If you like this content please 👉 Subscribe its FREE! - / @justshepcreator I am in the planning stages of my next Pen and Ink video which I hope will be live around Halloween :)
I'm an engineer, which will make my answer initially seem strange. In taking notes for my job, I use a rainbow of different ink colors. (My handwritten notes are my own. No one else reads them.) Whenever I switch from one technical topic to another, I switch ink color. So when I'm skimming through a notebook, I can easily see where a meeting begins and ends. I can tie together notes on one topic sprinkled throughout my notebook by scanning for that ink color. And, as an artist trapped in an engineer's body, the pretty colors make me happy. Well, happier... 🤓🎨
The last time I did any coursework I took notes with black ink, wrote out announcements in grey, used orange, blue, red, blue black, purple, and green for other things, and had to build a cheat sheet so I could keep them all straight in my mind. I did suggest to my instructors that assignments were better delivered in blue, blue black, or black, and they all agreed with me on that.
I also used about four colors when taking notes in college and I still use different colors when adding to my personal notes -- especially in ongoing documents that I add to over time. Now most of my notes are on electronic devices, but I still switch colors when adding new text or clarifying old text. My favorite handwriting ink color is purple, but I almost always fill out forms in blue ink. My son does the same color-coded note-taking for college, but his default ink color is green. I buy him a new pack of his favorite green pens for his Christmas stocking every year and a set of multi-colored pens every other year. Like you, color makes me happy (-ier) - I will never be the person whose rooms are tied together by one cohesive color palette.
An old joke from DDR made famous by Slavoj Žižek An East German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let’s establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter, written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theaters show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair - the only thing unavailable is red ink.”
1:39 This was good to know, but it reminded me of a story from my grand mother. She said she paid all her bills by check and only ever used a green ink pen. One day she had to pay a bill and didn't have her pen so she borrowed a pen and used that. Her bank got the check and wouldn't cash it. They called her to verify because for more than 10 years every check she'd ever written was done in green ink.
@@joedoe7572 Sounds more like a good employee at a small bank. We used to have a small bank here in our small town. There were only a few employees but they had worked there for years. They got to know everyone who regularly used the bank and therefore got to know their habits. I'm sure it's not like that at bigger banks where they have hundreds or even thousands of customers with a high employee turnover rate. A business is only as good as the people who work for it.
My brother, who used to be a notary public, once advised me to sign a legal document in blue ink because ink in photocopies of that document tends to show up as black. That way the difference between the original document and photocopies can be seen at a glance. I still tend to write in black ink, however.
I learned that from someone I know who, fortunately, had signed a job contract in blue. A few weeks later he was able to prove that they had altered the expectations of the contract (with no pay increase of course) and copied his signature. Without that, they could have claimed he just didn't read it all before signing. Luckily I have always preferred blue anyway and usually have one on hand.
Same here. I like using black ink more than blue. But I'm also a notary public, and my state's rules for notaries require us to use blue ink when notarizing documents, but for our signatures and for the notary stamp.
@@tchristianphoto After seeing this video, I’m experimenting with using blue ink and seeing if it changes the writing experience for me. The jury is still out.
I knew someone who worked with a government agency, and worked on federally funded projects with some regularity. He said that certain documents had to be signed with blue ink so they could readily be seen as an original signature because of the photocopy thing.
@@NiallMor in the UK, Registrars (similar I think to your notaries public), who have to arrange formal certificates such as Birth, Marriage and Death use special black ink that gets darker with age.
When I was a teenager, a friend told me that she didn't use blue ink, because she felt it looked indecisive. So I always used black, after that, until I was about 50, and got bored with it. Now I primarily use pencil........which is incredibly indecisive. lol
When I was a teenager I thought blue ink looked unserious. Now I can’t get enough of a rich cobalt blue. I think pencil is a mature choice; it acknowledges that things change even when you weren’t expecting them to and you’re prepared for that eventuality.
Found this on the internet: "In the UK, green ink was stereotypically used for more interesting submissions. Journalists also used the term "green ink brigade" to describe people who wrote letters to news organizations". I'm an American, and now I want to use green ink whenever I write letters, just to be contrarian.
Fountain pen user here, self-employed. There’s nothing I love more than to switch colours when writing my notes. I’m currently using a light grey, a turquoise blue and a yellow. I’ve also got a dark, dark red I love from Diamine, named “Writer’s Blood.” Switching colours is too much fun to just use black or blue - but I get the need in formal settings.
