The Portland Metro Photographic News

Guest Commentary by Harald Johnson

(Editor's note:  Harald Johnson is a long-time friend, editor of DP&I.com and author of the popular "Mastering Digital Printing" book which has become a standard text for serious digital printmakers.  When I mentioned I was writing an article on "Signing Photographic Prints", Harald volunteered the following informal test, using popular print signing marking pens, for PMPN readers.  Although some photographers prefer to sign in pencil, a significant number of photographers use ink pens.  Harald's test is an "eye opener" for those using ink markers to sign their prints.)

For various reasons, I had to abort a Window Test last year.  It was a test of putting different prints in two south-facing windows (I'm in northern hemisphere) and basically watching what happens over time. But an interesting result of the short-lived test was what happened to the markings on the prints. I planned this knowing that artists and photographers are always curious about signing their prints, but it ended up being the most telling part of the test.

I had three people (including myself) use four different marking pens on the print surfaces they were printing and providing to me for the test. I simply had them write the printing data on a non-inked part of the print surface of two identical prints using the pen(s) they had selected on their own. One print went into the window, and the other went into a dark drawer in the same room.

And here are the actual pens used to mark the prints (below). They are: a Memorex CD/DVD marker UPI 34707 00461 on Epson inkjet prints; a Pilot G-2 07 gel pen on Canon inkjet prints; and on the HP prints, I used: (A) a standard, black, ultra-fine point Sanford Sharpie "permanent marker" and also (B) a common Bic Soft Feel Medium pen (and a common #2 pencil).

After only 3 MONTHS of partial sun exposure of the prints as they rotated through the eight test-exposure positions (rotating all prints every night), take a look at what happened to several of the markings at the extreme ends of the scale.  (Mark Segal provided the Epson print and markings for this test.)

The biggest surprise was what happened with the Bic pen on the HP Hahnemuehle Smooth Fine Art print I made on the HP Z3100 (a pigment ink printer). The markings basically disappeared! (see exposed print scan below) There's also Sharpie marker fading on both the HP Pro Satin and the Fuji Frontier, but nowhere near as bad as the Bic on the fine art paper.

ABOVE: I used a black Bic Soft Feel Medium pen on this HP fine art paper; the dark-stored print is at left and the light-exposed print on right. Pencil marking was added to exposed print two months into test.  And yes, the Bic pen was BLACK, not orange or yellow!

ABOVE: Standard black Sanford Sharpie marker on HP satin paper. Clearly faded. This is another example of Sharpie fading that I've written about elsewhere in a previous test.  (image on left was dark-stored, image on right was light-exposed)

ABOVE: I again used a Sharpie (the same one) on the Fuji Frontier prints. And again, the Sharpie markings are already fading (dark-stored on left, exposed on right).  I find it amazingly ironic that Sharpies are labeled "permanent markers").

ABOVE: A Memorex CD/DVD marker on the Epson prints. At left is the dark-stored print, at right the exposed print; no discernable difference.

NOTE: Not shown is the Pilot G-2 07 gel pen markings on the Canon prints that also showed little, if any, fading.

IMPORTANT NOTE from Harald: Because I didn't really conduct a controlled test of these marking pens, only randomly having markings assigned to prints, it's important NOT to equate the fading or non-fading of the markings with the print performances themselves. While the Bic marking on the HP Hahnemuehle SmoothFine Art is almost completely gone, the image testing on that paper was doing better than the Fuji Frontier print, which showed better marking strength (although also faded). I don't know what would have happened if I had used the Memorex CD marker on each print. But one thing is clear: some marking pens work better than others on different papers, and I, for one, would not sign any print with a Bic Soft Feel or a Sharpie pen with this early (poor) result.