Saturday, February 04, 2006

A Tip on Dating Pictures

I'm a fanatic about writing dates and locations on the back of my pictures, because I don't like looking at pictures and having no idea when or where they were taken. With a passion in taking pictures whenever the opportunity arises, I have taken loads of pictures. I certainly cannot rely upon my memory. Here are a few tips for dating pictures:

1. Do not use regular writing utensils - such as a pencil, regular pen, Sharpie, or marker - to write on the back of pictures. Such writing utensils are not archival. What does that mean? Ultimately such utensils will eat their way through to the other side of the picture (the front side). Once that happens, the coloring on the front side might change a bit, too.

2. Write with utensils that use archival ink. An important feature about archival ink is that it is acid free. Some pens that use archival ink, unfortunately take awhile to dry. But, I've found one pen, Microperm - made by Sakura, that is quick drying and works well. A link for the US website for Sakura is below:


Sakura's GellyRoll.com

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