Exploring of Light Fastness of Inkjet Prints under High Intensity Level of Illumination

Nowadays, inkjet prints have been universally used in packaging, posters and window show promotional items. The quality of the inkjet prints attracts more attentions, especially for posters and window promotional item generally require bright colors, saturation, and a long print life. Generally, the color of inkjet prints fade gradually when being placed outside and radiated directly by sunlight or under lamp, meanwhile, the density decreases and color difference increases. All these phenomena happened make inkjet print cannot meet the requirements of customers to color within the time of use. Light fastness of inkjet prints under high intensity level of illumination is studied in this research. Ten different brands of papers were exploited to print a special design test target by EPSON inkjet printer and the printing test samples were irradiated under high level of illumination so that the aging process can be accelerated. After being irradiated for different time intervals, then color differences were measured by using spectrophotometer. The results show: the color differences of prints printed by using the brands Kodak and Xiongguan papers changed greatly after prolonged exposure to light. These conclusions are very useful for the correct choosing of inkjet materials under suitable inkjet printing condition.