Digital Prints

5
Determining Print
Permanence
Although substantial improvements in ink and paper manufacturing plus the knowledge
gained from controlled testing have brought us to a point where some digital prints can
now potentially outlast their traditional counterparts, the issue of image stability and print
life remains a contentious one.
Anyone who’s concerned about print permanence must grapple with two simple questions:
1. How long is long enough?
2. How do I know if a print will actually last that long?
How Long Is Long Enough?
Several years ago, I innocently asked a well-known watercolorist exhibiting at an art festival
why she only had photographic reproduction prints on display next to her originals
and not inkjets. She almost tore my head off, fuming that she had lost a good customer
when the prints she had sold him had faded in about a year. For her, that clearly wasn’t
long enough.
Who Cares?
First, some people don’t believe there is a problem. They argue either that they can always
reprint the image if it fades or that longevity and permanence are properly the work of
conservators, not artists, and that all images fade and deteriorate over time. (Van Gogh’s
painting Irises, which today hangs in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is badly
faded. The original “pink background” that Van Gogh wrote his brother Theo about is
now almost snow white.)