Labels in alcohol

[Doug Yanega]

>        Laser printed labels won't resist long in liquid media, the letter
>will fall off the paper. I talked to the ink engeneers at HP and they told
>me that it has to do with the process used to fix the ink on the paper.
>Similar information was relayed to me by Julian Hamphries, when he tested
>laser printed labels some years back.

And yet, sometimes one can find a rough-surfaced acid-free paper to which
the letters adhere remarkably well. I've got labels in alcohol with insect
and plant specimens over 10 years old, and they are all quite legible, even
though it's 4-point lettering. You need to use a microscope to detect any
deterioration in the lettering. The worst horror stories seem to be with
folks working with vertebrate material, so maybe dissolved fats are a
specific and serious problem for such material. Certainly, as a general
rule, you are VERY unlikely to have the success I did (when we got a new
paper supplier, our labels all fell apart when they *touched* the alcohol),
and I'm not recommending it over other techniques like impact printing, but
to claim that ALL laser labels will fall apart quickly is simply not true.

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-449-2579, fax: 031-441-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
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