Inks, Pens and Art Supplies Lightfastness Test

[ColinK]

I am currently conducting a lightfastness test in my little studio, and I figured it might be of interest to this community. I am testing a variety of things, but I tried making it easy for strict fountain pen users to find what they're looking for by marking fountain pen inks with a * in the list bellow.

The test is done on a piece of Life Bank Paper Writing Paper cut in half, taped inside a single-panel west-facing window, in front of a roofed-balcony in Canada.
Not sure of the number of direct sunlight hours as I am never in a position to witness it myself, but there are at least a few! The control half of the sheet was concealed face-down in an opaque drawer, and I installed the other half in my window on June 8th.
Here are the materials tested, and how they fared after a month of sun exposure :

 

* = Fountain pen inks

Green : Visibly unchanged. There might be a very slight difference, but it would be unrecognizable if you didn’t have a point of comparison to scrutinize.

Yellow : Changed. Colour shifted and/or paled, but mark is still visible/readable.

Red : Disappeared or almost. Readability is severely threatened.

 

Prismacolor Colerase pencils

Crayola Crayons

Winsor & Newton Ink - Veridian and Brilliant green (''only black and white are permanent to light'')

Pelikan Drawing Ink (''lightfast'')

*Faber Castell - Black ''cannot be erased'' fountain pen ink

Unbranded (thin matte black) rainbow pencil

DeSerres brand rainbow pencil

*Noodler's - Heart of Darkness fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Kaweco - Pearl Black fountain pen ink

*Pilot - Black fountain pen ink cartridge

*Noodler's - Lexington Grey fountain pen ink (''archival'')

Rotring drawing ink - black

Pilot Color Eno pencil lead - Pink, Soft Blue, Violet (''color may fade when exposed to light'')

Prismacolor Premier Turquoise 2mm drawing leads - Non photo blue

Basic hotel ballpoint pen (Fairmont) - black

Zebra LV ballpoint pen refill - black

Zebra Z-grip ballpoint - black, blue

OHTO Fude Ball 1.5 - Black (''fade proof'')

Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent 108 20-2 - red grease pencil

Stabilo All Aquarellable 8046 - black grease pencil

Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent 236-1 - yellow grease pencil stick

Pilot G-Tec-C4 and -C3 - black, pink

Pentel Slicci 0.25 – Black, Orange

Gelly Roll - pinks : sparkly, silver shadow, moonlight, metallic

Uni-Ball Eco Roller - black, red, blue, green (''archival'')

Uni-Ball Onyx micro - red (''archival'')

Uni-Ball vision - Black, Blue, Red, Green, Light Blue, Violet, Pink, Wine (''archival'')

Stockmar crayons

Prismacolor Premier fineliner - 0.3 black

Pilot Drawing Pen fineliner - 0.8 black

Staedtler Pigment Liner fineliner - black

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen  - black fineliner

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen - coloured brush pens (''very lightfast'', ''high lightfastness'')

Copic Multi-Liner fineliner - black

Pigma Micron fineliner - black, sepia, blue

Sharpie Pen felt tip - black, blue, red, green, orange, purple (''fade-resistant'')

Tombow Dual Brush Tip water-based markers

Edding 1340 Brushpen water-based markers

Uni Posca paint pens

Steadtler Lumocolor Permanent 313-9 marker

*Pilot Iroshizuku - Shin Ryoku fountain pen ink

*Noodler's - Akhmatova fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Pilot Iroshizuku - Yama Budo fountain pen ink

*Platinum - Pink Preppy fountain pen cartridge

Correction fluid and tape

*Noodler's - Polar Blue fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Noodler's - Polar Purple fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Noodler's - Rachmaninov fountain pen ink (''archival'') + Blue Ghost mix

*Noodler's - Operation Overlord Orange fountain pen ink

*Noodler's - Dostoyevsky (''archival'') + Blue Ghost mix

*Noodler's - Year of The Golden Pig highlighting/fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Noodler's - Blue Ghost invisible UV fountain pen ink (only ''bulletproof'')

Staedtler Textsurfer Gel highlighters

Unbranded (cute animal design) gel highlighters

Sharpie yellow highlighter

Staples yellow highlighter

Unbranded (dollar store ?) yellow highligter

 

 

So far I haven't been much surprised. I know now that many of Noodler's archival inks fade with time, at least the funky colours that tend to fade most in general. I have the sad confirmation that although they also use the term ''archival'' in their branding, Uni-ball is not a viable alternative for the aforementioned funky colours. YOTP is not a forever highlighter, but it sure fares better than most (who seem to weirdly turn brown). People have been debating whether Blue Ghost is a good way to leave behind fugitive inks a forever UV trace -- since it's already paled quite a bit, I would imagine it isn't. If any artist out there is stuck with a poorly-erasable color eno sketch under their black fade-resistant ink, I would suggest leaving it in a window for a month, as it will completely disappear! Shin-Ryoku is going very strong for an Iroshizuku ink. Lastly, Sharpie pens are also holding on much better than I thought, I wonder if it'll last.

I'm a bit disappointed to see all of my non-waterproof black fountain pen inks fade and change colours. If anyone knows of a good black, lightfast water-soluble ink that I could use for washes, please let me know!

