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Greetings, MapFolks:
 
I have two grad students rapidly approaching defense who have come to me
with this situation:
 
They both are going to have large format color geologic maps in their
theses, and they intend to produce them on a color plotter here.  However,
their experience is that the plotter color will begin to fade instantly,
and they're wondering about reproducing the plates from the plotter output
in some other more stable technology.  These will be your standard geologic
maps, although one is an 85" long cross-section.
 
I went to look at my copy of the Geologic Map of Kansas (as you probably
know the 1991+ 'editions' of this map are done one-off on a color plotter,
and I wondered how that color was holding up), only to discover that the
order was never quite completed, so I can't look at it.  Can anybody else
assess for me about how that's holding up?  It could be that these guys are
overly critical about the durability of the inks off the plotter, but I'm
thrilled that they're concerned about the archival quality!
 
I don't think I've been keeping up on the technology.  Can anybody help?
What's out there in terms of reasonably-priced large-format color
reproduction that would be able to deal with this kind of material?  Is
there now a color version of the large-format b/w photocopiers that we've
gotten so used to?
 
Thanks in advance for all your help.  Respond to the group if you like, or
to me personally and I'll summarize.
 
Jim
 
 
 
 
Jim O'Donnell
Geological & Planetary Sciences Librarian
California Institute of Technology
100-23
Pasadena, California   91125
626/395-2199
fax:  626/568-0935