Two Year (Behind Glass) Fade Test

[oshizemi]

This is wonderful. Thanks for sharing!!

[flummoxed]

Great idea, that must have required some patience!

[domnortheast]

Hmm, looks like I might need to re-think when and where I use my favourite brand of inks and also shift allegiances a little. Very useful test with interesting results.

 

Thank you.

[zenephi001]

Another year on ... and still a valuable resource / reference .... many thanks :-)

[amberleadavis]

 

It's not a silly question.

 

Here is another person's explanation.

 

Dye fading is, essentially, due to oxidation, and UV exposure "photoexcites" the dyes, leading to a faster oxidation rate, and thus a faster fading rate.

 

Which is to say, dye fading in a dark dry notebook and dye fading in a UV-exposed window are actually fading via the same mechanism, but the process is accelerated due to the added energy of UV absorption.

 

Which is to say, UV torture tests are a great way to determine the longevity of dye coloration in a dark, dry notebook. Assuming the paper does not somehow contribute to the problem.

 

 

Also, if you are are interested, we'd love to have your results added to this spreadsheet:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aZnx0HqTLwmocX2rhk5rP1jUUCSzjA7CVrZX8gvKkWY/edit?usp=sharing

[thygreyt]

This is great information!

 

I do have a question... Is there any way to extrapolate the data to dark storage fading?

 

I mean: if x ink takes 3 years of sunlight to fade, how long will that mean to a dark/drawer kept document/journal?

[amberleadavis]

This is great information!

 

I do have a question... Is there any way to extrapolate the data to dark storage fading?

 

I mean: if x ink takes 3 years of sunlight to fade, how long will that mean to a dark/drawer kept document/journal?

 

I think it takes more equipment than any of us really have. I would think that the way I should do it with with the blue fading squares and test with BSB which is the fastest fader, it might give us a baseline.

[jmccarty3]

It's interesting that Diamine Eclipse did well.

[amberleadavis]

Blacks, purple blacks, green blacks and blue blacks tend to do better than bright blue, bright orange bright pink.

[El Gordo]

This is great information!

 

I do have a question... Is there any way to extrapolate the data to dark storage fading?

 

I mean: if x ink takes 3 years of sunlight to fade, how long will that mean to a dark/drawer kept document/journal?

 

It's hard to tell or predict.

 

First of all the mechanisms for dark fading and light fading are not necessarily the same (actually: how can they be the same if the conditions are different, if there is no light and it fades, how can you blame the light ...).

 

Now assume there is no dark fading (in absence of light and likely dry conditions, the "right" paper and the "right" ink, and assume that the fading is not initiated by chemicals formed during occasional illumination resulting in a continuation of the fading reaction in the dark, then you could predict fairly well imo: multiply your three years by the amount of lux (of the specific wavelength of light causing the fading) captured during this three year period and divide by the amount of lux (of the ... etc) captured during the periods that the journal was open in the light. You might have to correct for humidity and temperature effects as well.

 

Comparative studies might be easier to perform indeed and far more accessible to common people as us (although DIY spectrophotometer building guidelines can be found on the net ..., but that is only part of the story).

 

It is not exactly the same of course, but the topic has been studied very well in photography, in Rochester there is an Image Permanence Institute. General principles of dye fading apply. I guess there must be something around on textile dye fading as well somewhere.

[white_lotus]

 

I guess there must be something around on textile dye fading as well somewhere.

 

Yes they are called the "Blue Wool Scales" ranging from I to VIII.

 

The following link has extensive information beginning about half way down the page describing the Blue Wool Scales, ASTM ratings, and how they relate to permanence for artists watercolor pigments. Since a watercolor painting is intended to be shown under glass, and exposed to light, to remain unchanged for 50 to 100 years is considered acceptably permanent.

 

For inks made from dyes, we can expect less durability when exposed to light, however, typically our writings are not exposed to light under normal conditions for long periods of time.

 

But so long as the buyers of inks prefer the qualities of color, shading, saturation, sheen, handling, etc., over any permanence or durability of the ink, manufacturers will happily sell us inks that will have all these great qualities, but are not durable, and will fade over time. And we'll only discover it when we go back to our past writings and see either color changes, or that the ink has faded making the writing illegible.

 

http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/pigmt6.html

Edited January 25, 2016 by white_lotus

[white_lotus]

 

I would think that the way I should do it with with the blue fading squares and test with BSB which is the fastest fader, it might give us a baseline.

This would be an awesome start (using the Blue Wool Scale) and known inks that fade, and provide a lot of valuable information.

[amberleadavis]

See, I knew you would know the name since you supplied them to me. I have them still ready to go and I keep getting sidetracked by kids and work and life oh and INK.

[white_lotus]

Fully understand. It'll be very exciting to see the results when they happen.

 

All it will take is one of the "bigger" ink manufacturers to start reporting the permanence/lightfastness of their inks, others will surely follow.

[IrishEyes]

I'm not surprised to see that most of the reds faded into non-existence, and that blues and blacks faded less than the yellows. If you ever look in store windows with posters that have been up for ages, or at pictures in people's homes that have been exposed to sunlight rather than kept in a shaded place, you'll always find that red is the first color to fade away, followed by yellows, blues, and then blacks. It makes a good argument for either protecting your art collection from sunlight by keeping it in the shade/dark, or investing in the kinds of museum-quality glass that filters out UV.

 

This was a really neat test. Very informative.

[Tritanx]

Newbie question here. Has anyone done this kind of test with iron gall inks? Would they hold up better to fading than dye inks?

[Arkanabar]

In the fade results spreadsheet that Amber linked to above, Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black, a classic IG ink, had "Good" fade resistance. All samples for which she recorded results were in her south facing, Las Vegas windows for the same amount of time. Many of the inks without results got partial shade, and she declined to provide any results for those inks, because they would not have been perfectly comparable with the others.

 

My recollection/understanding is that Chesterfield Archival Vault does pretty well, while R&K Salix and Scabiosa have nowhere near the fade resistance of, say, Noodler's Black or Heart of Darkness.

 

edit: some extra photos in this series of blog posts.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Arkanabar

[amberleadavis]

EEK... I also had some East Samples and West Samples, but those should be cataloged differently.

[Arkanabar]

I suppose you can put them on different sheets in the workbook, or just vary the "location" column's values.

[amberleadavis]

I don't think the ones that were East West were included in the spreadsheet, I think I just have images. I'll have to look.