I worked in preclinical pharmaceutical research for almost 40 years. For some reason, federal regulations do not allow the use of any color pen except black. They also did not allow the use of white-out or other correction fluids. If you made a mistake in entering hand-entered data you had to draw a line through the mistake, put a footnote number in a circle next to it, then at the bottom of the page, repeat the same circled number and put "entry error, should be xxxx" and date it with your initials. This was to prevent fraud.
I'm a sailor and in the logbooks we normally use blue ink. Red is for special things like drills, shore inspections and so on. They need to stand out so you can find it back easily.
When I began my legal career nearly 50 years ago the preferred color for signing legal documents was in blue ink. The majority of copiers back then could only make black and white copies so it was easy to tell the original document from a copy. And since legal documents rarely use color, the signing of the original document in blue ink and then copying in black and white remains an easy way to distinguish original signatures from copied signatures.
Personally I prefer purple ink because it’s my favorite color. I used to sell pens, and I was told that blue ink ballpoint pens had better viscosity. I have no idea if that is actually true. Red ink often gives an angry vibe.
A friend who worked in insurance told me once that notes in red ink get addressed more quickly. Ever since, for customer service, disputed bills, etc., I write a note in red ink on the original document and send it back. It does seem always to work.
@ yes, I learned in my teaching classes in college that it would be better if teachers used another color than red to grade with because of the negative vibe that red gives.
@@donnadrane4977 But when an editor corrects a manuscript, the expression is that they "blue pencil" it. Maybe it would be kinder if teachers didn't use red. Maybe green is available.
@ Actually, since most school work is now done on a computer, there is very little handwritten correction. Back in the day, however, it was the red pen. Now, for the most part, I see teachers being kinder than ever when correcting students, and I chalk it up to our changing times.
I work in an office of public institution (Europe): it is required to sign documents in blue to easily distinguish original from a copy. We know that there are color copiers - but blue ink still copy inconsistently most of the time: with uneven colorization, darker spots, not fully mixed-in colors (copiers make dark blue using more than one ink). Black ink looks the same most of the time - no matter if originally signed or copied. With my personal notes I use black and blue interchangeably - But I like gel pens the most (my personal favourite is made by Polish brand Rystor)
When I bought my first house, I had to initial and sign all of copies of the transfer documentation in blue ink as directed by the attorney handling the purchase. I was told that this was to allow anyone reviewing the documents to determine that they were original signed versions vs copies/faxes as those would only ever be black. This was back before color copiers were commonplace...
Our finance officer insisted on blue ink on the printed time sheets, completely ignoring the fact that all the timekeeping was done by computer and printed timesheets were superfluous. The printed copies were stored in some file cabinet, never to be seen again.
I was told the same thing about using blue ink on some Probate documents. But he added that judges were behind the times about knowing about color copiers.
This remains true today. Most legal documents are standardised and printed in black. Having read a standard form, once, if a lawyer recognises the standard form elsewhere, you don’t read it again, as you already know what it says. Writing in blue ink makes it easier to spot the signature, initials, and any annotations, such as striking out standard, printed text. The signature, initials, and any annotations are more important than the standard text because these things establish provenance, authenticity, and context. And they establish these things because they are the result of particular people performing particular actions with their pen. Many lawyers, myself included, use several differing ink colours in their own writing, with each colour bearing a particular meaning. For example, writing in red ink records something said by the judge, and something written in green ink is a reference, usually a partial reference being a unique reference code, to a previous decision. My standard ink colour is purple, because nobody else uses it, so when I see purple writing in a pile of papers, I can quickly know it was written by me.
I actually like both blue and black. But red is discouraged in the financial world because it’s used for debits and/or liabilities vs black which is use for assets and or deposits.
I always consider black for formal, blue for informal, red for quality control action, and green for quality control approval. My go to ink, is blue/black.
@kierangoddard2198 I use a blue/black 1.0 gel, a 0.38 "prussian blue" for finer writing, and an "archival" blue of one or another type, in fine nib fountains for official documents. Then bordeaux or grey for personal correspondence. Then blacks for general ballpoint and fountain note-taking. Gel Orange, white, green, gold, violet, even red, for situational use when I have my bag with me.
@@cathynewyork7918 I guess it depends on where you live. In the UK, many official government documents will be returned if they are not signed in black.
