The Darkroom Cookbook, 5th Edition

Appendix 4Archival Print Procedure

“There was never anything by the wit of man so well devised or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted.”

—Book of Common Prayer, 1549

To photographers, archival usually means negatives and prints that will last at least a century. Unfortunately, nobody knows for certain what will enable a print to last that long. Every time definitive research is announced, the Image Permanence Institute, Ilford, or anyone else involved in archival research, finds a spot on a print or negative that is supposedly archival by the new standard.

Until recently it was thought that toning with selenium at high dilutions (1:19, 1:29, etc.) would create an archival image. Research now shows that ...