Summary:
Contrary to what you may expect, digital printed stored on your computer on on CDs won´t last forever. Here is how to ensure your images last to be enjoyed by future generations.

Details or Sample:
In many homes, there is usually a collection of old photos and negatives. It may be housed in a shoe box, or a well set out album, but these old photographic memories are invaluable, and most have stood the test of time.

A 50 year old collection of negatives, recently scanned using a deep box scanner, yielded impressive black and white prints. Old color negatives and transparent slides are another source of memories that remain available for fresh prints.

But now we are in the digital age, and photos may be stored on hard drives, back up drives or CDs. But will they stand the test of time, and still be available for fresh prints in the future?

No, says the Photo Imaging Council of Australia. There is no guarantee that your digital images will last forever, or even be accessible forever, when they are stored on media. The Council warns that digital images can be lost in many ways - through a computer crash or damage to CDs, for example.

Even more disturbing is the Council´s warning that changing technology may make your photo files obsolete. The formats you use now to store your photos may not be compatible with formats in the future. We all have known the frustration of upgrading to a new operating platform, only to find that our large collections of games and applications have to be renewed or upgraded as well - and many people recall the pain of music and movie collections becoming obsolete when technology moved on from cassettes to CDs and DVDs.

Images kept on file or CD will not guarantee long life, even in the unlikely event that the technology never changes. Stored files become corrupted, and often you will find that older CDs won´t open your files, or that much of the file is lost through corruption.

Nor does storing your images online ensure a long life. Hosting companies disappear all the time, and take your property with them.

By far the best way to preserve your images for future generations to enjoy is to print them. But even here, you could have problems if you don´t choose your method wisely.

We´ve all seen images printed out on an ink jet printer and pinned up on the wall, fade and discolor in a very short time. This can happen even with photographic paper. You will need to ensure that the printer and the paper you are using is intended to preserve the image for a long time. Epson make this claim for some of their printers, and there are premium glossy papers that are also intended for long term image preservation.

Having your images professionally printed may be the best option if you don´t want to purchase a printer and paper that will do the job of preserving your images. To keep your printed images fresh for the maximum time, you need to store them correctly. Cool and dark are the keywords. Surprisingly, the shoe box method isn´t that damaging, if the box is keep somewhere cool and dust free. Damp is the biggest enemy of stored printed images, so make sure that the storage place is also absolutely dry.

Stored correctly, printed on premium quality paper with good ink should last for many decades, but it is wise to check them periodically. Any images that are fading should be reprinted immediately, or scanned, digitally corrected and reprinted.

It is also wise to make an inventory of your collected images, whether stored on media or on paper. Then those who inherit your prints can do their own check of the images, and have them printed or reprinted to guard against future loss.

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Written by: Gail Kavanagh
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