Growing up I was always told not to write to anyone using red ink as it may cause offence. Red ink was used to signify owing money or to be in debt. The final demand for your gas bill would be in red and the term in the red is still used to this day.
In the black is the corresponding term. Banks used black ink for any accounts in credit and red ink for overdrafts. Red is a great reminder that the balance is literally costing you money in interest charges.
I had heard of people taking offense at red markups/edits or getting stressed by it (because it was like blood all over the page). So I turned to purple…because Klingon blood. 😂
I use fountain pens because of the variety of ink colours available. I use a waterproof black ink for anything formal (waterproof is essential for anything legal, regardless of its colour, and not all fountain pen inks are waterproof). I dislike blue (unless it's really dark) because I was made to write in blue at school, and school was not a pleasant personal experience for the most part. My favourite colour for personal use, note-taking, journalling etc, is dark green.
Noodler’s offers many colors of “Bulletproof” inks: Inks that are cellulose-reactive so their marks can’t be removed without removing a noticeable amount of paper. I’ve been a fan of Noodler’s black for over 20 years now and I’ve lost track of how many times they’ve saved my research from unstable cups of coffee, sudden rain showers, and productive bubble baths.
For me it's the Feel of the pen on the paper that's more important than the color. It must be smooth and easy enough to lay down a bold line with firm pressure and a thinner line with lighter pressure. Lines need to taper as you lift the pen. 😊
As an old’un I attended Primary School in the 1950s. In Australia (well, Victoria anyway) we graduated from slates, to pencil, & finally (hurrah!) to pen & ink. Being selected as the ink monitor was a pretty good wheeze - you basically (very carefully) wandered about the classroom with a huge bottle of ink (it seemed that way at the time…), filling all the inkwells on the desks. The ink was always Swan Ink & it was always BLUE. I was very unfairly banned from this task, not because I did it badly, but because in a fit of whimsy I (almost accidentally) placed the plait of the girl sitting at the desk in front of me, into my inkwell. Looking back I think it showed great intellectual promise: I’m sure Newton or somesuch genius would have applauded the experiment, investigating the ink take-up propensities of human hair. Somehow the teacher (cruel soul that he was, did not see things that way. I would have thought that six double-hander applications of the strap were more than sufficient, but no, I was banned from ink monitor-ship for the rest of Grade 5!
I do real estate closings and I am a Notary Public as well, and blue is required because it makes it easier to determine if a document is an original or a copy. Yes, color copiers exist, but they are purposely not used in my line of work. For my own personal writing, I bounce back and forth between black and blue. Just depends on what I am feeling on that particular day.
I copy my previous comment here: I work in an office of public institution (European): we know that there are color copiers - but blue ink still copy inconsistently most of the time: with uneven colorization, darker spots, not fully mixed-in colors (copiers make dark blue using more than one ink). Black ink looks the same most of the time - no matter if originally signed or copied.
Blue-Black ink is a really fun color to use in fountain pens, but if you don't want to mess with fountain pens there are a few gel pens that come in blue-black ink. One example that's pretty easy to find online is the "Pentel Energel Clena," which is basically just a regular Energel but with a bit of a retro style and comes in a few fun colors like blue-black and brown.
Black was used for bookkeeping in profits and expenses in red. Blue was used for notes about transactions made. It made it very clear for accountants and bookkeepers to see them at a glance on a long list of pages. Inks were used with permanent inks. Computers now print (@ 1975) almost everything in black because they use laser printers and not inks which can be smeared or lost if the colour fades.
Many, many decades ago, green ink was reserved only for the head manager of our branch for his signatures. When a coworker told me that a few years ago, I added green ink to my repertoire of Lamy fountain pens with different colored inks, just to make my phone notes a little bit more colorful.... and to breach that "green is for the manager" barrier.
I grew up in Eastern Europe. Blue ink is required for legal documents and was the standard color used from pre-school to graduate school. I've been using black ink for the last 20 years and recently began using blue for taking some some notes and making some lists. I somehow got a strange feeling of nostalgia and began writing more with blue ink. It has been rather uplifting.
Regarding 2:06, in Asian cultures using red ink to write a person's name is taboo. This is because only names of dead people are written in red ink. However, if a living person's name is written in red ink, then this is considered to be a curse and is very insulting.
