Matching Inks With Pens

[Rancho Gordo]

I'm noticing a lot of people seem to want their pens to match their ink, and vice versa.
I love a black pen with a black ink but I also love a contrast. A red pen with a grey ink, a classic Pelikan with green strips with red ink, etc.

Matching is tough but contrasting colors are easier and for me, more interesting.

How do you determine which ink goes into your pen of the moment?

[silverlifter]

Over time, I have found inks that just suit certain pens, irrespective of their colour. So, in my PFM II, I have it constantly inked with Aurora Black. My L2K has either Diamine Registrars (when it sports a MCI), or KWZ IG Blue #3 (with an F), and so on,

 

I'm more interested in the combined effect of nib/ink than I am in any cosmetic matching.

[Rancho Gordo]

I was thinking of how awful hot pink ink would be coming out of an orange/tomato Sailor Pro Gear. Actually, I'm not sure where hot pink fits in.
But it is interesting hearing about pen people matching ink to pen.

[ENewton]

I sometimes match the color and sometimes use a contrasting color, but not a clashing color. For example, I wouldn't use a burgundy ink in a purple pen, or vice versa.

 

Almost all my inks are on the "line of purples," but when I bought my green-striped Pelikan last year, I was expressly told not to use purple ink in it, so I've been looking for a non-purple ink that will work well in the pen and look nice flowing from it. I first tried a brown ink, but it was too dry, and then a green ink, but it wasn't very interesting. I have high hopes for the amber-colored ink that I have on order.

 

I also use different inks during different seasons of the year. In a few days, when autumn begins, I will fill a pen with my favorite ink. I am so eager!

 

In the case of a vintage pen, I try to find one ink that flows well in it and looks nice coming out of it. Once I've found a good ink for the pen, I use it consistently as opposed to switching from one ink to another. Thus, each vintage pen is used only at a certain time of year.

Edited September 19, 2019 by ENewton

[silverlifter]

Actually, I'm not sure where hot pink fits in.

 

 

In a highlighter!

 

My ink palette is exceptionally boring: it ranges from black, blueblack, and blue to brown, with a single red and a purple for "variety"...

[Sailor Kenshin]

I'm noticing a lot of people seem to want their pens to match their ink, and vice versa.

I love a black pen with a black ink but I also love a contrast. A red pen with a grey ink, a classic Pelikan with green strips with red ink, etc.

Matching is tough but contrasting colors are easier and for me, more interesting.

How do you determine which ink goes into your pen of the moment?

 

 

Green/red? Red/gray? Wait...I need to lie down with a cold rag on my head.

[Rancho Gordo]

Green/red? Red/gray? Wait...I need to lie down with a cold rag on my head.

 

Be strong! We're here for you.

[inkstainedruth]

My Pelikan M400 Brown Tortoise somehow demands brown ink. And a lot of time the Plum Demi 51 Aero gets purple inks. But in general I don't do the matchy-matchy thing. There are some pens (particularly some of the vintage pens) which get limited to a single ink if that ink does well in it. A lot of the pens, though? It's what I think will look good coming out of it.

As for hot pink? Blue pens, grey pens, green pens, black pens, maybe even a brown pen (although perhaps NOT the M400 -- although I keep threatening it with Noodler's Navajo Turquoise...). Probably not a bright orange pen, but then I don't have one, so that's a state statement.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MHBru]

although it never really started out that way I do seemed to have settled on a few pen ink standards...

Blue stripe M800 Iroshizuku Kon Peki

Ocean Swirl Ku Jaku

Red strip M800 a blue gray.. currently Kyo no oto Aonibi

Nakaya Dorsal Fin 2 Heki Tanemuri GvFC Viper Green

 

the others tend to rotate as the mood strikes me

[hinky]

And this is why my pens are boring. They're either Black or Silver. Some browns but only because I've got a lot of different brown inks. The only colorful pens I have are 1 of each color of the original Pilot 78Gs...but then again I've got red (Noodler's Tiananmen), green (Noodler's Sequioa) , teal (54th Massachusetts) , and black (Noodler's Black) inks in them. 😅

[The Good Captain]

It's a bit like getting up in the morning - I just turn back the duvet and there I am!

[Karmachanic]

Black (pens) goes with everything.

[displacermoose]

I generally avoid matching inks to pens. I go for combinations that look nice together, though. My red 3776, for example, gets a steady diet of warm brown. My rasberry Sapporo gets a lot of blues.

 

The only absolutely unbreakable rule is that black ink never goes in a black pen. I avoid black ink generally, so if I have to use it it's going in a friendly pen. The only time a blue ink goes in a black pen (another combo that is just too staid) is when I want a super serious work combo and I can't get away with a stealth like Shigure or Miurai (very rare). Then I'll put blue in my Lamy 2000.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Be strong! We're here for you.

 

Thanks. I feel better now.

 

However, unlike Ruth, I can see myself with hot pink in a blazing orange pen. It reminds me of an old summertime treat, the Icy Wicy double popsicle.

[aurore]

MB 149 + Aurora Black. Classic, boring, perfect.

[sansenri]

whatever colour is my pen the ink in it is blue... (and I don't only have blue pens, either... )

 

filled with the blues... as Freddy says...

[Rancho Gordo]

I love how people have their own Design for Living when it comes to fountain pens. We make up our own rules and our wold functions beautifully. Who can argue with that? I do think if others knew our thought process when we choose pens, ink up, decide which pen does which task, etc, they would call the authorities.

[sombrueil]

I seem to have a family of colors for each pen though there is overlap. My Pelikan Tortoise gets browns, and olives, my Newton custom hard rubber which is orange and blue and sea green swirls gets orange, and also teal and turquoise., My navy blue Skyline with the blue/green striped celluloid body gets teal, blue, dark green, and my red ripple Waterman 52 gets serious muted or faded colors -- gray-greens, umbers, sepias.

 

It is as though I think of what color would that pen write with if it was magically producing ink inside itself, although I do not do this consciously.

[LyaT]

Brown ink in a blue pen is horrible to me.

Orange ink in a green pen is just as bad.

Black ink works with all colors.

White pen works with all inks.

Pink ink is cute in a brown pen.

Red ink can work with green pen.

Brown ink has to go in a brown pen.

...those are my rules!

[miwishi63]

Color matching is fun.

 

Better to match the pen to the ink based on performance.

 

Bonus = color and performance unite to result in an exquisite experience of writing.