Where Do You Use Colored Inks?

[sargetalon]

Hello everyone. I'm relatively new to fountain pens but I seem to be quickly amassing a collection. I use the pens daily at work (hospital writing daily progress notes) and subsequently use Waterman's Serenity Blue, Waterman's Intense Black, or Aurora Black.

 

I see so many great colors reviewed here and love the Goulet invoices I get with the personalized messages highlighting different colors. For me though, I cannot use such colors at work. In what settings do people use these vibrant and non-traditional colors? I'm really eyeing Noodler's Apache Sunset and Diamine Ultra Green but just aren't sure where I'd be able to use them. Any ideas for practical use would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Renfield]

You could get some penpals, and use them for those. Start a written journal?

[Audit This]

I use mine daily at work to mark up documents. The different shades make my edits easy to identify and I change colors so I can ID the different versions/dates. Outside of work for Holiday and Thank You notes as well as general notes to self or the significant other. I guess I am fortunate to have a job where my ink color doesn't matter 99% of the time.

[Uncle Red]

Apache Sunset i stunning but slow drying. Everyone who's seen me write with it loved the way it looked. They seem to appreciate the surprise of a letter.

I also seem to get away with colors at work, signed my last time sheet in Scabiosa (purple).

[Ada]

I use colored ink for everything that does not absolutely require black or blue (although with all of the blue inks available, even blue can be fairly colorful). You might enjoy using colored inks for writing shopping lists or taking notes on articles or books as you read, in addition to the other suggestions you've already gotten.

[Koyote]

Is there any particular reason why you can't use different colors at work? Given that cheap ballpoints come in a range of colors, I think few people would even notice notes written in red, orange, purple...Or whatever else floats your boat.

[WOBentley]

You could certainly use Brown ink at work...I use Diamine Chocolate Brown as well as FPN Gallileo Manuscript Brown at work without problem. There are also dark Greens (such as the hard to get MB racing green, but other similar dark greens are available), Noodler's Zhivago is a possibility, As are the range of Blue-Black inks. There are many other possibilities to investigate. I use the other colors you refer to for journaling, notes at home, cards, letters etc.

Edited December 29, 2012 by WOBentley

[PowerWriter]

Generally for me

green = new [words, story ideas, observations, whatever] The color tells me I need to review it a second time at some point.

red = correction and important = I like to print out my stories and mark them up. If I have an important note to follow up on, the red or green come out

prose = something that makes me feel good such as an off blue, browns, whatever really. I decide at the time.

poetry = something to take me to that charged-word realm, something I don't need to smoke

business notes = blue, blue-black, or black, something conservative

journaling = anything

letters = depends. I just fired off a lettter to a female writer in residence using Écres des Saphir on paper with matching color designs I had kicking around for awhile.

[inkstainedruth]

I'll admit that other than keeping a couple of fairly permanent inks (Kung Te Cheng, some of the blue-black iron gall inks) for "official" purposes such as check-writing or signing legal documents, I pretty much use any color for any purpose. Some inks do better than others on different types of papers, but that's independent of color. At the moment the selections I currently have in pens happen to be pretty limited (I flushed a lot of pens in preparation for holiday travel plans): Kung Te Cheng, Quink Black, and Noodler's Manhattan Blue, which is effectively a dark blue/blue-black. But other inks I bought this past week included green and grey, and if I hadn't found a blue-black I liked, I would have filled one of the pens with me with Liberty's Elysium because it's such a nice cheery blue.

It's just whatever I'm in the mood for at the moment. That's the beauty of all those colors and brands....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[redhairedwriter]

EVERYWHERE!!

 

I used coloured ink whenever I write letters, take notes, make lists, journal, and figure out my diary.

 

Actually, really the only time when I use blue or black ink is in an official capacity. They just bore me too much, so I tend to avoid them. Though occasional I do get the urge to use black if I'm in a more traditional mood. But that is very, very rare.

[Linsolv]

Colored inks? Notes to myself, class notes, my planner, etc. Pretty much anything I'm not going to be turning in for a grade or being judged by a superior on. (And then sometimes I will still write my name or brief notes in colored ink if it's what I have on me and I need to jot something down on a graded assignment. For example, I forgot to write my name on code once before I turned it in, so it got my name in... red or green.)

