Scrap-booking: what you really need to know to save your precious memories.

There are two primary key factors in storing a scrapbook photo. The first is the paper you print on and the second is the ink you use. There are other factors such as where and how you store your prints, how much light the prints are exposed to, the amount of handling they incur. But quality paper and ink are the two major factors for longevity.

Inksupply.com has gathered a web page of vital information to help educate consumers about the critical elements of archival photo storage for scrapbooking photos.

Inkjet paper coatings play a huge role in the look of the final prints. When you use regular low cost office paper, the small droplets of ink . . . . .

released by your printer spread out as they hit the paper. While some spreading (dot gain) is desirable for proper paper coverage, too much will cause the colors to bleed into one another and give your photo a fuzzy, and dull appearance. The coatings used on high quality photo inkjet papers prevent these ink droplets from spreading too far, thus giving photos a sharper more brilliant look. Our fine art inkjet papers have been widely used by experts and consumers.

Water-soluble Dye Based inks were the first color inkjet inks to be produced and are the most common inks found in desktop printers today. These inks provide the user with the widest color gamut available at a very inexpensive price. Unfortunately these vibrant colors come at a price. Dye base inks have some of the weakest longevity (permanence) ratings and have the poorest UV resistance, which leads to fading at a drastically faster rate as compared to newer ink technologies. Many dye base prints will begin to exhibit fading only weeks after being printed. Some manufactures have started to produce "Archival Dye Based" inks in the past year (late 2006), but most of these inks require that the print be made with the manufactures ink, on the manufactures paper, and the print must be stored in a dark temperature controlled location or under UV filtering glass with minimal exposure to natural or fluorescent light. Even with all of these stipulations most of these inks only claim to last 30 years. For more information on Canon inks, Epson inks, and HP inks dive into the web site at www.inksupply.com