www.wilhelm-research.com Category: 4x6-inch Printers Updated September 8, 2006 (page 1 of 5) WIR Display Permanence Ratings for Current Products in the 4x6-inch Photo Category

WIR v3.0 Endpoints at Both 1.0 and 0.6 Densities Type of 4x6-inch Dye-Sub Photo Printer, Inkjet Printer/Inkjet Paper, With Cool White Fluorescent Illumination and (1) Years of Display Based on 450 lux/12 hrs/day And Digital Silver-Halide Color Paper/Digital Minilab Photo Printer With Prints Framed Under Glass(2)

1. Epson PictureMate Pal, Snap, and Flash Personal Photo Labs (PM200, PM240, PM280) 96 years – Printed with Epson PictureMate 200 Series Ink and Glossy Photo Paper (dye-based inkjet prints)

2. HP Photosmart 325, 335, 375, 385, 422, and 475 Compact Photo Printers 82 years(3) – Printed with HP Vivera Inks (HP 95, 97, 343, or 344 Tri-color cartridges) (dye-based inkjet prints) With HP Premium Plus and HP Premium Photo Papers, High Gloss, Glossy, or Soft Gloss

3. Canon Selphy DS700 Compact Photo Printer (dye-based inkjet prints) 41 years – Printed with Canon BCI-16 tricolor ink cartridge and Canon Photo Paper Pro PR-101

4. Fujicolor Crystal Archive Type One Paper (silver-halide color prints) 40 years – Printed with Fuji Frontier 370 digital minilab and Fuji washless chemicals

5. EasyShare Printer Dock, Plus, Series 3, and 6000 Printers (dye-sub prints) 26 years

6. Dell Photo Printer 540 (dye-sub prints) 26 years

7. Kodak Edge Generations and Royal Generations Papers (silver-halide color prints) 19 years(4) – Printed with QSS-3011SM digital minilab and Kodak washless chemicals

8. HP Photosmart 145 and 245 Compact Photo Printers (dye-based inkjet prints) 18 years – Printed using HP No. 57 Tri-color cartridge with HP Premium Plus and HP Premium Photo Papers, High Gloss, Glossy, or Soft Gloss – Printed with HP No. 57 Tri-color cartridge and 11 years(5) Kodak Ultima Picture Paper, High Gloss (Ultima ColorLast “Lasts Over 100 Years” version)

(6) 9. Konica Minolta QA Paper Impresa and Centuria For Digital (silver-halide color prints) 17 years – Printed with Konica Minolta R2 Super 1000 digital minilab and Konica washless chemicals

10. Lexmark SnapShot P315 Photo Jetprinter (dye-based inkjet prints) 16 years – Printed with Lexmark 33 or 35 color ink cartridges and Lexmark Premium Photo Paper

11. Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer (dye-sub prints) 8 years

12. Canon CP-200, CP-220, CP-330, CP400, and CP500 Printers (dye-sub prints) 7 years

13. Sony DPP-FP30 PictureStation Photo Printer (dye-sub prints) 6 years

14. Sony DPP-EX5, DPP-EX7, and DPP-EX50 Printers (dye-sub prints) 4 years

©2006 by Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc. As long as this document remains complete and unaltered, it may be freely distributed to your associates, customers, and friends. This PDF may also be reproduced in magazine articles, books, and other hardcopy print publications; however, it may not be posted on websites without written permission. Links to are welcome. Address e-mail inquiries to: Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc., P.O. Box 775, Grinnell, Iowa 50112 U.S.A.

