I've heard good things about all of the inks. I'm not too picky with colors, I'm just looking for a fast drying ink. Which ink do you prefer and why?

Noodler's Au Coeurs des Ténèbres a.k.a Heart of Darkness is very fast drying, and is also bullet-proof (waterproof, UV-resistant, solvent-resistant). It's a very dark black. It can be had in a 4.5 oz. eyedropper bottle from Swisher (and probably elsewhere; no affiliation, but I took delivery yesterday from Swisher) for about $15, and it even comes with a complimentary Platinum Preppy colourless transparent (i.e. "demonstator") FP modified to be used as an eyedropper filler. Having praised it, I should also mention that Heart of Darkness is a fairly new product, not so tried-and-true as Noodler's standard Black, which is also bullet-proof.

I could go on to recommend other inks, but that was verbosity enough for the moment!

If you are going to use Noodlers I would issue a warning, I have found that it clogs the pen up a bit if not used often enough, the flow can be poor at times. I had the Luxury Blue in an old Parker Flighter 45 medium nib and it was terrible, it stained something awful, then I put it in a new 45 fine nib, and now it seems to be fine, flow is better but still not wonderful. Also Noodlers doesn't seem to work well with a dip pen for some reason. I like Waterman, I find the colours, well Florida Blue and green quite nice, flow very well. I think how readily they dry depends upon how wet the pen is. But mostly I find Waterman dries quite quickly, as of yet I have no experience of Diamine.

Diamine or Waterman for the most part.

WM Violet was always slow to dry in my pens.

Diamine inks seem to dry quickly but if you use very cheap paper (faster drying) you may see more spreading of the line. I don't get feathering from Diamine inks, just that on some cheap paper the line is broader than WM inks.

It's a bit catch-as-catch-can IMO since different colors seem to behave differently within a brand. WM SSB is very well-behaved in all aspects, Violet and Havana, not as much. Diamine Mediterranean blue has great flow, dries fast, and is lovely. Diamine Umber has great flow, dries not as fast, and is lovely.

It's a generality but the less dye, the less trouble with smearing - heavily saturated inks like many Noodler's inks and two two aforementioned WM inks will let dye particles sit on top of the paper rather than soaking in and be more prone to smearing even after drying. Some of that can be mitigated with slight dilution that does not impact color or flow.

Noodlers seems to be a mixed bag, people have very varied views on it, Waterman however seems to be a fairly "safe" ink, nothing amazing about it but it works very well, Diamine I have not tried.

My everyday inks are Noodler's Iraqi Indigo and Noodler's Legal Lapis.

I always have at least one of them in a pen on me (I typically carry three pens with me; today I've got five, as the mail carrier pulled up right as I was leaving for work).

Because you are looking for a fast-drying ink, I agree with KCat's comments and recommendations for Diamine and Waterman. The Noodler's colors I've tried are comparatively slow to dry on the page.

I agree with blueiris. Although I prefer Noodler's myself, I think you'd be a lot happier with either Diamine or Waterman, which dry a lot faster. The only Noodler's I've found to be fairly fast-drying are the eternal/bulletproof colours.

Based on my very limited experience, Noodlers has great colors and saturation, but I think I prefer Watermans. My FP (which happens to be a Waterman) seems to perform/feel much better with Watermans brand. Although it is less saturated than Noodlers, I think Waterman inks make the Fine nib on my pen feel smoother.

I am very satisfied with Noodler's Old Manhattan Black (FPH exclusive) which dries very quickly -- very! I use fine and extra-fine nibs, though, so that probably accounts for some of the quickness.

Also, Noodler's Polar Blue.

Waterman is my mainstay because it's low-maintenance (flow & lubricate well, and not heavily saturated). Diamine offers a wider pallete and is equally well-behaved. I have no qualms using either brand in any of my vintage or modern pens.

Of those three, Waterman's would be my pick.

If you are new to inks, you might like to try a sampler from Peartree Pens... try out a few disparate inks and see their differences.

But I am a Noodler's fan. You get a lot of ink, it's a small DIY operation, there are myriad colors, they're made by a pen-repair person (so damage to pens is avoided by rigorous QC, despite the spurious reports of pen-damage occasionally posted on FPN, presumably from neglect and not from the ink), and best of all there are some waterproof/bulletproof options.

I echo above that the bulletproof inks are quick-drying, but few of them are vibrant. If you're not picky about color, I'd go with something bulletproof. Noodler's makes some quick-drying inks for Swisher Pens, try the Swisher's quick-drying line (warning, some feather on cheap papers, not bulletproof, but vibrant), or the Swishmix line, which is mostly-bulletproof but still quick-drying and more vibrant than an all-bulletproof color.

The waterproof quality is really so important to me, as it's a shame when moisture from my fingers smears a word, or when tea drips from my moustache, etc...

I have two black inks, Noodler's Black and Pelikan. I like them both, but Pelikan dries much faster, which is sometimes important to me as I'm a leftie.

Waterman would be my number 1 choice for daily use. On any color is a 10, behaves like no other and never gives a problem, solving many in most occasions. But once in a while is nice changing inks, and Diamine behaves very well, too, with a greater range of colors. Some of Noodler's colors are amazing.

I would go with Diamine. Dries fast, does not smear/smudge and has a great range of colors.