I worked as a manager for 40 years and I didn't notice or care if people used blue or black ink. I did notice when girls used green or pink or some other color ink. Immediately I'd put their application in the no chance pile. I wouldn't even read it because I couldn't take it seriously. I agree the blue ink is more noticeable on an application but I tend to take it less seriously. I feel it's more pedantic.
Before I retired as a Q.C. inspector I always used blue ink on routings and other paperwork since it was often copied and I needed to know which was the original. For problem issues I used red to signify such. For personal things such as writing checks it's always black ink. If you ever get into fountain pens beware of the ink color rabbit hole, as I probably have close to a hundred different ones.
I have many fountain pens and each has its very own ink painstakingly matched to it. I scored a zero in the x-rite hue test, so yes, they truly are all different colors to me. I am very close to the point that I could write in a different color every day for half a year. I acknowledge that I have a problem.
@@polymathica What's rather sad in my case is that with all of the pens and ink I have I only keep one inked up. That is my Montblanc 146, filled with either Mystery Black or Burgundy. Most of the time I just use one of my Tactile Turn Nautilus or Retro 51 rollerball pens.
@ Aww, that is a little sad, but we all have only so much time in a month and I have to admit my fountain pens are a very time-consuming hobby. While my pens are technically all inked up all the time, with the gap between uses, all but the Platinums and the Benus dry out. It’s a bit irresponsible of me, but I- 😐 Prepare yourself for the heresy-I flush them out with their own ink as I fill them when their time in the rotation comes. My theory is that ink will dilute itself and when the ink gets too dry I can add distilled water to return it to the right concentration. I do have my own ultrasonic cleaner if something gets really clogged
I'm an elementary school teacher so I RARELY write in either blue or black ink. I like to be colorful and flair pens are my pen of choice so it could be any color from lime green to purple just depending on my mood. I work a reading interventionist on my campus so I don't really have papers to grade but back when I used to I might grade them in red, or it might be orange, or turquoise...the kids loved the colors and so did I! When I have to use a blue or black ink for something official I call it writing with a "grown up color"...lol.
😮i have arthritis and carpal tunnel, I just discovered papermate flairs, this year...I like them because the marker is a strong bold line I can see (bad vision too!) but it doesn't bleed thru the paper like sharpies do. They're easier to control than the gel type pens and easier to write with than the ball point pens. I now but them by the 12pak! I just wish they didn't have that sharp feeling rim near where your fingers hold it. My only complaint.
Nurses used to do the different shift stats and notes in different colors for day, evening and night shifts were some agreed upon system of blue red and green ink. Pre computer days of course
Once upon a time, blue ink was the “original” document, black was the “photostat.” Now a day, with colour scanners it really doesn’t matter. In the US and Canada, unless they state in the directions, the colour of pen doesn’t matter as long as it is blue or black. Personally, I keep a fountain pen loaded with one of each colour, and something else, like a brown, or a green, or purple. Red for corrections and editing, unless it’s a more burgundy like “Writers Blood.”
I worked as a bank teller in college and we were not allowed to use red ink on checks or any financial documents as the microfiche scanners couldn't read it. That was back in the 90's so that may no longer be the case but it was a big deal back then.
I use a set of multicolored G2 pens for my personal finances and notes. My son will use those too but prefers Sarasa Zebra pens 05. He is VERY Picky about his pens, but since he is working hard in his last year of college, I figure he's worth the extra expense.
As a secondary school teacher (now retired) we traditionally marked students work with red ink, until, around fifteen years ago, school marking policy required us to use green for marking. I believe the philosophy was that red was an alarming colour and green more passive. I am not sure if this is now universal across UK schools.
I've been studying part-time for years, and have found (after a lot of experimentation), that I use green ink for names and dates (which stand out on my notes), black ink when I'm copying a quote from an author (again because that stands out), and blue ink for my own thoughts on what I'm reading. I have found that copic markers work best when you are writing in text books - they are waterproof and don't bleed through the thin pages - I have a brown copic pen that I use which stands out from the black print in my books.
A loooong time ago, when I was in school, before there were computers, you hand wrote everything and the paper and notebooks always had blue lines; mimeographed copies had blue text. Blue ink written on paper with blue lines or blue text looked muddy to me, hard to read, so I started using a black pen solely for legibility. Now everything is black lines so I often use blue, again just because it is easier to read.
