IG focused Lightfastness and UV Fade Tests

[arcfide]

Here's the scan at the end of the first January period. Not a fully 30 days, but this is when I plan to start taking each scan. 

 

Generally, there is very little difference here, except BSB:

• Shaeffer Black has yellowed very slightly
• Shaeffer Blue Black has lost a bit of blue and gone a touch grey
• Platinum Blue Black has lost a bit of blue, but I'm inclined to think that's not necessarily due to the light, as the control strip still shows a fairly strong color similarity (meaning that it has faded about an equal amount with regards to losing the blue)
• Platinum Pigmented Blue has maybe darkened ever so slightly, but that could be entirely due to differences in scanning or changes in paper versus changes in pigment, it's basically no change
• There's a very distinct but very low level of yellowing in Diamine Registrar's, but we'll have to see how the control strip ages to see if this matches up. This ink saw the largest change initially from the 3 day curing period
• Salix is duller, but also in line with its control strip, so this is likely mostly just fading due to the IG ink nature, and not UV light; you could maybe argue a slight yellowing, but not enough to make a difference at this point
• TWSBI has dulled and slightly yellowed, but again, it is still fairly in line with its control strip. Much like Salix
• BSB has given up the ghost. It is now a Blue Black ink on its way to oblivion.
• Diamine Blue Black has dulled and lost sheen, only to a slight degree
• Platinum Carbon Black decided to reflect the light a little bit differently today, but it is otherwise entirely unaffected
• Kon-peki has dulled and lost sheen ever so slightly
• Tsuki-yo has lightened/faded a bit and lost sheen. 

Most of the inks have shifted towards a duller hue that is slightly darker. Only Tsuki-yo has gone from a darker hue to a lighter one, IMO. To my eye it has lost a bit of green.

 

For the IG inks at this point, all of them are what I would call "operating normally" and not abnormally or surprisingly fading. The "fading" that I'm seeing is simply the loss of color that we would expect from any normal IG ink, and i don't see any significant reduction or elimination in the actual IG visibility with the slight exception of a little bit of visible yellowing for Registrar's, TWSBI, and Salix. However it is very slight, and you probably would not be able to tell the difference simply by comparing the control strip alone against the other sample. 

 

For my definition, I consider fading a fundamental reduction in visible contrast of the ink. Most of these inks have dulled or had color shifts at this point, but I don't think I could consider any of them as having significant shifts such that they caused a reduction in contrast/visibility at this point yet, especially since the color shifts on most of the inks darkened, which generally favors contrast for me on light colored paper. Only the Tsuki-yo might technically have lightened and therefore faded a bit, but that difference is so light as to be insignificant at this point. 

 

We'll see what next month brings. 

 

[yazeh]

Wow! Looking forward to next month!

[Tasmith]

21 hours ago, yazeh said:

Wow! Looking forward to next month!

+1!

[arcfide]

Time for another monthly check in! 

 

• Shaeffer Black: Some movement in the color, lightening.
• Shaeffer Blue Black: Losing its blueness and going grey
• Platinum Blue Black: A little loss of blue, but still distinctly blue compared to Shaeffer, for example.
• Platinum Pigmented Blue: No noticeable fading
• Diamine Registrar's: Lightened mostly through the loss of blue, no significant yellowing beyond what we saw before.
• R&K Salix: Loss of color, but otherwise fairly stable
• TWSBI Blue Black: Significant lightening, but mostly due to loss of dye color
• Noodler's BSB -- Alas! they had been friends in youth: Fare thee well, and if for ever, still for ever, fare thee well.
• Diamine Blue Black: Color remains fairly strong, mild changes
• Platinum Carbon Black: Like It Is, Was, and Evermore Shall Be.
• Pilot Iro. Kon-peki: Mild shifts
• Pilot Iro. Tsuki-yo: Some noticable shifts in color, fading

[yazeh]

Thanks for the update.  Howcome the first 1/2 line of Diamine Registrars has retained it's colour?

[Dimy]

Thanks for the update on them. The state of sallix intrigues me, its showing similar result to what I am doing but without light exposure...well this will be fun.

 

Apart from this....shall we kiss BSB a goodbye cos I don't think it will survive next 2 month........most likely first casualty against the radiance.....

[arcfide]

23 hours ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for the update.  Howcome the first 1/2 line of Diamine Registrars has retained it's colour?

 

The first 1/2 line of Registrar's was applied a little bit later in the timeline (you can follow that above and see when it was added), but if you look closely, you'll note that it actually *has* lost its color already, all that is left is the IG part, as far as I can tell, with a tiny remnant of color, which is the same for the rest of the line. The difference is that I noticed the change in behavior in the first two lines I did with Registrar's, and I suspected that the ink was old, so I ordered another sample. What you see is the difference in how the ink went onto the paper between two different samples of Registrar's. The first, older sample was most likely demonstrating what happens when the ink deteriorates in the bottle due to age and exposure. you can see that there is the same level of concentration of IG in those lines, but only in the small spots where the IG clumped up, whereas the other spots have a lower concentration. The ink was very dry by that point. The newer sample was a little wetter, and had a more even concentration of IG, and thus you can see that the line is darker. 

