Is there any real reason why fountain pen ink should be blue rather than any other colour? I read somewhere that it contains less sediment than black inks, on average, and doesn't clog up pens as much. Yes, blue can be a nice, dark colour that looks good against white paper - but is there any real reason why, say, dark green or dark brown didn't become the colour of choice for the majority of pen users? Or is it just one of those little historical quirks?

An interesting question.

I don't use blue ink on a regular basis. My mainstay is black. Jet-black. Is it perhaps because it's easier to see? I think it might have something to do with forgeries. The original document was filled in with blue ink and any photocopies, say, would show up as black - thereby distinguishing the original document from forged copies? I dunno.

Those of us who have been around for a few years know that blue ink was in use before the photocopier was invented in the 1930's.
In fact, an ink made from Prussian Blue was developed in the mid-1850's.

But that doesn't answer the question of when it came to be in common use. Certainly it would have been before the invention of the fountain pen, and probably after the development of inks using aniline dyes. It may be that the iron gall inks ate away at steel nibs, and the newer prussian blue or aniline dye inks didn't.

Any ink historians out there?

As Shangas mentioned, one reason may be that blue is more easily read than any other colour in a white paper. This has been studied, but I don't have the reference right now.

...And we got used to it in primary school ...

I was due to the availability of blue dyes and their characteristics which made them ideal for use a writing fluid. It is only in the last 50 yrs that good colored inks, like green, came along and were available for the public at large. Before that you were pretty much limited to black, blue or violet.

We are currently living in the best time for colored ink users. Makers are no longer struggling to produce a viable color (except white) and are instead working on other improvements like self-cleaning, lubricating or permanence.

I hadn't thought of it quite like that - "The Golden Age of Ink!"

Chris

Price in the past, I suspect. Blue and red were the cheapest of pigments at the time when fountain pens came about.

I prefer violet myself, but it's just not widely regarded as being appropriate for business purposes.

In primary school, we had handouts and tests made on a mimeograph. With its pale blueish/purple ink, blue pen ink wasn't very easy for the teachers to read. Red was, of course, prohibited as a teacher's color. We were made to use black on mimeographs, and most students just ended up using black for everything.

Hmmm...I'm not sure why, but I'm feeling nostalgic. I'm off to make a few calls...I'm suddenly wanting a mimeograph.

~~King

When I was in elementary school, my classmates and I loved the smell of papers that had just come off the mimeograph. The first thing we did when the teacher handed out papers was sniff them! It's a wonder we didn't have purple noses.

Does anybody else remember doing this? I don't suppose we were getting high on the smell of mimeograph ink - like people do who sniff glue? Naw, I don't think so.

Judybug

Ha! I remember those times too -- these days, my students love it when their papers come straight from the copier because they're warm. They snuggle into the paper like they would with a much-loved blanket.

Yes I do!! Loved the smell, and we still got those in secondary school. (Sorry, it's off-topic)
Nellie

I took a typing class the summer before 9th grade (when electric typewriters were just coming into the classrooms). One of the office skills we learned was how to type the mimeograph sheets, and how to scrape our mistakes off the masters. Made me appreciate perfect mimeos.

Oh yes, we got to run the sheets on the drum, and get that smell 'hot off the press'. One of the smells that forever are associated with school, like chalk, the disinfectant smell in the bathrooms, and whatever that stuff was they put down in the process of cleaning up vomit from the floor.

I can hear Babs singing now: "Memories are so beautiful and yet..."

gary

PS To put this a little on topic, I never saw a fountain pen in school. We were stuck with blue and black BPs, unless we sprung for a Lindy stick pen, which had its own unique ink smell. Never did like green or purple ink.

It was more than 50 years ago that green FP ink was available to the general public. White ink (for dip pens), too. When I bought my 1st FP in 1953 I bought green ink to use with it. My dad used dip-pen white ink to write in photo albums.

Best, Ann

So did my grandmother, come to think of it ...

...and yet no one has figured out how to make a white ink for FP in all that time.

Yes, I remember the smell and I liked it. It also usually signified a pop quiz when the teacher would step out for a moment and return with an armful of mimeograph paper and an evil grin on her face.

With great fondness because that smell meant that the teacher was going to pass out something that we got to color with our crayons! Yay! And that meant no penmanship exercises! Yay! It would be almost another half a century before I'd work up the nerve to try penmanship again...

