Photo Fading Factors - A Reason to Consider Having Your Photos Printed Online

Inkjet printers are the most common choice for home photo printing, and printer manufacturers have made great strides in providing relatively inexpensive equipment to satisfy home printing needs. Compared to just a few years ago, we can now create astonishing photo prints at home with available color and resolution capabilities.

However, a risk that we should all be aware of is the permanence of the image we print at home. Each printer manufacturer and office supply company offers us a complex choice of inks to feed our printers, and each of these have varied qualities that impact the original printed image and how long it will survive before colors shift and fade. Equally mysterious is the wide choice of papers to place beneath the ink image as these papers also deteriorate and will perhaps impact the inked image above.

In order to be confident that your home prints will last as long as possible, you would need to learn the language of paper and ink quality characteristics and conduct some comparative research. Wilhelm Imaging Research is the best know image permanence testing organization, and they publish test results for many brand name inks and papers. Better papers and inks can be expected to reflect a higher cost. This is something to consider the next time you reach for bargain private label photo paper at your local office supply superstore.

On the other hand, large online printers such as Shutterfly.com need to be able to satisfy the questions and printing needs of their most sophisticated professional photographer customers. The online printers' professional staff and buying clout allow them to identify and purchase the best materials for initial and long lasting quality. It is also important to note that processes used by major online printers are simply not the same as those available in the home.

Although printing at home may provide some instant gratification and you may like the apparent added control over the editing and printing process, you are probably not using materials that will maximize the enjoyment of the image by you and perhaps future generations. The effort to identify the best materials for your home printer combined with the added cost of these materials may actually exceed the cost of having your prints made professionally. Even if you use quality materials at home, you may still not attain the same consistent high quality available through major online printers.

For a description of materials used by at least one major online printer, go to Shutterfly.com, use the menu near the page top to access "help" and then search on "Photographic Print Durability" once in the help section.

It is clearly useful to have a photo printing capacity in the home for many photo projects. However, if the purpose of printing a photo includes the goal of long lasting enjoyment, perhaps into future generations, one should consider the image permanence issues raised above, and at least explore having the print made professionally and conveniently by a major online printer.

For a broader discussion of printing photos, read the article titled Printing Quality Photo and Document Digital Images at LocalArchiver.com.