Why Blue Ink?

[indigirl]

I remember reading somewhere, maybe about 10-15 years ago, that blue is "America's favorite color" -- which is to say in the USA more people name it as a favorite color than any other color. Other nations had various different favorite colors, but I remember that blue appeared as a favorite in quite a few countries. I don't know how sound the polling procedure was, though....

[samanthad]

There is no such thing as a black dye, only extremely saturated colored pigments. Most black fountain ink, for example, is indigo which you can see if you dilute the ink. Basically, blue and black ink is the same stuff, just one is a darker formulation than the other. Why blue? Because you need a dark ink and one that is not on the red spectrum to achieve good contrast on parchment or unbleached paper (they didn't have bleached paper back then!). It was that or purple and India had a good supply of indigo inks way back then.

[Deirdre]

Because green and red and some shades of blue (and thus also purple) did not copy correctly on early photocopiers, but the standard blue and black did.

[scribbler77]

I think blue kicked in when the photocopying machine started to spread. Since copies are black on white, you had to use a different colour to differentiate the original from the copy.

 

That's my guess on the when. Speaking of why, think about which is the most boring colour after black, and there you go.

 

I was in school in the 1930s, long before photocopying was common--or possible except with a camera, film, enlarger, darkroom, chemicals, etc. Blue or blue-black were the most common fountain pen colors. Washable blue in schools, for obvious reasons. During World War II, however, black ink, labeled "V-mail ink" was recommended for correspondence with service men overseas. That was because the letters were photographed on microfilm, shipped in that form, then enlarged and printed near the location of the recipient. Orthographic film was used, which is insensitive to blue, so it was necessary to use black or a dark blue-black. Black ink was used for entries in permanent records, bookkeeping, etc., but blue or blue-black were the most common colors for personal correspondence, except for letters to service people overseas. Business correspondence was normally typed, not handwritten, with black ribbons. Typed letteers were often signed with blue or blue-black ink to contrast to the black typed text.