Do photo printers prints run if you put them under water?

[Nocturnal]

Like a regular ink jet printer, if you put water on the paper it'll smear. Is it the same for digital camera photos printed out on say a Canon S9000 photo printer? If so, how does a regular picture from say K-Mart's photo department not run?

 

[isaacmacdonald]

k-mart uses chemical processing. your run of the mill dye based inkjet is water soluable. There's an inbetween, called pigmented inks. They are essentially applied in the same fashion as dye based inkjet inks, but they withstand water and UV. Unforunately they're a bitach because the pigments tend to clog the little tubes that feed the inkjets when they're spraying.

 

[clicknext]

The Epson "dura bright", I think they're called, inks don't smear when you get a bit of water on them. Of course I doubt that would be true if you soak it, but it's fairly water resistant.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

Originally posted by: clicknext
The Epson "dura bright", I think they're called, inks don't smear when you get a bit of water on them. Of course I doubt that would be true if you soak it, but it's fairly water resistant.

the dura brite inks (used in the c82) are just a step above dye based. The epson line runs: dye < durabrite < ultrachrome < pigment - as far as durability goes at least. The other problem with pigmented inks is that the colors appear less saturated, especially in the red and yellow ends of the gamut (blues seem quite good regardless of the ink).

 

[KingNothing]

I read that as you asking if the printer itself would produce output while submerged...and I was thinking maybe you were going to answer your own question with pics. Now I'm disappointed.