Doug

Alright!! I CONFESS IT! I did that when I was in school, too!!

Blue is the most popular color in other realms besides fountain pen ink. People just naturally like this color. I know it is my favorite. When you combine this natural affinity for blue with the ink-friendliness of blue dyes, the popularity of blue fountain pen inks is easily understood.

I remember some psychologists used something called 'the Luscher Color Test' to draw conclusions about people's personality. You get something like eight cards with colours on them and arrange them in order of preference, twice. And yeah, statistically, most people were likely to choose a dark blue. Red came in second place.

You can do it online here:

http://www.viewzone.com/luscher.html

The following is a snippet from the intro to the test from that website:


Color Preferences Reveal Your Personality

by Geraldo Fuentes

Ever wonder why there are so many colors of new cars to chose from? What about the color of your shirt or blouse? What color is your bedroom? Your preferences for certain colors is a very personal one and psychologists - as well as marketing researchers - have studied the question of why certain colors appeal to certain people for years. These answers may lie in our attitudes towards life, as well as our emotional states.

The Luscher Color Test was devised by psychologist Max Luscher in 1969. It's effectiveness has been known in advertising, automotive and the fashion industry for years. Now you can gain some insight on your inner struggles and problems with this highly effective color test.

We warn you that this is no party trick. The selections that you make are to be compared with an extremely large database, gathered by Luscher and his collegues over many years and trials. The results can be very revealing, often surprising, but hopefully very helpful.

From http://www.viewzone.com/luscher.html

Oh man! I got probs!

Doug

I use blue (Noodler's eel American Blue) because it serves as both a primary writing ink and also serves as a great mark-up ink. Blue notations stand out against black print.

Uh, no, Noodler's has one called "The Whitness of the Whale"

How opaque a white it is, I cannot say, having not used it.

Whiteness of the Whale isn't a "white" ink so much as it is a clear ink that reflects light to appear white on some papers, in some situations. It is not suitable for writing on photographs or most dark surfaces. WotW is a variant of Blue Ghost, just with the UV chromaphor tweaked slightly.

The development of a white ink, like we have for dip pens, still eludes fountain pen ink makers and is the last colour missing. These white inks use suspended zinc oxide particles, like you might put on for sun protection, and these quickly clog fountain pens.

I would like to hear Nathan T's comments on this ink.


Kurt

I've got Pen, Ink and Evidence at home and it does a good job of going through the history of ink. If I recall correctly the first inks were black soot then the iron gall would go on clear so a blue dye was added.

But I will happily look it up when I get home to confirm this.


Kurt

He's commented on it in several threads, most recently in the WotW experience thread:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...st&p=383290

When I called him just prior to the WotW release, he said basically the same thing. It's designed as a security ink and a mixing ink, not a white ink for writing on dark materials. He's tried to get a true white ink that will work, but nothing has come of it yet.

There are still mimeograph machines in use in Australia? I thought they all died out in the 1980's.

I'm on a blue-ink kick now. I actually went so far as to paper-test each color.

Is there any reason not to mix inks to attain customized blues?

In general, no. Take a look around Inky Thoughts and you'll see people's recipes.

It can go bad in some specific cases, such a mixing two inks of very different pH's or mixing aniline inks with iron based inks.

We were just taught in school to use blue. It seemed the most washable / 'flowable' ink, generally and black usually tended to clog pens and scar uniforms. Blue also is easy on the eye. Of course as now somebody posted, we are really in a nice period of time where most colours work well with most fountain pens without much issue. Black also does not clog much now.

Of course early photocopiers had major problems with blue, but I think now the newer ones do not suffer as much in reproducing blue. I was using mostly black for work, but have shifted to turquoise - as a means to ensure originality of the document - and changing to Lamy Blue for my carry around pen.

Russ has hit the nail on the head. Blue is sufficiently conservative a color that it can be used for business writing and for signatures, yet it is also bright enough to use for marking up black print on white paper. No other color, including blue black, accomplishes both missions so well.

Green does.

Urgh. That thing says I'm ALL screwed up ...



It's kinda accurate ... but kinda horoscope, in the sense that it could apply to anyone because it's general enough. I wonder what some of the other possible results are?

Me too. And they used such lousy colors that it was hard to rank them. I actually found black to be better than some of their choices, which might explain my score.

Stephen