On 3/14/2005 2:05 PM Nicholas O. Lindan spake thus:

"bob" wrote

I know that B&W laserjet toner is archival. I
wonder about color.

replies:

Oh that it were so. Xerox toner is anything but archival.
It is carbon loaded vinyl and melted onto the paper,
it doesn't penetrate. As the vinyl loses it's plasticizer
to evaporation it will become brittle and flake off the paper.

Actually, I'm pretty sure you're wrong about that: I know for sure that Kodak
toner, at least, is pigment (which may well be just carbon black) mixed with
powdered polystyrene, not vinyl. Same for Canon toner.

Too much plasticizer kills toner much quicker: as all know,
the print on Xerox copies kept in plastic binders turns to goo.
The large amount of plasticizer used in the flexible vinyl
cover gets to the toner vinyl and makes it so flexible it
becomes sticky.

Of course, I've noticed this too. 'twould seem in this case that the fault
lies with the plastic binder (as in notebook binder) which contains the
plasticizers, not the plastic binder used to fuse the pigment onto the paper.
Don't see why a properly-stored laser print shouldn't be completely archival
(depending on the paper, of course). Perhaps even color laser or color copier
prints as well.


--
"I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."

- Former President Gerald Ford to his golf partners, as related by
the late Hunter S. Thompson