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Notes on These Tests: Table 1. “Standard” Home Display Illumination Levels Used by Printer, Ink, and Photo Paper Manufacturers 1) This WIR Display Permanence Ratings document fo- cuses on the rapidly growing dedicated 4x6-inch photo printer category and includes data for 4x6-inch dye-sub 120 lux/12 hrs/day 450 lux or 500 lux/10 hrs/day or 12 hrs/day photo printers, 4x6-inch inkjet photo printers, and 4x6- inch silver-halide color prints produced by digital Fuji minilabs. The 4x6-inch (or somewhat smaller) print has Hewlett-Packard long been the most popular print size in the worldwide Epson consumer traditional and digital photofinishing market. Canon Most larger “letter size” inkjet printers can of course Lexmark Ilford also produce prints on 4x6-inch paper, and print per- Konica Minolta manence information for these printers can be found Agfa-Gevaert elsewhere on the Wilhelm Imaging Research website. Kodak DuPont Likewise, digital minilabs can also produce print sizes Ferrania larger than 4x6-inches. InteliCoat Kodak, Sony, Canon, Olympus, and other manufac- Somerset turers of dye-sub printers are the only suppliers of color Arches ribbon and paper “packs” for their respective printers. LexJet To date, third-party “compatible” color ribbons and pa- Lyson pers have not entered the market, and for this reason Luminos the Display Permanence Ratings given here will apply. Hahnemuhle On the other hand, a wide variety of “compatible” American Inkjet inks and media are available for inkjet printers and the MediaStreet reader should be aware that use of papers and inks other than those listed may produce drastically different – usually inferior – permanence results. Digital minilabs 673–679, sponsored by the Society for Imaging Science generally can use “compatible” silver-halide papers and and Technology, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2004. processing chemistry so the Display Permanence Rat- See also: Henry Wilhelm, “A Review of Accelerated ings given here apply only to the specific silver-halide Test Methods for Predicting the Image Life of Digitally- papers, processing chemistry, and digital minilab print- Printed Photographs – Part II,” Final Program and Pro- ers listed. ceedings: IS&T’s NIP20 International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies, pp. 664–669, sponsored 2) Display Permanence Ratings (DPR) are based on ac- by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Salt celerated light stability tests conducted at 35 klux with Lake City, Utah, November 2004. Also available in PDF glass-filtered cool white fluorescent illumination with the format, with color illustrations, from: . 60% relative humidity. Data were extrapolated to a dis- See also: Henry Wilhelm and Carol Brower (contrib- play condition of 450 lux for 12 hours per day using the uting author), The Permanence and Care of Color Pho- Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc. “Visually-Weighted End- tographs: Traditional and Digital Color Prints, Color Nega- point Criteria Set v3.0.” and represent the years of dis- tives, Slides, and Motion Pictures, Preservation Publish- play for easily noticeable fading, changes in color bal- ing Company, Grinnell, Iowa, 1993. The complete book ance, and/or staining to occur. See: Henry Wilhelm, is available in PDF format at no cost from: . Fading Stability of Inkjet Prints and Traditional Color High-intensity light fading reciprocity failures in these Photographs,” IS&T’s 12th International Symposium on tests are assumed to be zero. Illumination conditions Photofinishing Technologies, sponsored by the Society in homes, offices, museums, and galleries do vary, how- for Imaging Science and Technology, Orlando, Florida, ever, and color images will last longer when displayed February 2002. For a PDF file of this article go to . For a study of endpoint criteria corre- more intense than 450 lux. lation with human observers, see: Yoshihiko Shibahara, All prints intended for long-term display should be Makoto Machida, Hideyasu Ishibashi, and Hiroshi framed under glass or plastic to protect them from stain- Ishizuka, “Endpoint Criteria for Print Life Estimation,” ing, image discoloration, and other deterioration caused Final Program and Proceedings: IS&T’s NIP20 Interna- by prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke, cooking tional Conference on Digital Printing Technologies, pp. fumes, insect residues, and other airborne contami-