Edited December 30, 2012 by Linsolv

[Cyber6]

EVERYWHERE!!

 

 

On top of it... my 13 years old... loves to draw with my fountain pens. Since I have exciting colors on all of them, is a game for her to find out what new ink I have in my pens.

 

For example.. this holiday, she already emptied 5 of my 8 inked pens in less than a WEEK!!!!

 

The now empty pens had: Noodlers Manhattan, Sailor Sky High, Akkerman Pulchri Pink, Iroshizuko Kosumosu and Sheaffer Black.

 

The next ones in the endangered list are: Stipula Verde Muschiatto (sp?), Caran D'Ache Amazon and Diamine Amber.

 

 

As you can see.. I can find places to use all my colors.... only if my 13 year old doesn't get to my pens first..

 

 

C.

[mm1624124]

Any time in any place for any reason on any paper. The exception is for formal meetings where I choose more conservative colors like Iroshizuku Yami-guri, Sailor Jentle Epinard, Noodler's Nightshade, Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses, etc.

 

I have found some "functional" use (yep, I had to find some excuse reasoning) in two settings at work. One is for research where the main body of thought is one color, another color for definitions or words that should be defined, another color for when a particular subtopic is expanded upon, and yet another for references, citations, annotations to be furthered later. I also color code engineering reports that come in for review where the required succinct, facts are buried in a meandering, innocuous way so as to lull the reader into a trance. I code related statements of an issue that are dotted throughout the document.

 

Both systems work well for me because I can flip through my notes and skim though the main subject or issue cuing off the colors.

[brianmontgomery2000]

Various blues for note taking, including blue-black.

 

Red in a fine nib for editing/markup.

 

I haven't used black ink for like 10 years.

 

Green occasionally just for fun. Brown with off white/cream paper -- Moleskines, etc. sometimes.

 

Would like to add a green-black and a very dark purple.

 

I am on an eternal quest for just the right blue...

[restlesscourage]

I've been doing a lot of journalling and other writing lately, and generally write in either purple or blue, using red for markup. I also use different colours in my planner to differentiate between schedules: blue for work, purple for appointments or social outings, black for birthdays/anniversaries/etc. If I had more pens and more inks, I'm sure I'd have a much more complicated system.

[daTomoT]

I use most colours for most purposes, to be honest.

 

As a college student, most of my writing is done in note form, writing out calculations and chemical reactions. That and the like. For my notes, I use a variety of colours, so as to make them accessible for reading in the way a page of black is not.I usually base write in a dark colour, and use lighter greens, yellows, oranges and reds around it. Often I write in blue (specifically Diamine Midnight) or browns (various inks).

 

For anything that requires it (formal; job applications and exams), I use Noodler's X-Feather. I hate that exam copy paper!

 

Other than that, anything's game, to be honest!

[elderberry]

I use bright colours all the time, for drawing, journaling, work notes, writing letters. For me the choice of inks is one of the most appealing factors in using fountain pens. More blues and teals in the summer, more reds and oranges in the winter, browns and greens all year through. Just wrote a letter today using pure white paper and Iroshizuku Kosumosu (bright pink), which is suprisingly legible..

[Harlequin]

I hadn't seen apache sunset yet, it is nice! how long does it take to dry, really? much more than like 10-15 secs?

 

 

 

 

[mboschm]

Red: highlighting text and those moments I'm feeling "bold".

Green: virtually everything, esp, making notes in texts).

Sepia: virtually everything.

In fact I use any colour I'm in the mood for unless I'm writing something a professor has to see, then it's blue or blue-black.

[Paddler]

I use three colors for my journal article drafts. One color writes the first draft; second color marks it up; third color writes the second draft; then on and on in rotation. The final draft is written into the journal book with a dip pen and India ink. The first letter of the article is written double-height and then ornamented with colored inks.

 

I also use colored inks to write letters and make margin and border ornaments for them. Brushed water colors also add to the ornaments. Proper names can be written in a different color.

 

With poetry writing, I sometimes begin each line of an acrostic with a different color, just to tip the recipient that these letters spell something vertically.