Do process colors fade when printed on papers containing optical brighteners?

[Marie Meyer]

What is known about whether or not process colors fade more quickly when printed on papers containing optical brighteners? Is there a typical lifetime one could project before you'd expect to start seeing changes?

 

[gordo]

What is known about whether or not process colors fade more quickly when printed on papers containing optical brighteners? Is there a typical lifetime one could project before you'd expect to start seeing changes?

Unless there's a chemical reaction between the OBAs and the process inks (which is unlikely) then, IMHO, no.

OBAs can decompose over time and can cause yellow stains to appear or for the paper to return towards its non-OBA color state - i.e. go yellower and duller which will shift the appearance of the process colors even if they are not fading themselves. The impact of OBAs ranges with the amount of ink coverage - i.e. the appearance of the lighter tones in the presswork are more affected than the shadows.

This posting has info about process ink permanence: http://the-print-guide.blogspot.ca/2010/05/fade-to-black-ink-permanence.html
And this one about OBAs in general: http://the-print-guide.blogspot.ca/2009/03/issues-of-optical-brightening-agents-in.html