Ink Corrosion Prognosis: How ?

Frank Ligterink, Birgit Reissland, Norbert Ligterink and Claire Phan-Tan-Luu (2010)

The development of ink corrosion damage for a specific object is understood to depend on a combination of object characteristics, environment, and time. In other words, two identical artifacts with similar object characteristics, kept in different environments can show different damage. And, not all iron-gall ink artifacts stored in the same environment will develop ink corrosion to a similar degree.
Object characteristics used for the iron-gall ink prognosis are object age and color distribution functions of front and back image. From these characteristics we deduce the expected rate of change and the decay pattern. Environmental factors enhancing the development of ink corrosion are: 1) the exposure to high humidity levels, and 2) exposure to mechanical stress, typically due to handling. The Ink Corrosion Prognosis Web Service provides our best estimate of how your iron gall ink artifact(s) will look like in 100 years time.