Canon Lucia EX Professional Printer inks tackle the rain – and SURVIVE!

Actual prints from a Canon iPF6300 left out in the rain overnight
Bottom image Copyright © Talha Bin Tariq, all others Ron Martinsen – All Rights Reserved

I was going out to the trash last night to throw away some bad or test prints that I had done during my printing series, when I noticed it was raining pretty good. These images were going to go into the trash anyway, so I thought - “I wonder what would happen if I left them out in the rain overnight?” I know that prints from normal ink jet printers are destroyed if you so much as sneeze on them, so I thought this was a sure way to destroy them.

When I returned 12 hours later, I was shocked to discover that they had held up just fine! I brought them in my garage and let them dry out and they were in near mint condition again!!!! I decided that I must write about this, so I got them wet again, and put them in funny places so they’d warp (so you could see the raindrops easier) and then left them out in the rain again. The picture you see above was taken after they had been in the rain for about 5 minutes.

While Wilhelm Imaging Research may do ink permanence tests for the Canon Lucia EX (using the iPF8300, but the iPF6300 is the same only smaller), I can’t say that I’ve seen results from something like this in their testing – ha, ha!

The moral of the story here is that these pro printer inks are WAY more durable than you might imagine, and even if you do get them wet – just chill out and let them dry. From what I can tell, they’ll do fine! :-)

For those who are interested, here’s a list of what printer and paper was used above as well as a quick observation:

• Canon Polished Rag 300 gsm - (Top & Middle Right) – This fiber-based paper has a semi-gloss finish and is a beefy 15mil. It’s media instruction sheet says that its operating temp is 59F to 86F degrees, and that its operating humidity is 30 to 60%. Well last night was in the 40’s and 100% humidity, and while I would urge you NOT to run this wet paper through the printer, it looked totally fine. The semi-gloss finish protected it from contaminants and kept the water from soaking through to the more exposed back side of this paper.
• Canon Fine Art Bright White 330 gsm (Middle Left) – This is a thick 20mil 100% cotton and acid free paper with a matte finish. Despite its tendency to absorb liquid very well it faired as well as the others in this test after given a longer amount of time to dry.
• LexJet® Sunset Photo Metallic (Bottom) – This is a 10mil, 255 gsm high gloss paper that was totally unaffected by the rain. Within about 10 minutes of being inside it was dry and showed no signs of ever being in the rain. It was by far the winner of the test, despite its 70F degree and 50% humidity recommended storage conditions.

Conclusion

Honestly, I have images printed with my consumer grade Canon printer where even in optimal conditions my skin oil can cause the ink to smear. However, in the professional printer line-up you are using the best ink Canon has ever made when you have a iPF6300, iPF6350 or iPF8300 and it shows! Canon touts its durability and scratch resistance, but this is nuts! If archival quality is one of your concerns, then I think the Wilhelm Imaging Research Lucia EX report and this test should give you all the confidence you need to know that this is definitely a special ink!

If you enjoyed this, then be sure to check out my review of the Canon iPF6300 as well as many other articles in my printing series.