The form requested the use of black ink. The closest thing I had? Noodler's "Red-Black". I think my sample might be less red than it should be, and that's something I've been meaning to ask. Just how does it normally look? I've had issues with stale reds before. Or maybe it had settled/separated before drawing off the KCAT sample.

Anyway, the slightly red "black" did not draw any particular comment. I think they might scan the document and separate out the blue form printing (it was a funny shade), so really any non-pure-blue will do.

--John

Nobody had any trouble that time, so I guess it worked. I suppose that if a glitch were to happen along the way before the requested service and its payment were both completed, the authority who put "black ink only" on the form could blame you for your own experience of delay and inconvenience.

As to your question on how red red-black should be - I had a sample of it (from Pear Tree Pens) and found that it was surprisingly variable depending on the paper. More coated stock showed more red. Generally it fell more in the brown range than the red range, though, for me. I only had it loaded in one pen, a Waterman Phileas M. I suspect with wetter pens you might get more red...?