lightfastness of ink

Hi all, I’ve recently noticed that a small print that I’ve pinned to my wall has faded from pink to a very decidedly grey, with no hint of pink remaining at all. This is in my studio, where it gets bright and sunny during the day, but this wall doesn’t get direct sunlight. Granted, it has been hanging in that spot for about two years, but this makes me worried about my artwork that should last for *many* more years without fading. Any experience with this, or recommendations?

I’d be interested to do some research on this. At my work, we do a lot of printing with inkjet and solvent printers, and especially for the solvent ink the magenta and yellow are not guaranteed to last more than a year or two outdoors before fading. I’m sure it has to do with the pigments in various inks but I had not encountered fading with litho/offset inks. Any ink mixers out there with answers?

I should mention that the print on my wall was printed (I think) with Van Son rubber-based ink. It was a gift from a friend. Other prints hanging in the same area seem like they haven’t faded, at least not as much, but I don’t have ‘controls’ to compare them to. I’m tempted to do some tests as well – let’s compare our results!

From working with dyes and pigments I know that most reds/magentas are very fugitive…they’ll fade well before any other colours. It also makes a difference what quality and density of pigment is used in the ink/dye. I use Van Son rubber based as well and I get direct sunlight into my studio all afternoon and stuff I’ve printed that has any red ink mixed in with another colour usually fades within a year. The red pigment fades and I’m left with the mix of the other colours showing instead. I don’t think Van Son ruber-based was really created considering art based longevity. After all, the ideal paper to print on with is a nice smooth coated stock. Its’ more of an industrial ink.

Perhaps an oil based ink fare better?

I found a good discussion here – http://www.briarpress.org/17461.

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