, a combination that is sure to delight consumers. This paper will discuss the use of silver halide technology in the production of photo books, and specifically how KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Premier Paper, meets the needs of the premium photo book market. In addition, the paper will discuss the critical attributes for longevity and the performance that KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Premier Paper provides when used in the creation of photo books. With premium photo books becoming the photo album of the 21st century, consumer needs for long-term preservation of digital image files have never been more important than they are today.
Original Photopaper is now leading Premium photo book segment, next developments will not only bring the medium segment in reach for Original Photopaper photo books, but will attract also new players into Original Photopaper technology. Listening to customer needs, listening to central lab needs, continuously innovating and the success of honest cost - margin calculations leading to new Original Photopaper developments and its applications. Since first time FUJIFILM is developing papers specific for central lab high speed printing equipment. Next to that FUJIFILM organizes cooperation of best in class Original Photopaper equipment manufacturers who will bring our industry into next era where central lab production will be leading in costs, quality and speed of fulfilling customers needs. It's also the era where pure digital printing companies decide to enter the Original Photopaper production technologies, as we see several companies starting with it the last couple of months.
Preservation of photo books extends beyond simply preserving the physical object Preservation requires understanding the photo book production process, which begins with taking digital photos, includes digital file creation, and extends to manufacturing the book in its final form. Unfortunately, the intermediate steps are often lost, with manufacturers generally unwilling to supply intermediate files in some false belief that doing so threatens future profitability. Overall, this business practice is short-sighted and is in fact counterproductive when it comes to photo book preservation.
Unibind leads the evolution of the PhotoBook with 2 new innovations, Herewith is the first innovation for the inside of the PhotoBook with the lay flat paper solution call UniPaper. This new product of Unibind brings the solution for the lay flat paper: The UniPaper. The first photobooks were the evolution from the albums, where pictures were fixed with glue or with other attachments. These albums were made with heavy paper and the need for lay flat was not a point, seen the different pictures in the same paper. Previously there were no panorama cameras for panorama pictures. Recently cameras were developed with the very wide angle or with a movie application, both resulting in pictures with a double landscape view. Since the double landscape picture exists, and if the printer can print these double landscapes, then the industry of photobooks must develop also photobooks with these double landscape printed paper. Unibind has developed this solution, the UniPaper, thanks to the special folding technique and thanks to the system of binding based on the steel channel. The main requirement for Customer Photo Books in the future must lay flat when open. Punching holes in the beautiful pictures is not acceptable now. Only binding with resin will be acceptable in the future. The lay Flat will be an absolute condition, but resin binding and Lay Flat are conflicting. Today there are only (2) possibilities to combine in a positive way for the resin to Lay Flat by specifically treating the paper for this purpose by either: • Made in the factory with the paper selected by the user-printer. • Made in the printer factory with the paper before or after the print. UniPaper will economically be less costly.
Through the history of inkjet printing, a wide variety of colorants, coatings, and supports have been used to create fine art and professional photographs collected by museums and other cultural institutions. These materials have shown, through anecdotal experience as well as scientific study, a high degree of variability with respect to decay under room condition storage. Theory, as well as experimentation, has indicated that progressively lower storage temperatures should result in progressively longer lifespans. However, there is concern that crossing the threshold into freezing conditions could have adverse effects on the image quality of prints or the physical integrity of coatings and supports as has been found with other fine art and photographic materials through history. The experiments in this project investigated whether freezing and thawing would significantly alter the physical integrity or visual appearance of inkjet prints. Printed targets and non-printed sheets were tested for a variety of common deterioration forms including ink bleed, paper yellowing, change in gloss, coating embrittlement, and increase in abrasion sensitivity. Non-frozen controls and samples that had been frozen at -12° Celsius for one week and then thawed were tested and compared for the above types of decay. The freezing and thawing was shown to have no adverse effects on the prints. Freezing conditions can therefore be used as a storage option to maximize life expectancy for these materials. Validation of the use of below freezing temperature storage conditions for these materials is a critical addition to the literature on the subject of inkjet print care.
Standardized testing and reporting of image permanence and durability performance using ISO standardized methods allows photo fulfillment companies to assess and promote product performance in a way that is easily comparable by both professional fulfillment laboratories and consumers. A previous paper reviewed standards being developed to test the performance of printed pages. This paper will focus on the development of a test method standard for photo book durability that will provide a common testing platform for photo book producers to help create high quality products in this important growth category.
Standardized testing and reporting of image permanence and durability performance using ISO standardized methods allow photo fulfillment companies to assess and promote product performance in a way that is easily comparable by both professional fulfillment laboratories and consumers. Standards in development on the durability assessment of photo books and stability performance ratings of consumer prints will provide a clear, common comparison among products and allow a better understanding of these attributes by the consumer. This in turn can help grow the photo printing industry by encouraging printing and promoting the value inherent in the long term permanence of photographic quality prints and photo books.