Inkjet images don't just fade; they can vanish

Photos printed on inkjet paper will be around for decades. Right? Image experts work hard to figure out the answer.
The New York Times

The story "Inkjet images don't just fade; they can vanish" published June 5, 2007 at 6:42 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[jrembold]

my photos

I have an Inkjet photo that I printer 2-3 years ago that has basically stayed in a box and now is faded and seriously discolored. Now I print photos on color laserjet.

[kenny-J]

Let's see......

Digital Photography. Storage media (effectively the negative)unstable subject to crashes (hard drives), degradation (CD/DVD's burned, not pressed). Prints unstable-print goes, media goes--bye,bye image. Best capture mode for manipulation is RAW, but the several formats are proprietary. Advances in software may or may not be backward compatible with capture software. If Sony drops its digital line, like Minolta did its film line,

Film. Properly stored negatives, especially silver based ones, practically indestructable. I have color prints made in the 50's that have been displayed in a home environment all that time and are just showing a loss of intensity; slides made in the 60's still good; 8 X 10 B&W glass negative exposed around the turn of the century still good; tin types from 1800's still good. Nothing proprietary about the process to store and print negatives.

I'll stick with film, as long as I can get it, for my serious photography. Digital is the present day Polaroid--take it, see it, print it now. BTW, I also have Polaroids taken in the mid-50's that are still good. I'll admit it is fun to scan my images and see what I can do with them in Photoshop.

[mbenedict]

Wrong thinking...

Film is not 'indestructable'(sic).

Film needs to be either mounted or enclosed in a plastic sleeve (or both) to prevent scratches, problems with dust, etc., and even the act of taking it out of its sleeve for printing can damage it.

Moreover film is sensitive to humidity, can have molds growing on them, etc. Plus the popular C-41 film process has dyes that typically fade within 10 years.

With digital images, on the other hand, you can make arbitrary numbers of *perfect* copies for archiving. It is also media agnostic... feel free to copy them to archival tapes, hard drives, make remote backups, etc.

What's more, when new digital storage devices become commercially viable in the future, you can use them, too. You can, say, make perfect new copies of your digital images to new media every 15 years, ad infinitum. Try that with film!

Worried about backwards compatibility? Puh-lease. Film processing labs closing their doors. The toxic chemical process will no longer be profitable, and the environmental pressures alone will guarantee their obsolescence. You'll be able to print RAW images long after the neighborhood C-41 film lab closes down.

Color prints fading? With digital images, 100 years from now your great-grand-children can simply reprint your pictures with perfect results.