Should photo paper be stored airtight?”
I’m assuming you mean printer paper for digital photos, not real (chemical process) photo paper. Either way, thick paper (of which both qualify) can become warped if stored in high-humidity locations. Digital photo printing paper is made to accept ink, and humidity can affect the absorption and affect the output. However, this effect is not going to be very noticeable for most images. I’d go with the “better safe than sorry” approach just to ensure that you won’t have to throw away what was at one time, expensive good printer paper.
I’m assuming you are talking about “ink jet” photo paper, but the same applies for the most part to traditional photo paper. Airtight, or ‘hermetically sealed” if you want to get fancy with terms. Putting your paper in a ‘seal-a-meal’ type vacuum package would likely be overkill, (unless it was for very long term storage) this brings another, more important storage storage concentration, acid free. Which in this case you would package the paper in an acid free container, before sealing it in an vacuum packed bag. The issue of air, most importantly would be to keep the paper from becoming too humid, and varying in humidity levels as well. Plus to keep it from being contaminated with dust etc. This is why ink jet papers often comes in a bad with a sticky resealable tab, to help maintain its humidity, and cleanliness, but it is not completely airtight. Traditional photo paper often comes the same way but the bag it is in serves to keep out light as well. For unused paper, store it in a ac
How your printed photos fade is determined by the combination of your ink and your paper and how you store them. “Archival” storage is generally airtight and away from light (you can get photo albums that are “Archival” and do this fairly well). Some of the Epson and HP inks will last up to 200 years in these conditions. The worst thing you can do is to put it up on the wall, in direct sunlight, with no plastic or glass cover. Some inks will fade within weeks. Others can still last years. As a rule, the paper and ink made by the company that made your printer will work great together, but they tend to be expensive. Many people use third party inks or third party papers. Personally, I’ve had great success with Canon printers, canon inks, and Costco paper (which costs only a fraction of the Canon paper). I would recommend doing research on www.dpreview.com, in the forum for printers and printing. You can find many good articles on diff
