fading digi photos....Help!

[melbaby]

This is a new problem, and a bad one, I am finding. I have been printing at home my photos for 2-3 yrs. No problem, no fading, they are on the fridge, under glass, in photo albums and scrapbooks. They are still fine. That was with Epson printer, epson ink, and kodak, and epson paper.

In Jan. 05 I got a Canon i9900 printer, with generic ink refill kit, and I switched to Kirkland (costco brand) photo paper. I have been loving filling my own cartridges, and I loved the glossier thicker paper and the prints were finer than any others I had done previously. Now I have seen these 8 x 10's that I put on the wall on foam core are fading badly (exposed photo) and prints on the refridgerator, etc, anything left out. The ones in photo albums so far are just fine.

Does anyone know why these are fading, or have had it happen to them? Is it air, light, or both? I am sad because of course of the waste, time lost, and fearing one or more of my methods is bad. I wonder if I put the same photos under glass, they will stay fine. I haven't tested that. Even still, my old pictures did not fade.

Thanks for any insight.....Melodie

[Matt_C]

Printers that use dye inks will always produce prints that fade. Even the epson inks fade over time although I have found them to be better. How long they take to fade depends on how you store them. I had the same problem and solved it by purchasing a Epson R800 printer which has pigment based inks which are much more fade resistant. (Estimated print life 80 years) Drawback is these printers can tend to be more expensive and some produce prints that lack punch in the colours. The Epson R800 however produces superb results, far better than any dye based printer I've ever owned.

Matt

[melbaby]

Thanks Matt, I'll have to check what kind of dye it is.

Can anyone give insight on the subject of covering the photos in glass frame, if it will still fade? I am so dissappointed in this fading in only about 2 months! But so far in the photo albums they are fine.

[RTaylor]

Melodie,
Its always best when putting photos under glass to use a matte so that the picture isnt touching the glass.
Even photos coming from a professional lab done with film will have problems with sticking to glass and cause it to age prematurely.
Hope this helps
Also, make sure you are using the right paper for the inks you use. Some papers are only meant for dye inks and some only meant for pigment.
I bought good photo paper once meant for my Epson 4000 inks ($1,700 printer) but then I used the paper in my Epson 1280 and the inks faded and almost looked like they were melting. Printed on the Epson 4000 they were fine.
So read the fine print