HP Printers and Fade Resistance

We get this question often: "I have an HP model XXXX and want prints that resist fade. What Red River papers can I use?" Our answer is that if you want long lasting prints from most HP printers, you MUST use their limited selection of swellable polymer media. Why? Because HP printers use DYE INKS. (That is about to change see below). Dye inks fade much faster than pigment inks. To slow fade with dye inks, one has to use swellable polymer media like HP Premium Photo Paper Plus. If not, prints will fade within a few months or years.

That being said, the new HP B9180 13" inkjet printer (coming soon), will use the new Vivera pigment ink system. Like Epson UltraChrome and Canon Lucia, the Vivera pigment inks will resist fade on a wide variety of inkjet papers including many from Red River Paper.

To summarize:

1) Most HP printers today use dye inks. To make fade resistant prints you have to use swellable polymer papers from HP.

2) New HP printers are on the way that use pigment ink. The HP B9180 is one such machine due out this September.

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