Ink

After market inks are not always the same as OEM inks. Some manufacturers name their inks to make consumers believe their inks are better or different in some way than that used by other brands or remanufacturers. As an example, one printer giant named all their inks to a brand name. There was no change in chemistry. But they began using the brand name and an advertising campaign which told consumers that the inks would not fade for great periods of time making best for archival photos.

Quality inks are made by giant print ink manufacturers. These companies produce millions of pounds of high quality ink for many applications including ink jet systems. They are driven by high tech chemistry and testing. These companies include OCP of Germany, Mitsubishi of Japan and AIJ from the USA. There are more than 100 producers of ink globally and they all strive for excellence in chemistry, quality and longevity.

Inks are tested to last for a long time. To do this they must not have chemistry that breaks down all by itself due to exposure to the air or common airborne gases. Many paintings from the renaissance period destroy themselves because agents used in the paints react over time to change the colors and brightness that the painting exhibited when they were made. This is called "inherent vice". Modern chemistry prevents this.

The greatest enemy of photo images is ultra-violet light (UV). The light that gives us sunburn. It washes out and fades most things exposed to it. For this reason, ink manufacturers (and makers of paint, siding, glass...) expose their products to intense UV light to calculate how their product will tolerate UV. If they expose their ink to UV 100 times more intense than what can be expected in your living room for one year and no identifiable degradation occurs, the product may be sold as a 100 year ink.