 

However, with all of the IG inks, while the dyes have faded to more or less degrees, none of the IG inks' IG components appear to have begun suffering any serious degredation just yet. Registrar's and TWSBI might be showing some mild browning, but that's about it, and it's very slight right now. 

 

IOW, they are behaving more or less exactly as IG inks are advertised to behave, in that they lose their dye components and then just the IG is left, leaving a greyish line, whose saturation depends on the amount of IG concentrated in the ink. Registrar's appears to have lost its dye the fastest, and Platinum Blue Black the slowest, but they are all moving in that direction. 

 

I am a little surprised that Tsuki-yo appears to be changing a little faster than Kon-peki.

[arcfide]

21 hours ago, Dimy said:

Apart from this....shall we kiss BSB a goodbye cos I don't think it will survive next 2 month........most likely first casualty against the radiance.....

 

Well, BSB was being put up as the sacrificial lamb of this testing, so the real upset would have been any inks that faded faster than it did! 

[yazeh]

Thanks for the explanation. Looking forward to next month then

 

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for this wonderful contribution.  I love these sorts of experiments. I use BSB as my control because it is the fastest to fade.  I have had it disappear in as few as three days.  

 

i've added your test to our growing list, but please let me know if I have missed any threads.

 

 

[arcfide]

Here's a belated monthly check-in. Scanned on April 1st. 

• More fading across the board, with some of it being pretty noticeable now
• Sheaffer Black is showing significant degradation
• Sheaffer Blue Black is also starting to turn more significantly
• Platinum Blue Black has still kept a remarkable amount of its color, but there is noticeable desaturation
• Platinum Pigmented Blue, no change
• Diamine Registrar's is showing more browning across the board
• R&K Salix is desaturating much like Platinum Blue Black
• TWSBI Blue Black is showing a high degree of desaturation
• Noodler's BSB is surprisingly still there
• Diamine Blue Black is staying solid and pretty well saturated
• Platinum Carbon Black is unphased
• Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki has held on pretty well so far, though it still shows degradation
• Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo has shown, IMO, more degradation than Kon-peki at this point

[arcfide]

And the fourth month is in! May 1st:

• Almost all the inks are showing strong signs of yellowing at this point. 
• All the IG inks show significant yellowing
• Registrar's has now take up a discernable and somewhat strong yellowing even on the "fresh" line that had a much strong initial coating of IG
• The dye-based Blue Black inks have faded fairly significantly, with Diamine Blue Black holding up the best in terms of color faithfulness
• Pigmented inks are more or less unaffected
• Salix and Platinum Blue Black are competing in terms of IG loss, but the Platinum has retained more of its original color tone. It's not clear which has actually retained the most "IG" visible at this point
• To my eyes the Kon-peki has actually retained more of its color and contrast relative to any other non-pigmented ink in this test, it has done very well.
• Despite this, I have some notes on A.Silky paper in a journal a year old with Kon-peki as the ink that have exhibited a distinct shift in total "brightness", though they have not lost their "Kon-peki-ness". Thus, it might be safe to assume that Kon-peki will lose some of its punch and vibrancy over time, but the dye seems to remain quite visible. 
• Both Sheaffer Blue Black and Tsuki-yo lose their color, but towards different base tones. Sheaffer becomes more brown-ish, while the Tsuki-yo more blue-ish. 
• BSB has managed to remain a little visible, though it's little more than a smear in some parts at this point

[yazeh]

Looking forward to next month!

[amberleadavis]

BSB is my test ink because it fades the fastest and I use it for comparisons.  That being said, in every test I've tried, Iroshizuku inks really hold up to the sun.

Thanks for doing this!

[arcfide]

Here's the latest round, scanned on the 8th of June.

• All inks show some fading except for the Pigmented ones
• Diamine Blue Black and Pilot Iroshizuku inks continue to perform well
• The IG inks appear to have stabilized quite a bit, and their rate of fading is not that high
• The Sheaffer inks are fading at a more rapid rate than the other dye-based inks. 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Gotta love Iroshizuku

[arcfide]

And here's another scan from the 18th of July:

• All the IG inks are showing significant degradation, but some of the newer dye-based inks are doing quite well
• TWSBI blue black is doing the worst. Platinum Blue Black retains a bit more of its color, but Salix might have a little more IG sticking it out
• Registrar's is going the way of all the others when in the "light" application, but when applied heavily with a strong coat of IG, it's doing okay. The scan shows it darker than it really is in natural light
• All the IG inks show stronger in the scan than they do in natural light, they are significantly faded in natural light.

[yazeh]

I'm impressed by kon-peki and diamine blue black... 

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

The Iro inks seem to have good lightfastness for dye based inks, based on the light-fastness tests I've seen. Diamine Blue-Black though.......

[Aelfattrum]

1 hour ago, IlikeInksandIcannotlie said:

The Iro inks seem to have good lightfastness for dye based inks, based on the light-fastness tests I've seen. Diamine Blue-Black though.......

 

Though,as I recall, Diamine Blue-Black has no water-resistance. (A different issue, of course.)