Traditional Roles For Various Ink Colors?

[Koyote]

An aside: Red ink for grading is such a cliché, and studies have shown that teachers using it tend to give lower marks than when using other colors.

 

I now use Waterman Purple for grading -- a happy color that still stands out on the page.

 

I would guess that the people using red are more conservative and strict then those using another color and so are more critical in grading then the ink color making a difference.

 

I can't recall the details of the study, but there was evidence that the causation went the other way -- i.e., that using red ink made graders (the same graders) more critical, ceteris paribus.

[inkstainedruth]

There was also a thread a couple of years ago dealing with Victorian/Edwardian ettiquette regarding ink color -- for example, IIRC, it was okay for women to use blue ink for personal correspondence, but not black.

Not sure what they'd think of all the crazy colors I use (at the moment I have pens inked up with blue-ish IG, blue-black, IG blue-black, sepia IG, brown, purple-black IG, dark grey -- and that's not* counting the highlighter inks...)! :-)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lone Coyote]

Im interested on the subject. And can only add that you should use what you like, and keep on using it.

 

Ive seen official documents signed with sharpies

[r-james]

At work we use green for internal department notes, red for purchase ledger, blue for signing off work completed and black for credit ledger... for personal use at work it is always a bit brighter!

 

Richard

[PaperDarts]

When photocopying became more common in offices we were told to sign all original documents in blue ink - so they could be distinguished quickly from photocopies.

 

So interesting to read what ink colours signified in different countries, professions, etc. When I was in France years ago I was told that school children used a particular shade of purple violet ink - in a fountain pen of course. I wonder if that was common.

[Horseknitter]

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice mandates black ink.

[rain]

When working at a bank in the 70's, I was told off for using green ink - apparently that was reserved for the auditors.

 

When I was working at a bank thirty years later, that was still Just Not Done.

 

In the UK, 'green ink letters' are the ranty, somewhat unhinged bits of mail that a certain type of reader used to send to the editor of a newspaper (read all about them here). Of course, we have internet forums and comment sections for that kind of thing now.

Edited February 26, 2014 by rain

[J.R.]

When I went to work for the Bell System, in the late 60's, I was told (very quickly) that blue ink was for management and black ink for technicians. Of course, I was so far down the ladder, they handed me a #2 pencil. I don't know when that "officially" ended, but what few employees they have left, use whatever's in their pocket.

[mirosc]

We already had several discussions on this topic, which is recurring regularly.

What I had written some time ago about German traditions (at least in my part):

 

Blue ink in school is common mainly to the fact that blue ink is erasable (at least much easier than any other colors and for most companies it's not financially interesting enough to invest in ink erasers of other colors). At least that's the reason why it is so popular in Germany. If I remember correctly my father told that he has used in his schooldays a blueblack ink - the most common color in the early days, because it's the color of irongall ink (at least that's my theory)

Teachers have to use red ink for correcting and grading - no other choice allowed. That's why I always think that those discussions about ink color and grades given are quite funny.
All tests and papers (school and university) are corrected twice, the second corrector uses green - he is usually the head teacher or the principal and this is not shown to the student, because it serves an internal purpose: to control and check the quality of the first correcting.
If in state exams or some similar tests two correctors must find a common grade they are correcting in red and green. If they can't agree then a third corrector is necessary and he corrects in brown or violet.
So all these colors are not allowed for students, because they are needed for a clear and distinguishable correction.

regarding government work:

The different steps in the hierarchy use different colors, minister, undersecretary, head of department, official in charge,....

Like in the above example of school/university the color indicates not only hierarchy, but also a certain state of completion. If some colors are missing you can see who was left out or at which stage of the process new ideas came in.
But in the last years these rules/traditions are softening up very much, because the amount of electronic work is growing rapidly.

For China I know that red ink traditionally has the meaning of breaking up / ending a relationship - we already had such discussions here.

[Randwulfr]

I agree: this is a fascinating topic. My understanding is that the editing done by book and magazine publishers "in the old days" (i.e. prior to MS Word's Track Changes feature, I suppose) was done in blue pencil (not ink, so I've drifted off topic a bit). I think this was the case even before the invention of the photocopier, but I remember once reading that blue pencil tracks don't show up on copies....

 

Does anyone remember the double-ended pencils that had a blue half and a red half? Those were, I think, utilized extensively by editors (I wonder if blue was for the first round of comments and corrections, and if the red was used for subsequent corrections--I don't know).

 

Drifting WAAAAY off topic, I know that screenwriters used to deploy different colors of paper to denote subsequent revisions. I can't remember the exact number of colors one might expect to see in a script, but I seem to recall it was north of a dozen....

[ac12]

@Randwulfr

You are correct on both counts.

