The environmental stability of digital photopapers

摘要

Digital images can now be produced by a number of different imaging technologies. The most popular digital technologies for printing colour images include D_2T_2 (dye diffusion thermal transfer), colour laser and ink jet. Ink jet has emerged as the preferred technology for home printing of digital photographs. The development of the inks and the media during recent years has improved the quality of the digital photographs to a level which is now close to that produced by silver halide technology. Digital photographs, produced by ink jet printing, now have excellent image quality, high gloss and high chroma, producing a good colour gamut. Some further challenges remain, however, and these include the image durability and the cost of producing the digital prints. Photographs produced by silver halide technology generally cost less and have greater image stability. They can be archived for many years with little sign of any deterioration in the image quality. The stability of ink jet images, on exposure to light, ozone or moisture, or under different climatic conditions (e.g. high humidity), can be a problem. The influence- of the environment on image stability will be considered further in this paper.