I often hear genealogists make states similar to this: “I don’t trust digital media for long-term storage so I am going to use paper and ink to make sure my data lasts for a long, long time.”
Indeed, there is a lot of truth to that sentiment. I can point out a few problems, such as storing audio or video recordings, but the idea of storing information on paper certainly has a lot of appeal to genealogists, historians, and others who are concerned with long-term preservation. Paper documents are simple, easy to produce, and last a long time. Or do they?
With today’s acid-based paper and water-based inkjet cartridges or plastic-and-carbon based laser toner cartridges, the life expectancy of most paper documents you produce on a home computer’s printer may be twenty-five years or less. Luckily, there are ways to extend that longevity.
First, use archival quality paper. The archival paper is produced without acid and has a high “rag content.” That is, archival paper is made mostly from recycled fabrics, not wood chips that were bonded together in an acid bath.
Before the 1850s, linen and cotton rag were the primary material source for paper making. That paper lasted for many years. However, the process was expensive, and paper producers soon learned how to make paper by a cheaper method, using a readily available material: wood.
Paper made from wood-based pulp that has not had its lignin removed turns yellow and deteriorates over time. When exposed to light and/or heat, the molecules in the acidic paper will break down even faster. Paper made from wood-based pulp first became popular in the very late 1800s and would last 30 to 50 years before deteriorating. The first person to report the problem in a scholarly journal was William Barrow, a librarian. He published a report in the 1930s about the deterioration of acidic paper in the books stored in libraries. It is interesting to note that the 1930s was about 50 years after acid-based paper went into widespread use.
Today most all paper is made from wood pulp by use of acid baths. That paper won’t last long enough for your grandchildren to read it when they become your age. A much better choice is to purchase archival quality paper that is still made the old-fashioned way: from linen and cotton. That paper is significantly more expensive than the standard “copier paper” that most of us use, but the expense is worth it for anything you wish to preserve. Perhaps the best plan is to purchase a single ream of archival quality paper and keep it on the shelf. You might want to use the cheaper paper for everyday printing tasks but replace the acid-based paper in your printer with archival paper only when printing something that you wish to preserve for a few generations.
Archival quality paper is available at most larger office supply stores as well as from many online merchants. Make sure you read the label on the product closely to see if it is true “archival quality paper.”
The question of paper is easy to solve: read the label closely and be prepared to pay a higher price. However, the question of appropriate inks is much more difficult to solve. After all, what good is the paper if the ink on it fades within a few years?
The easiest printer question to solve concerns laser printers, all of which use some sort of laser toner. The answer is simple: Don’t do it! There is no such thing as archival quality toner.
Comment: If you ever spilled laser toner on your fingers or on your clothing, you might think that it remains there forever! However, scientists assure us that this is not the case.
Early laser printers used toner that was simply carbon powder. The user poured the toner from a bottle into a reservoir in the machine. Unfortunately, inhaling airborne carbon particles creates health problems, and the printer industry soon switched to polymer (plastic) toner. The specific polymer used varies by manufacturer, but it can be a styrene acrylate copolymer, a polyester resin, a styrene butadiene copolymer, or a few other special polymers. Toner formulations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from machine to machine.
The problem with laser toner is that it sticks to the outside of the paper. That is, toner does not get absorbed into the paper’s fibers in the manner of traditional ink. Over a period of time, the toner will “flake off” and no longer be attached to the paper.
To test this for yourself, take a document printed with a laser printer on typical (cheap) paper. Get a roll#230 drafting tape, preferably one inch wide or wider, available at most any office supply store or from Amazon (ASIN B000HF03NW). Turn back a half-inch of the end of the tape, adhesive side to adhesive side, to form a tab or handle. Tear off the piece of tape about 4 inches long, and smooth it onto the laser-printed document with four fingers of one hand. Pull the tab back along the top of the remainder of the tape, making a 180-degree peel test. If any toner is visible on the adhesive side of the tape, you will understand that the toner was not absorbed into the paper. If you perform the same test on a document produced on an inkjet printer or written by hand, you will see little or no ink on the tape. Make sure the ink is thoroughly dry before testing, however. I’d suggest drying the ink-based document for twenty-four hours before testing.
The laser toner sticks to paper better if the printer’s fuser works at a higher temperature. However, high-temperature fusers are typically found only in office printers costing several thousands of dollars. The lower-cost, lower-temperature fusers are found in consumer-grade laser printers that you find at your local computer store.
Ink is better than laser because the ink will be absorbed into the paper, producing a longer lasting image. In fact, ink is absorbed better in rag-based, archival quality paper than in the acid-base “copier paper” typically used in laser printers. The problem with most of today’s (inexpensive) ink cartridges is that the inks used are water-based. Such inks will fade. The ink may still be absorbed into the paper, but who can see faded ink?
So, you have two problems: laser toner “flakes off,” and water-based inkjet inks will fade. What can the genealogist do?
The answer is simple: use archival quality inkjet cartridges and print on archival quality paper. Archival ink-jet ink bonds better to paper than does water-based ink or laser printer toner. While this sounds simple, you may encounter some complexities in doing so.
The biggest problem is that archival quality inkjet cartridges are difficult to find. In fact, you may never find them for cheaper inkjet printers. The majority of consumers who purchase cheap printers don’t seem to be concerned with archival quality documents; so, the manufacturers find very few markets for archival quality ink cartridges for the cheaper printers. I guess the “majority” doesn’t include genealogists! You can, however, find archival quality cartridges for the more expensive inkjet printers, the printers that cost several hundred dollars or more.
A more reasonable approach for most of us is to first purchase a (cheap) water-based inkjet cartridge and then to use it daily. Once the original ink is exhausted, you can refill the cartridge with archival quality refill ink, which is available from many sources. You can find many archival quality inkjet cartridges and refill kits by starting at http://www.google.com/products?q=archival+inkjet+refill+-paper.
NOTE: This method of refilling cartridges will not work for some of the newer inkjet printers that are designed to make it difficult to refill the cartridges. Printer manufacturers typically make more profit on the sale of inkjet cartridges than on the sale of printers. Therefore, in order to maximize profits, some inkjet printer manufacturers now include circuitry inside the cartridges to track the usage of ink. These cartridges will stop working after a while, even if you refill them. The electronics inside the cartridge will “shut the cartridge down” so that it no longer functions, even if it is refilled. It is a shoddy method of business but is becoming widespread amongst many of the printer manufacturers.
The reality is that all of today’s high-tech solutions for producing printed documents with the hope of lasting for a long time include some significant drawbacks. You can improve the life expectancy of your computer-printed documents by a careful selection of paper, printers, and ink. However, none of today’s computer printers are capable of producing documents that will last for centuries.
The only way to preserve documents that long is to use the old fashioned method: a fountain pen, archival quality ink, and archival quality paper. Don’t even think of using a ballpoint pen!
A high stool, sleeve garters, and a green eyeshade are optional.