 

In high school, on the yearbook and newspaper. The pages were put together on large layout sheets which were printed like a graph paper, in a blueish color to help with alignment. The editors would make marks on the layout in blue pencil. When the layout was shot at the printers, I think the film used was insensitive to blue, which would effectively make the blue lines and writing invisible.

 

When I worked in a CPA firm, they used blue pencil for certain things, because it would not show up in a photo copy, but would be in the working papers. Don't ask me what, it was several decades ago.

 

I used the red/blue colored pencils when I was a kid, but never asked my mother WHY they had this combo.

So many things I should have asked her about...

[inkstainedruth]

@ ac12:

 

That particular shade of blue is (or was, back when I was doing "traditional" layout and paste-up work) known as "non-repro blue". For the un-initiated it is a very bright light blue or light tealish-blue color, that doesn't pick up on the high-contrast photos used to make the printing plates.

I didn't much like non-repro blue pencils, because they had to constantly be sharpened to get an accurate line. But the non-repro blue BPs all were blobby. So I wanted some corporation to make non-repro blue ink (back then I wanted it to go into my finest point Rapidograph pen for ruling fine lines for layouts.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth.

[markh]

Perhaps not traditional -

 

I just refinanced my house. Papers needed to be signed in front of a notary.

 

He required blue ink for all signatures - black not allowed. I had a nice pen all ready, filled with a dark blue/black ink. Easily distinguished by me as different from black, but caused him problems.

 

.

[Bigeddie]

I can't recall the details of the study, but there was evidence that the causation went the other way -- i.e., that using red ink made graders (the same graders) more critical, ceteris paribus.

 

I would guess that the people using red are more conservative and strict then those using another color and so are more critical in grading then the ink color making a difference.

 

Some of my notes on the use of red here.

 

From what I have read the use of red for marking can cause students to think that they are being graded more harshly, and decrease (or increase) performance. How strong these affects are I am unsure, but I also have students who are red colour blind (quite common from what I hear). I tend to use turquiose now, it costs me nothing to use a different colour

 

I tend to use blue, green or brown for personal writing; black or blue-black for more formal stuff; red, orange or purple for editing my own work.

[Bigeddie]

I can't recall the details of the study, but there was evidence that the causation went the other way -- i.e., that using red ink made graders (the same graders) more critical, ceteris paribus.

 

Just found this study referenced in one of my links:

Rutchick, Slepian and Ferris (2010) 'The pen is mightier than the word: Object priming of evaluative standards.' European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 704-708.

 

From the article I linked (Dukes and Albanesi, 2013):

"Recent evidence suggests that the effect of grading in red is not limited to student reactions, but it begins with the teacher grading in red. In a series of studies by Rutchick, Slepian and Ferris (2010), college students acting as teachers and using red grading pens mark more errors on a fictitious essay by an eighth grade student, and they assign lower grades than participants who use a blue pen. The authors conclude that while educators rightly are concerned with the affect of red ink on students, a greater concern is the effect upon the teachers of writing in red."

[Anoia]

I seem to recall that in Germany - at least in the 30s - green ink was reserved for high government officials.

 

Still true.

 

In Berlin:

green - members of senate and the districts (I assume it's likewise for members of cabinet of the other german states, but being a city-state we have (a) mayor(s) instead of a premier)

red - state secretaries

brown - board of audit

 

school: blue for pupils and red for teachers

 

generally most people use blue or black, though I have recently come across older files where someone used purple ink

Edited February 27, 2014 by Anoia

[HandLikeAFist]

A brisk discussion last week, when I signed a lease for my new apartment, a first for me. Pages and pages to be signed and/or initialed. I pulled out my pen, and the leasing agent said only blue or black. I protested that J. Herbin Violette Pensee was perfectly acceptable, close enough on the spectrum, fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong, etc. But no; she made me sign with a black ball-point. Ugh. But I love the apartment.

[Vgimlet]

When I was in school our assignments were only allowed to be written in blue or black ink, or pencil. No colored inks allowed.

 

Black was the only color allowed for voter registration, back when you needed to fill out the form in front of a registrar.

[Moshe ben David]

...... Snip

 

For China I know that red ink traditionally has the meaning of breaking up / ending a relationship - we already had such discussions here.

 

 

 

Red ink also was a traditional color used for signature 'chops' (stamps carved into stone, ivory, etc); even now chops are still used in Taiwan for example on official documents, bank checks, etc.

[Newjelan]

Just found this study referenced in one of my links:

Rutchick, Slepian and Ferris (2010) 'The pen is mightier than the word: Object priming of evaluative standards.' European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 704-708.

Interesting, thanks Bigeddie. I have a client organisation where, under the previous CEO, employees would talk about being "red penned". For example, "Ian, red penned me". It was seen as a major insult.