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Table 2. Filtration Conditions Used by Printer, Ink, and which, with most print materials, increases the rate of Paper Manufacturers with CW Fluorescent Illumination fading compared with fluorescent illumination filtered by ordinary glass (which absorbs UV radiation with wavelengths below about 330nm). Some print materi- UV Filter Glass Filter als are affected greatly by UV radiation in the 313–365nm region, and others very little. Fuji “Gas fading” is another potential problem when Hewlett-Packard prints are displayed unframed, such as when they are Epson attached to kitchen refrigerator doors with magnets, Canon pinned to office walls, or displayed inside of fluorescent Lexmark illuminated glass display cases in schools, stores, and Ilford offices. Field experience has shown that, as a class of Agfa-Gevaert media, microporous “instant dry” papers used with dye- Kodak Konica Minolta based inkjet inks can be very vulnerable to gas fading DuPont when displayed unframed and/or stored exposed to the Ferrania open atmosphere where even very low levels of ozone InteliCoat Somerset and certain other air pollutants are present. Arches In some locations, displayed unframed prints made LexJet with microporous papers and dye-based inks have suf- Lyson fered from extremely rapid image deterioration. This Luminos type of premature ink fading is not caused by exposure Hahnemuhle to light. Polluted outdoor air is the source of most ozone American Inkjet found indoors in homes, offices and public buildings. MediaStreet Ozone can also be generated indoors by electrical equipment such as electrostatic air filters (“electronic dust precipitators”) that may be part of heating and air nants; this precaution applies to traditional black-and- conditioning systems in homes, office buildings, res- white and color photographs as well as inkjet and other taurants, and other public buildings to remove dust, to- types of digital prints. Displayed prints framed with ul- bacco smoke, etc. Electrostatic air filtration units are traviolet filtering glass or ultraviolet filtering plastic sheet also supplied as small “tabletop” devices. generally last longer than those framed under ordinary Potentially harmful pollutants may be found in com- glass. How much longer depends upon the specific bustion products from gas stoves; in addition, micro- print material and the spectral composition of the illu- scopic droplets of cooking oil and grease in cooking minate, with some ink/paper combinations benefitting fumes can damage unframed prints. a great deal more than others. Some products may WIR tests for resistance to ozone using an acceler- even show reduced life when framed under a UV filter ated ozone exposure test (conducted at 23°C and 60% because one of the image dyes or pigments is dispro- RH) and the reporting method outlined in: Kazuhiko portionately protected from fading caused by UV radia- Kitamura, Yasuhiro Oki, Hidemasa Kanada, and Hiroko tion and this can result in more rapid changes in color Hayashi (Seiko Epson), “A Study of Fading Property In- balance than occur with the glass-filtered and/or the doors Without Glass Frame from an Ozone Accelerated bare-bulb illumination conditions. Test,” Final Program and Proceedings – IS&T’s NIP19: For example, if a UV filter protects the cyan and ma- International Conference on Digital Printing Technolo- genta inks much more than it protects the yellow ink in gies, sponsored by the Society for Imaging Science and a particular ink/media combination, the color balance Technology, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 28 – of the image may shift toward blue more rapidly than it October 3, 2003, pp. 415–419. does when a glass filter is used (in which case the fad- Tests for resistance to ozone are conducted with an ing rates of the cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes or pig- accelerated ozone exposure test using a Hampden Test ments are more balanced in the neutral scale). Keep in Equipment Ltd. Model 903 Automatic Ozone Test Cabi- mind, however, that the major cause of fading with most net (with the test chamber maintained at 23°C and 60% digital and traditional color prints in indoor display con- RH) and the reporting method outlined in: Kazuhiko ditions is visible light and although a UV filter may slow Kitamura, Yasuhiro Oki, Hidemasa Kanada, and Hiroko fading, it will not stop it. Hayashi (Seiko Epson), “A Study of Fading Property In- Illumination from bare-bulb fluorescent lamps (with doors Without Glass Frame from an Ozone Accelerated no glass or plastic sheet between the lamps and prints) Test,” Final Program and Proceedings – IS&T’s NIP19: contains significant UV emissions at 313nm and 365nm International Conference on Digital Printing Technolo-

