Digital prints and acid free papers

[Flip]

I saw this topic discussed elsewhere here but it was kind of breezed over and I thought it might deserve it's own thread.
Someone said (and I paraphrase) that acid free papers aren't neccessary when printing digitally, and that the only time it IS neccessary to use acid free papers is when mounting a traditionally printed (silver halide) photographs because there are no chemecals to interact with from digital prints.
Now this goes against everything I have read in the past. It's always been my thought that pretty much anything printed, over time, would react negetively to acid in the paper it was printed on or to any acid the print might come in contact with. So I've always used acid free papers for my digital prints. Am I wasting my money? Why would Epson and other manufaturers of digital printing papers bother making acid free papers if it made no difference in the longevity of the print? :confused: I'm confused lol

[Amanda]

We just don't worry about it as much in digital scrapbooking because most of the time we are printing out the entire page, photo and everything, on one page and not attaching anything else. Also with digital, we can print out another if anything does happen.

[premier]

Not all of epson's papers are acid free--only their fine arts papers are and one of the scrapbooking papers. The concern for acid free is more so for traditional scrapbooking whereby you are mounting photos on paper. The concern is not as great for a digital page printed but the acid effect is still there.

[LokiZ]

My opinion is that since my original page is in digital form and I make multiple backups of the origional there is no reason for me to concern myself with acid free paper, or even archival ink for that matter. My pages are kept in sheet protectors to help prolong the life of the page and as needed I can always reprint as needed. I figure they keep baseball cards and comic books in plastic why not my pages. But for me bottom line is that my original is digital and any pages printed are simply what they are...copies.

Also lets take pictures you may have taken 35 years ago. Do they look exactly like they did when you first got them back from the photo lab? no they don't. Now think about if every picture you took had never aged one bit. That in it self sounds kind of stale to me. I like the sentimental value that aging brings from an artistic angle. Why do people love b/w or sepia tones. Why do we like filters virtual photographer? Becuase the imperfections and effects we get from older technology are near and dear to our hearts.

This would be different for me if I was mixing digital with traditional as then my original medium would be a hybrid page and therefore take on concerns of both traditional and digital form.

[clou]

I have read several posts here where gals are saying they are not worried that much about degradation of their digital LOs bc they have them backed up on disc. That is great as long as you are living & able to reprint them. I am hoping my photos will last a lot longer than I do for my grandchildren & greats. That is the #1 reason I scrapbook. If this stuff doesn't last, I feel like I have wasted my time. I am new to digital scrapbooking & still on the fence about if my printings are going to last. I don't want to get caught up in all the neat tricks & techniques I can learn to do with my LOs & loose sight of their longevity. Still trying to learn all I can. Just wanted to voice this.

[Amanda]

The printer companies are making great strides in archival inks and papers. I don't think any of us *want* to have to reprint - its just nice knowing that we can if needed.
Image formats will hopefully be around for a long long time - and if they do change - hopefully they will make it easy to convert all the JPG, PNG, and PSD files I have :)

[LokiZ]

If I am not here to reprint them then I know that someone else younger in years will be able to. The only real thing that would prohibit that, don't kid yourself, is the over protective copyrights that last way to long after a person has passed away. The technology to extract older forms of data will always be there and they get easier and easier as time goes on. Are you going to ban loved ones or those who would help your loved ones regain memories. Bummer then.

Don't get me wrong I am not against making my work last. Just against the friction hoops one muse navigate through to reproduce those memories over and over longer then any one medium tends to last.

In bible times the scrolls lasted and lasted not because they used some special ink or parchment. To paraphrase, they set an expiration dates on each scroll and when it was expired they copied it. word by word letter by letter and by hand. If they can do that what is a simple reprint or conversion from older files to file formats yet to come? ;)