In Germany ink colours are used to indicate peoples' the status in bureaucratic hierarchies. That way you can immediately which comments to a document come from whom. The lowest level is black ink and the highest is green, I don't quite remember the intermediary levels - except purple which (at least in ministerial bureaucracies is used by politically picked officers that didn't rise through the bureaucratic ranks. The German word for purple is "lila" which is jokingly extended to "liegen lassen" (let sit, i.e. ignore)
I use whatever color I want for my signature. Good luck ever finding a judge who will say, "Ah, this entire form is void and the plaintiff is free of all liabilty because he signed his name with a *green* pen."
Pilot Precise v.5 black (primary) Pilot G2 v.7 black (secondary) Pilot G2 v.7 red (editing) but a few weeks back took a chance with an off brand through TEMU and they are working: v.35 black I mostly write freeverse poetry and a I've done some work with novellas.
I was taught at school in the '50s: Blue for personal or private; Black for formal and funeral; Green - leave it to the tax man; Red - leave it to your teacher and poison-pen letter writers.
As a Sanitation Supervisor, my job requires we carry a 4 color pen. Black was required for writing summonses, before we got the NOVAS printers, blue was required for Derelict Vehicle Operations forms. Official logs and documents require black or blue ink. Night operations and diesel fuel is required to be green. Snow operations and gasoline is required to be red. The lubricant log is blue for B Preventative Maintainance records and Red for A's. (We also have the very labor intensive C PMs but that color is not specified, so I use black or green for those.) When filling in 350s (cardboard forms issued to each truck to record the truck #, crew names, supv names, day, date, function, cutoff times, tarekey weights, weather, section, route, etc) that my fellow supvs neglected to completely fill out, if it's a day ticket (black or blue ink) I will purposely use the opposite color to show how much work I did; if a night ticket, I'll use a different kind of green pen then the original supv. Things I don't have info for, I'll circle in red. I take all my personal notes in red in an effort to even out it's use with the other colors, but as a 4-12 garage supv, I still use green at a rate of 2/3 to 1 Vs the other colors. As a Sanitation Worker, I was required to carry a black or blue pen as part of my uniform to fill out 350s and sign documents. We could get written up for not having one. I once signed in on the official sign in sheet in green on St Patty's Day to be cute and was threatened with disciplinary action. These days it seems anybody can do anything they want and nobody gets in trouble. None of these S/Ws these days seem to have a pen ever.
When I was in the Navy, I was told to use black always as it was the most clear and would copy the best. Later when I went to work as a government attorney I was told all signatures had to be in blue to distinguish them from a copied signature. That never changed after color copiers came into use. Personally, I like a deep teal, but mostly I love using fountain pens with colors other than basic blue or black.
Yeah when fountain inks come into play, there are some exquisite options out there! Teal sounds interesting and unique! I love me a rich sapphire blue or ultimate fav is a fun burple! 🥰
Where do you get teal? That's my favorite color but I have never found teal pens except as the "bonus" pen in a promotional package of ordinary black and blue.
@@epicnamepwns1242 Monteverde makes at least one teal ink, California Teal. Diamine makes a teal ink. Noodler's makes a teal black ink under the name of "Aircorp Blue-Black" or "Air Corp Blue-Black", but it's much more teal black than blue black. If you don't want to use a fountain pen, Noodler's makes three different refillable roller ball pens and Jacques Herbin makes six.
As a nurse, we HAD to write our notes in black ink. This is because the colour black photocopied better, we were told.I So, black has always looked better to me. Of course, nowadays, everything is done On a computer screen and it is black. Very professional.
Health care worker in the USA here. That was the same for us too before electronic charts. The only other color allowed was red ink, and that was for notes that were going to be dictated later, and when the dictation came back it had to go directly under the original hand notes.
@@SewHealthy8 Straight up, I use Diamine ink in a Lamy fountain pen, currently using Earl Grey (dark grey rather than black), last month I used Eau de nil (a dark green- blue).
@@SewHealthy8 yes it is. Currently my pen is filled with Diamine Earl Grey (ok, grey not black). Next weekend (end of November) I’ll clean it out and refill with either Diamine Onyx black or anther jet black. I’ll use that until the end of February, March back to Earl Grey, then Eau De nil for April and May, Blue Black for June and July, Eau De Nil for August and September, then back to Earl Grey…
Before the days of color copiers, the military used to require blue on financial documents because you could tell by the blue that it was the original signature and not a copy.