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gies, sponsored by the Society for Imaging Science and rial when it is stored in an album, portfolio box, or other Technology, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 28 – dark place. Arrhenius data are only applicable when October 3, 2003, pp. 415–419. WIR test methods for prints are protected from the open atmosphere; that is, ozone resistance are described in: Michael Berger and they are stored in closed boxes, placed in albums within Henry Wihelm, “Evaluating the Ozone Resistance of Ink- protective plastic sleeves, or framed under glass or high- jet Prints: Comparisons Between Two Types of Acceler- quality acrylic sheet. If prints are stored, displayed with- ated Ozone Tests and Ambient Air Exposure in a Home,” out glass or plastic, or otherwise exposed to the open Final Program and Proceedings: IS&T’s NIP20 Interna- atmosphere, low-level air pollutants may cause signifi- tional Conference on Digital Printing Technologies, pp. cant paper yellowing within a relatively short period of 740–745, sponsored by the Society for Imaging Science time. Note that these Arrhenius dark storage data are and Technology, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2004. for storage at 50% RH; depending on the specific type Also available in PDF format from . (e.g., 70% RH) could produce significantly higher rates of paper yellowing and/or other types of physical dete- Because of the wide range of environmental condi- rioration. tions in which prints may be displayed or stored, Dis- play Permanence Ratings for the bare-bulb illumination 3) The HP Photosmart 325 and 375 printers and HP Vivera condition will not be listed for paper/ink combinations inks were announced on August 27, 2004 (the new print- of known susceptibility to gas fading. For all of the rea- ers will replace the previous HP Photosmart 145 and sons cited above, prints made with microporous papers 245 printers). Prints made with HP Vivera Inks using and dye-based inks should always be displayed framed the HP No. 95 or 97 Tricolor ink cartridges in a 3-color under glass or plastic. Prints stored in the dark may printing mode and printed with HP Premium Plus Photo suffer slow deterioration that is manifested in yellowing Paper, High Gloss or Soft Gloss, and HP Premium Photo of the print paper, image fading, changes in color bal- Paper, Glossy or Soft Gloss, all have a WIR Display Per- ance, and physical embrittlement, cracking, and/or manence Rating of 82 years. Prints made with Vivera delamination of the image layer. These types of dete- Inks using the HP No. 95 or 97 cartridges with the HP rioration may affect the paper support, the image layer, No. 99 cartridges in both the 6-ink and 8-ink printing or both. Each type of print material (ink/paper combi- modes have a WIR Display Permanence Rating (glass- nation) has its own intrinsic dark storage stability char- filtered) of 108 years. The WIR Display Permanence acteristics; some are far more stable than others. Rates Rating for black-and-white prints made with the HP No. of deterioration are influenced by temperature and rela- 100 Gray Photo Print Cartridge is 115 years (when tive humidity; high temperatures and/or high relative printed with HP Premium Plus Photo Paper, High Gloss humidity exacerbate the problems. or Soft Gloss, and HP Premium Photo Paper, Glossy or Long-term dark storage stability is determined us- Soft Gloss). ing Arrhenius accelerated dark storage stability tests that employ a series of elevated temperatures (e.g., 50°C, 4) Eastman Kodak Company, Kodak Edge Generations Pa- 57°C, 64°C, 71°C, and 78°C) at a constant relative hu- pers, Kodak Publication E-7010, Eastman Kodak Com- midity of 50% RH to permit extrapolation to ambient pany, Rochester, New York, November 2003. Accord- room temperatures (or other conditions such those ing to Kodak the papers have “Improved light stabil- found in sub-zero, humidity-controlled cold storage pres- ity—Over 100 years before noticeable fading in typical ervation facilities). Because many types of inkjet inks, home display.” (see page 1). The Kodak test methods especially those employing pigments instead of dyes, and assumptions concerning display conditions account are exceedingly stable when stored in the dark, the even- for the difference between Kodak’s display predictions tual life of prints made with these inks may be limited by and the WIR Display Permanence Rating of 19 years for the instability of the paper support, and not by the inks this product. themselves. Due to this concern, as a matter of policy, Wilhelm Imaging Research does not provide a Display 5) In high-intensity 80 klux tests conducted by the Kodak Permanence Rating of greater than 100 years for any Image Stability Center in Rochester, New York, Kodak inkjet or other photographic print material unless it has gave a Light Fading Print Life Estimate of 162 years for also been evaluated with Arrhenius dark storage tests Ultima Picture Paper (ColorLast) printed with the HP No. and the data indicate that the print can indeed last longer 57 ink cartridge in a 3-ink mode. See Table 2 on page 2 than 100 years without noticeable deterioration when in: D. E. Bugner, C. E. Romano, G. A. Campbell, M. M. stored at 73°F (23°C) and 50% RH. Oakland, R. J. Kapusniak, L. L. Aquino, and K. E. Arrhenius dark storage data are also necessary to Maskasky, The Technology Behind the New Kodak Ul- assess the physical and image stability of a print mate- tima Picture Paper – Beautiful Inkjet Prints that Last for

