I use epson compatibles in my epson 1160 printer mainly due to large A3
volume (prj 2k charts, CAD charts, many large manuscripts) - an
inkaholic.
o I notice once dry that they will withstand water from a tap o The top
layer smudges, but there is no smearing or loss of legibility
Q: Does that mean "prolonged" water content would not "dissolve the
text"?
It is impossible to tell one way or the other. All inks are not the same.
Vendors have been known to switch ink sources without telling anyone, too.
The best way to find out is to test your ink.
I tested with tap water for the ordinary and distilled water to simulate
rain. I tested for a little over 24 hours with black and colour text and
images at fine resolutions and let the prints dry for an hour in 30%
humidity.
In those tests, the "Durabright" ink only smudged when physically rubbed
while wet. The ink did appear to bleed but the apparent bleeding
disappeared when the paper dried.
I also tested for bleaching in sunlight and longwave UV over 9 days making
three sets of prints and keeping one in the dark then comparing them.
There was negligible bleaching, barely noticeable, unlike the HP inks.
I ask because I have around 90,000 pages of work archived and so water
damage is always a concern. Laser text is robust, but can cost
more/is-B&W.
Laser print also has it's own problems. The biggest one is fusing to
plastic surfaces it's placed in contact with and to print on facing pages.
I have a lot of archival material that was laser printed or
xerographically produced and I find that print is stuck to loose-leaf
binders, to facing printed pages and sometimes even to blank facing pages.
In the oldest archive, all the xerographic docs are stuck to each other
and the image is lifting from the page. The xerographic docs are not quite
35 years old.
I've only had the "durabright" ink printer for a year but I have none of
the problems I've had with laser and xerographic print. Indeed, it has
quite a few advantages over laser.
Laser and xerographic print uses super fine styrene powder to produce the
image. This material, even after being fused to paper and allowed to cure,
still sticks to other things, especially plastics and itself. It also
seems to like to flake and peel at times.
I guess I'll have to do some tests. If it does it's get & reprint with a
HP 4MV.
You may also consider testing inks from other sources as well.
=-=
(note: "Durabright" is a trademark of Epson USA. It may have a different
name in the rest of the world.)
