Archival storage

[Chuck Guzis]

On 10/11/2005 at 4:43 PM John Foust wrote:

>As we've flogged many times before, "Which printing technology"?
>Laser printer toner has characteristics that make it unsuitable
>(such as the way it'll transfer from page to page when pressed
>tightly).  Ink jets are soluble.  Dye sub?  Wax transfer?

Back when small printers were hard to come by, there was at least one technology that used a "paper' made of a black layer on a paper substrate covered by a very thin layer of aluminum.  The printer burned through the aluminum, leaving the black spots exposed.  Oddly enough, this sounds like a fiarly permanent process.  Was the stuff called "electrographic" paper?

Before CD's, weren't there some experimental recording methods using phase-change glass?  Was it the Ovionics people that pioneered this?

Photographic images have a very long life, assuming careful storage.  Tintypes maybe?

Cheers,
Chuck