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Over 100 Years – Update – May 8, 2004, Eastman Kodak Important Note: On January 19, 2006, Konica-Minolta sud- Company, Rochester, New York. Available as a PDF denly announced that the company would be withdraw- from . ing from the business and would cease Kodak’s 162 year display-life prediction is almost 15X manufacturing and selling silver-halide color films, sil- longer than the 11 year prediction obtained in the more ver-halide color papers, and both analog and digital conservative tests conducted by WIR for this ink/media cameras. The company indicated that current plans call combination and can be accounted for by differences for its color paper manufacturing plant in Japan to wind in the two test methodologies. For example, Kodak uses down operations during the remainder of 2006 and that 80 klux UV-filtered cool white fluorescent illumination; production of color paper would come to an end in WIR uses 35 klux glass-filtered cool white fluorescent March 2007. illumination. Given this situation, WIR will continue to list Konica- Kodak uses a starting density for fading measure- Minolta silver-halide color papers as “current products” ments of only 1.0; WIR uses starting densities of both until production finally stops in 2007. 0.6 and 1.0. Kodak uses the “ISO Illustrative” endpoint Faced with rapidly decreasing sales of traditional sil- criteria set; WIR uses the visually-weighted WIR End- ver-halide color films and papers caused by the wide- point Criteria Set v3.0. spread adoption of digital cameras and inkjet photo Kodak’s display environment light exposure assump- printers, the historic German company AgfaPhoto tion used for calculating display life is 120 lux for 12 ceased production of silver-halide color papers and films hours per day (UV filtered); WIR uses 450 lux for 12 hours in November 2006 and the company is now being liqui- per day (glass filtered). Kodak maintains 50% RH in dated. For this reason, AgfaPhoto papers are no longer their accelerated tests; WIR uses 60% RH. included in this list. In previous versions of this docu- Key aspects of Kodak’s test methodology and as- ment, Agfacolor Sensatis and Agfacolor Splendix Pa- sumptions for calculation of “years of display” are also pers were given a WIR Display Permanence Rating of very different from those used by most other manufac- 22 years (prints framed under glass). The test prints turers of printers, inks, and media. The display lux level used in this study were printed in Germany with a Agfa assumption of 120 lux (see Table 1) alone makes d-lab.2plus/Select digital minilab and Agfa washless Kodak’s display-life predictions 3.75X greater than the chemicals. display-life predictions provided by other manufactur- With both AgfaPhoto and Konica-Minolta now ers, and by WIR. With many ink/media combinations, abondoning the photo business, Fuji Photo Film of Ja- Kodak’s use of a UV filter instead of the glass filter used pan and Eastman Kodak in the United States will soon by other companies in accelerated light fading tests (see be the only two remaining silver-halide color paper Table 2) further increases Kodak’s display-life predic- manufacturers in the world. tions.

6) The papers included in these tests, Konica Minolta QA Paper Centuria For Digital and Konica Minolta QA Pa- per Impresa For Digital, are newly introduced silver-ha- lide papers optimized for the extremely short unit-area exposure produced by the scanning RGB lasers and LEDs in digital minilabs as well as the specialized rapid- process chemistry supplied by Konica Minolta for the company’s digital minilabs. The paper is also sold in Asia under the name of Konica Minolta QA Paper Golden Dragon For Digital. All three versions of the paper have identical image permanence characteristics. Related papers sold under the names of Konica Minolta QA Pa- per Centuria Type A9, Konica Minolta A Paper Impresa Type A9, and Konica Minolta QA Paper Golden Dragon Type A9, were not included in these tests. However, sunlight and xenon arc test data for these papers sup- plied by Konica Minolta indicates that the Type 9 pa- pers have somewhat inferior light stability compared with the new and improved “For Digital” versions.

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