PaperSpecs - a website about all things paper - has made available a short report on the Permanence of Toner on Paper, from a team at RIT, that goes into detail about the wide variety of "stressors" that can affect adherence of text and images to paper. Why is this a green issue?

• If the recipient perceives the printed piece to be of poor quality because of scuffs, cracks, or moisture, their first reaction will be to toss it, not to read it.
• Materials warehoused for long periods of time are likely to be affected by moisture and air which can considerably change the appearance of printed pieces resulting in the need to trash them.
• Recycling of digitally printed pieces is still somewhat challenging and requires more research.

Read the article, it provides very detailed insight into the variables that can affect permanence of digital print. The conclusions of the article:

Digital printing has been projected to be the fastest growing print provider service over the next two years, and therefore understanding the variables that cause stress to the process is valuable. Stressors that potentially affect permanence were examined in each stage of digital printing's life cycle:

• In the printing and finishing stage, little stress is induced by the actual printing, but physical scratching and cracking occur during finishing.
• During the mailing and fulfillment stages, scratching and cracking, and heat, light and air contaminants were seen as stressors. Similarly, scratching, cracking, heat and moisture were identified as problems in the distribution stage.
• In the usage stage, printed materials are subjected to every type of stress found in Table 1 such as: scratching, cracking, solvents, light, humidity, heat and air contaminants.
• Lastly, recycling digitally printed products presents obstacles not encountered in the processes used for offset printed materials.

With one-to-one marketing, variable data and print-on-demand becoming so popular, research in this area is necessary for every player in the printing industry to understand.

Thanks, Sabine Lenz, PaperSpecs, for making this article available. Download the full research monograph here.