Printing photos

I was having a conversation with someone in the Chained Library about books becoming obsolete, she was of the opinion that everything will go online eventually as it's so convenient.
I thought that it would be a shame and that if the Internet vanished for some reason war, or lack of electricity production, future generations would be left with no record of our times.
This got me thinking about photos, they're mostly stored online and could vanish into the ether on a whim!
I may start printing my favourites and family photos to put in albums so that I have copies to pass on.
Do you print any of yours?

Re: Printing photos

Very rarely now, just the odd one if reqd for a competition, and i use the one near my local supermarket as the prints are of high quality, my own printer lies dormant now as it was expensive to use.

Re: Printing photos

Hi TessA

Funnily enough, I have just stared printing some for that very reason. A few will be framed individually but I am also making a montage in a large frame.

Re: Printing photos

Today's file formats or storage devices becoming redundant as years roll on probably isn't too much to worry about. It is likely there will always be ways of converting current photo file formats to any new ones that we don't know about yet, also transferring photo files to any other future storage media. I therefore feel that photos stored digitally now will be around for future generations to see on whatever devices are still waiting to be invented.

This all being provided that society doesn't break down and that there is always going to be power generated to run the devices. If not, that's when prints could be the only photographic record there is left of previous generations.

If printed photos are to last for generations to come, then the longevity and storage of them needs some consideration. Inkjet prints will eventually fade if displayed on a shelf, window sill or other places around the house, just like prints developed from negatives can. This will depend on how sunny or light the position is though. Fading might not matter too much if the photos have been stored as a file as well. Then they can be re-printed once in a while.

Inkjet prints kept in an album (and so in the dark) ought to last forever but who knows?

If intending to do quite a bit of printing and prints need to be future-proof, then a dye-sublimation printer might be the best type of printer to use. The longevity of prints is said to be better and (having seen the prints produced) I'd say the quality of them is about as good as photos developed in the old way from negatives. Prints work out at about 3 Pence each. A Canon dye-sub printer is more or less the same price as a decent quality inkjet printer.

If interested, there is a discussion here about print longevity and dye-sub versus inkjet printers.

https://www.betterphoto.com/forms/Qn...threadID=28456

Re: Printing photos

Having had a panic when I thought I lost password to one of my storage sites I now print anything I want to keep safe. It scared me I could lose so much if I just forgot a password or what if a site closed down ?

Re: Printing photos

I still print some photographs of the grandchildren and have made a large collage of them on the landing

It is lovely seeing them whenever I go up the stairs.