I should check back in with new scans in a few months.

 

Original scan; 1 month scan; 1 month UV pictures (control sheet is on the right) :

 

[A Smug Dill]

22 hours ago, ColinK said:

I am currently conducting a lightfastness test in my little studio, and I figured it might be of interest to this community.

 

Thank you for sharing!

[dragondazd]

Wow. This is a lot! Thanks for sharing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for doing these!!!!!

[amberleadavis]

Added to the list of Ink Fade Tests

 

 

[InkyColors]

Thank you!  I’m saving this as a reference. 

[yazeh]

Great job. If you want truly lightfast inks, try De Atramentis Document inks. Their artist inks are good too, but supposedly they're slightly less lightfast than the document versions. Only testing can say.

De Atrementis has also an archival black, but I'm not into black inks really...

[ColinK]

4 months in update!

 

Prismacolor Colerase  pencils

Crayola Crayons

Winsor & Newton Ink - Veridian and Brilliant green (''only black and white are permanent to light'')

Pelikan Drawing Ink (''lightfast'')

*Faber Castell - Black ''cannot be erased'' fountain pen ink

Unbranded (thin matte black) rainbow pencil

DeSerres brand rainbow pencil

*Noodler's - Heart of Darkness fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Kaweco - Pearl Black fountain pen ink

*Pilot - Black fountain pen ink cartridge

*Noodler's - Lexington Grey fountain pen ink (''archival'')

Rotring drawing ink - black

Pilot Color Eno pencil lead - Pink, Soft Blue, Violet (''color may fade when exposed to light'')

Prismacolor Premier Turquoise 2mm drawing leads - Non photo blue

Basic hotel ballpoint pen (Fairmont) - black

Zebra LV ballpoint pen refill - black

Zebra Z-grip - black, blue

OHTO Fude Ball 1.5 - Black (''fade proof'')

Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent 108 20-2 - red grease pencil

Stabilo All Aquarellable 8046 - black grease pencil

Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent 236-1 - yellow grease pencil stick

Pilot G-Tec-C4 and -C3 - black, pink

Pentel Slicci 0.25 – Black, Orange

Gelly Roll - pinks : sparkly, silver shadow, moonlight, metallic

Uni-Ball Eco Roller - black, red, blue, green (''archival'')

Uni-Ball Onyx micro - red (''archival'')

Uni-Ball vision - Black, Blue, Red, Green, Light Blue, Violet, Pink, Wine (''archival'')

Stockmar crayons

Prismacolor Premier fineliner - 0.3 black

Pilot Drawing Pen fineliner - 0.8 black

Staedtler Pigment Liner fineliner - black

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen  - black fineliner

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen - coloured brush pens (''very lightfast'', ''high lightfastness'')

Copic Multi-Liner fineliner - black

Pigma Micron fineliner - black, sepia, blue

Sharpie Pen felt tip - black, blue, red, green, orange, purple (''fade-resistant'')

Tombow Dual Brush Tip water-based markers

Edding 1340 Brushpen water-based markers

Uni Posca paint pens

Steadtler Lumocolor Permanent 313-9 marker

*Pilot Iroshizuku - Shin Ryoku fountain pen ink

*Noodler's - Akhmatova fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Pilot Iroshizuku - Yama Budo fountain pen ink

*Platinum - Pink Preppy fountain pen cartridge

Correction fluid and tape

*Noodler's - Polar Blue fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Noodler's - Polar Purple fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Noodler's - Rachmaninov fountain pen ink (''archival'') + Blue Ghost mix

*Noodler's - Operation Overlord Orange fountain pen ink

*Noodler's - Dostoyevsky (''archival'') + Blue Ghost mix

*Noodler's - Year of The Golden Pig highlighting/fountain pen ink (''archival'')

*Noodler's - Blue Ghost invisible UV fountain pen ink (only ''bulletproof'')

Staedtler Textsurfer Gel highlighters

Unbranded (cute animal design) gel highlighters

Sharpie yellow highlighter

Staples yellow highlighter

Unbranded (dollar store ?) yellow highligter

 

I'm sad to announce Blue Ghost has effectively disappeared from the page...

 

On 7/11/2022 at 10:54 AM, yazeh said:

Great job. If you want truly lightfast inks, try De Atramentis Document inks. Their artist inks are good too, but supposedly they're slightly less lightfast than the document versions. Only testing can say.

De Atrementis has also an archival black, but I'm not into black inks really...

 

Thank you for the recommendation!  I have thought about investing in them, the sepias in particular. But finding conservatively-coloured lightfast inks that are waterproof hasn't been too much of a challenge for me, & I'm quite happy with how mine are faring (it's just the funky ones that are sad...).

I'm still on the quest for the elusive watersoluble lighfast black though... if anyone knows one!

 

 

I'm happy to see my little test is useful to some of you I'll keep it going to see which of my oranges turn into reds... See you in a few more months.

[InkyColors]

Thank you!  

[txomsy]

Ouch, now I have a lot of interesting stuff to add to my to-read list. Thank you, it is most interesting, specially the comparison to non-FP inks.

[amberleadavis]

I was was surprised in my tests with the fading of crayon. I never tried pencil.