When did people start using blue rather than black ink?

[psfred]

There were always many colors of ink, as one can use any colored liquid with a goose quill and make a decent job of writing. Problem was permanence -- pokeberries make a wonderful dark purple ink, but it will fade in a few months. Ditto for almost all other vegetable inks, including Vermillion and logwood, although the later is somewhat more stable.

 

With the invention of aniline dyes (also known as coal tar dyes), fairly permanent inks based on synthetic dyes were rapidly developed and survived long enough for use to know something about them. Stable blue dyes are very rare in nature, so I suspect blue became popular because it was new and different.

 

Prior to the invention of aniline dyes, all permanent inks (which is all that's left for us to look at) were carbon black, iron gall, or squid ink based.

 

Peter

[Deirdre]

Speaking of squid-based ink, I can't resist putting up a link to Oktopodi (which is about octopuses, but bear with me).

 

http://oktapodi.com/

 

Just watch it. Really. It's only three minutes.

 

Student film that was nominated for an Oscar last year.

[voop]

4) Other people think the blue ink is for rioters or people who hide's a riot personality. Other's think this ink color is for gay people.

 

That's a new one. I've heard various other colors associated herewith, but never before blue?

[Kabe]

I've always used blue. I also use brown or dark green, and for court papers.

 

My old man ALWAYS used blue if his signature was involved. Black was good for notes and the like. But if he had to sign stuff he always used blue. He literally went and still goes out of his way to use blue ink from a ballpoint. Like going to look for pens at 11 PM just to file a paper.

Edited May 15, 2009 by Kabe

[penicillin]

My mother used blue-black in the 50s

 

[Flounder]

BobR - brown was popular if you go back far enough! In Moravcsik & Jenkins translation of Constantine Porphyrogenitos' De Administrando Imperio (Emperor of Byzantium 945-63 AD), they comment that "The medium is the usual dark brown Byzantine ink, save the initial letters and headings of chapters are in red, a detail that goes back to the original copyist."

[ccajackson]

I know that in the USA all official document must be signed with blue ink, for avoiding photocopies.

 

Not exactly. North Carolina deeds still have printed on them a requirement that they be signed in black ink (for imaging purposes) although most counties now have imaging equipment that can handle blue ink. It's just in the last two years that I've permitted blue pens in my office (before that, they were immediately confiscated).

While I have not encountered it personally, my friend is a surgeon in South Carolina, who also has an appointment at the local military hospital. After writing and signing some notes in blue ink, when he was first appointed there, he received a notice informing him that all official documents (which includes medical records) must be written in black ink and that no substitute was acceptable. That was a few years ago, and I have not heard that there is any change anticipated.

 

For me personally, I like blue (or non-black) ink for telling copy from original. Especially with a fountain pen, I notice that the subtleties of a signature (e.g. skipping ink at the start) do not copy well, and the scoring of the page by a nib tine is still discernable.

 

I would be particularly interested to know if early Chinese or Japanese scrolls have any deviations from black ink, because they seem to also be very distant forms of writing that might have seen a transition.

 

C-C