In all the ink reviews I see comments about if the ink displays shading or not. I was just wondering how many people think shading is good, and how many think shading is bad?

I happen to like the look of shading in the ink color, it gives a little more character to my writing. About the only ink color that I do not want to shade is black.

I like shading too. I deliberately seek this property in an ink. However, it is not only a property of an ink. I believe a responsive nib shades more, so does a broader nib. The paper has some influence as well and last but not least the person that writes has a big influence....

I really like when an ink shades. To me its' one of the things (besides the amazingly different writing experience) that makes me want to use a fountain pen compared to others. I don't specifically search it out granted, but its' definitely something that makes me enjoy an ink just that much more.

I like shading. There are certain colors, like black, that I want to be consistent (no shading) but I've grown to appreciate a nice shading ink with time. When I first started playing with different inks other than WM Violet, I wanted saturated inks only.

I don't like shading.

For me, I wish shading would bring about the real colour tone I was looking for in the first place.
If it were, however, possible for the end effect to show up immediately but with NO shading, then that would be really neat!

WOW
Mike

I like shading very much. If you don't like shading you'd better simply take a rollerball.

err, yes, obviously, because shading is the only thing that's different about writing with a FP, right?

No need to stoke the fire...

...personally, I find shading to be an extremely desirably characteristic. Is it the only positive of fountain pen use? Definitely not. In fact, it ranks in the secondary category of things that draw me to fountain pens. Could I see why someone wouldn't like shading? Sure.

Hey, Where's the smartalek smilie?

As Nellie implies and JJ expanded on, there's a lot more to FP use than shading ink. I think that those of us who have mentioned liking certain colors not to shade (black being one of the biggies - to me, black is black, not gray) but still enjoying the shading of other inks, are just one example of why that's the case.

Besides, to further complicate the RB statement - you can get RBs that take FP ink and get shading!

If shading were the only thing that made FPs fun, I'd never have gotten into them. First time i tried WM black and NOS Sheaffer red (it wasn't "NOS" at the time) I though "YUCK!" and spent quite a lot of time concentrating small amounts of the red to get it to something approximating my idea of what red ink should be.

I still don't like WM black but I grew to appreciate the variability and subtlety of other inks that are not saturated.

It's all an adventure and I switch around. I want my Penman Emerald, any black ink, and any mark-up ink to be nice and solid. Colors like Diamine Orange have no shading that I can tell but have beauty in their vibrance. But then there's Apache Sunset which gives the effect of a beautiful sunset done by a wonderful watercolorist.

ruud2904 is right as well - I don't get nearly as much shading from Apache Sunset in a standard nib as I do in a flex nib. And a dry nib can render the darkest inks (though apparently *not* Ebony Purple) into something more subtle. Broad nibs depend a lot on the ink and how much they spread vs. how fast they flow. It's all one big experiment and I think that's something that really brings fun to the hobby. You never know how an ink you've been using forever in one pen will look coming from an entirely different nib. Where is that post from Wim from so long ago... I'll dig that up and add a link.

this is a fun topic. Thanks, kaos.

here's a good example of ink variation between nibs. I highly recommend reviewing old reviews - especially the early ones done in 2005/2006 by wimg and The Nobel Savage. Great stuff.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...?showtopic=2263

I love shading too - for me it adds interest and a creative flair. I dont like it is the fainest line is too faint or wishywashy though - it should be good colour and deeper colour.

I also agree that there are times when shading is not appropriate and therefore there should be inks that do and inks that dont

I love shading - wouldn't have thought to seek it out, but hadn't really thought of it before! Actually I don't even mind shading in black. I like that "distinctive FP look" that shading provides, and think it makes the words look even more interesting on the page (and goodness knows my words need all the help they can get in that regard!).

Great topic. Interesting to read others' opinions and thoughts on the matter.

I like shading. I don't deliberately seek out an ink for its shading properties, but it is nice to have. It makes writing look more exciting. I don't really care that the writing has an "FP look," I just think that it looks nice.

I love shading too

I like FP for many reason one of them for the character they give to handwriting, shading adds a lot of characters as well... except for black. KCat said it best, when I want black I want BLACK not grey

Hmmm... I guess this is one reason I never really like Noodler's El Lawrence, but I had never thought of it like that....

I like shading except in my blacks (like everyone else apparently ) Is there a good black with a minimum of shading?

My black of choice is Aurora Black

Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of the Noodler's Black yet...

Aurora is excellent. I use Noodler's only because I take advantage of the Bullletproof nature of the ink. Both are very saturated, rich black inks.

I like shading in all my inks, black included. My bottle of Noodler's black is gathering dust.

I agree.

I didn't like shading- when the only inks I had were Quink Black in a M Vector and Lamy Blue in an Al-Star- then, shading meant washed out, diluted inks that required going over a few times to get a half decent color.

Now that I've tried some more inks, inks with color and complexity.

I think having a pen with even a minimal amount of flex makes shading worthwhile.

Regards,
Aaron

well, i do like shading, but with some pens i absolutely hate it. Some pens cause bad pooling of the ink whenever you lift the nib from the paper, where the pool then retreats halfway up the letter, and thus your writing looks speckled, with distinct light areas vs dark areas. I prefer shading to be more even and subtle, like on the curves of certain letters.

Shading happens really nicely if you water down an ink and use it in a wet writer, by the way.

Over the last year or so, I've grown very fond of shading. I agree that it lends some additional character to writing. I also feel that there can be too much of a good thing. Initially, I was turned off by shading, because my first exposure to it was with PR Sherwood Green. For my taste, that ink has way too much contrast from light to dark. I was very pleased when I saw other examples of ink shading which were more subtle.

I like shading. It makes the finished writing look even more organic. I also like the shading that I get as a result of pausing while writing, then beginning again, and seeing that the strokes made immediately after the pause are darker/more saturated. When I look back over my writing and see a dark few words, I know that I stopped to think before continuing.

Brent

i like shading because it somehow adds character to what i wrote. i especially like it on blue and green inks.

Long time ago, when I was in highschool, I absolutely hated shading, and there was lots of it, as all I wrote with for 6 years were WM Bleu Royale (aka Florida Blue) and WM Black. Especially the black in a medium-nibbed schoolpen turned dark-grey with streaks of lighter grey almost overnight.

When I started using FPs again, my first 2 inks were WM SSB and Violet, and somehow shading seemed to add character to my writing. Now I love how Herbin inks shade, even Perle Noire in my medium Pilot VP. That said, I also use Starry Night in an F, and Eternal Black in an XF with no shading at all, but that doesn't bother me either.

De gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est, I guess.

Greetings

Miguel

If we didn't argue about colors, this forum would be pretty quiet!

It would be less colorful for sure