Re: Sideshow Announcing new Premium Art Prints collection
Given the quality of the papers being used today along with the quality of the inks, it takes a LONG time before your eye's are able to visually detect even the slightest bit of fading or change in color. The type of paper being used really plays a larger role these days than the inks being used, that is of course if your using the higher quality inks that most of the high quality printers are using these days like Epson's Ultrachrome inks. The total accumulated exposure of light on a surface/print is the product of both light intensity (measured in lux) and the amount of time that the surface/print is in that light (measured in hours). Megalux Hours is usually the unit of measurement used because the total exposure of light over long periods of time winds up growing into very large figures. For example, if you hang a print in a room that has a light level of 100 Lux for 10,000 hours you would have 1,000,000 Lux Hours (100 x 10,000). 1,000,000 Lux hours equals 1 Megalux. Or it could be a light level of 1000 Lux for 1000 hours (1000 x 1000) = 1,000,000 Lux hours or 1 Megalux. Most museums display prints in a light level of 50 Lux.
Just to give you a general idea of the longevity of some of the modern digital giclee prints currently being made, here is a chart that shows the difference between Epson's Ultrachome HD ink and Epson's K3 ink printed on Epson's Exhibition Watercolor Paper rated at the time of printing and again at 140 Megalux.
If you look closely, you will see that the Ultrachome HD shows a noticeable improvement over the K3 ink in B1, B5 & C5 at 140 Megalux. When looking at all of the colors in just the Ultrachome HD ink, both at the time of printing and at 140 Megalux, its really only in B5 that you can see a slight difference and 140 Megalux is a long period of time given the light level most people hang their prints in. And of course, its MUCH easier to see the difference when comparing them side by side. In the real world, you simply would not be able to detect this slight shift in color over that long of a period of time. The print would basically look the exact same to you even after 140 Megalux.
This topic used to be a much bigger concern as inks 15-20+ years ago didn't have anywhere near the color permanence that modern digital printer inks have. There have been some MAJOR improvements with inks over the last 10-15 years and we continue to see more and more improvements as time goes on. If your displaying a valuable lithograph that was printed 30-40 years ago then it makes perfect sense to go the extra step and get high quality UV resistant glass or acrylic. An inexpensive modern digital giclee print that was created this year is just a whole different ballgame. Unless that print gets hit with direct sunlight for a few hours a day, UV resistant glass or acrylic really isn't going to make much of a difference, at least not in your lifetime. Unless your dead set on your children taking possession of your comic prints one day and having them pass those prints on to their children and so on and so forth, you really don't have much to worry about.
Don't get me wrong, if you can afford it and you want the absolute best protection possible for your prints regardless of their value then by all means buy the higher quality UV protected glass or acrylic. That being said, if your on a budget and don't have a lot of money to throw around, your money would be much better spent elsewhere.