Growing up in elementary school and middle school my teachers would use red for notes on what is wrong with assignments, green for praise or constructive criticism, and blue for suggestions of improvement.
Philip Caputo, a US Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, tried to fill in a form with blue ink, and was told only black ink was acceptable in the Marines. (Caputo, _A Rumor Of War_ first published 1977.)
A fountain pen has always been my preferred pen of choice with Royal Blue (Quink) ink. I've used blue/black at times and is my preference over black ink. I loathe having to use biro pens. Therefore, if I don't have fountain pen then I use a pen which gives me an equivalent feel/ink-flow which tends to be the "ball pens" (OK, I know a biro is a ball pen too). I'm currently working through using a pacl of [Mitsubishi Pencil Co.] Uni-Ball Signo 0.7 pens.
I learned working in a supermarket that checks should be written with a dark blue or black pen. That is because checks are sent between banks by fax, and checks with light ink are illegible in a fax. Also, as I was growing up, on bank statements, a number printed in red ink represents a negative amount, while black ink represents a positive amount. Thus, a business whose monthly total on their statement is positive is known as "in the black", indicating that the business is prospering. A total in the negative indicates that the business is "in the red", meaning that they lost money that month.
In high school, I used colored pens for Top 40 music countdowns. Pink was for a song moving up the chart, light blue was for moving down the chart, green was for staying still, and purple was for new debuts. In college, I did away with the colored pens, but vacillated between blue and black. Working the last 25+ years in the restaurant industry as a server, I eventually switched to all black pens. I noticed that tip percentages tended to be lower with blue pens. Not sure why, but maybe blue feels more casual and informal while black feels more fancy and sophisticated. (I work at a somewhat upscale seafood restaurant). I remember in my early years experimenting with red pens for customers, and tips were absolutely awful, so I did away with them!
I only use black ink in my pens no matter what type they are, fountain, ballpoint, gel or rollerball. If I buy a pen and it only comes with blue ink, I immediately swap it for black ink and just throw the blue cartridge away unless I can give it away. Sad to see that cursive is a fading art these days though, don't they teach that in schools now? When I was at school, cursive was called 'proper writing' and you got extra marks for using it.
One of my high school English teachers insisted that we use a fountain pen in his class. I became hooked on Blue Black ink as a result. (looking back, the teacher was probably on the autism spectrum... He had a lot of very arbitrary rules which drove me nuts.) The first ink cartridges I bought for my fountain pen were "Peacock" which was a colour of ink I'd never seen before. The English teacher responded that he would only accept Blue and Black ink. I started using Blue Black because I didn't like his limits and he had to allow for variations in blue inks.
I worked for a software company that was temporarily housed in a bank building. And the bank only had blue pens. Not because of forgery issues, but because as photocopies got better it became harder to tell the original from the photocopy. The original document has legal standing, a photocopy of it however is just a piece of paper - of no legal value at all. So it was important banks didn't mix them up. Thus blue pens as signatures and such stood out on the original, but were in black on the photocopy. Myself, I prefer a medium dark blue ink. It's a restful color. Being a lefty though some colored inks are slower drying than black ink and that can cause smudging. So I always have a couple known non-smudging black pens at the ready just in case.
Blue is personally my favorite color. Funny you should bring up financial industries. I worked in the mortgage industry. At our company, loan processors used black, underwriters used red, closers used green, post-closers used blue. I worked in secondary marketing, and I used whatever color I wanted...except red.
With my military background, I usually use black ink. When I am making notes on a black-and-white map (marking errors or objects to add), I like to use a contrasting color, and blue is most available, but I have used green and red on occasion when they were available. I worked in a microbiology lab for a while, and the way we kept track of who made the plate counts was that everyone used a different color. Blue, black, green and red, along with some more exotic colors like purple, were already taken. I found some gold metallic ink pens in a thrift store and that became "my" color.
I like writing notes in blue ink, if using a ball pint. Fountain pens always get black - it's weird that I never thought about this, it just feel correct to be that way.
I've written both creatively and scientifically for decades. In my teens and 20's, I preferred black ink because I saw it as dramatic, high contrast, and permanent. In my 30's, I switched to blue because our company wanted to show 'original signatures' even though a colour copy would negate the effect. Since then, I've taken a liking to blue for signatures and original writings but no problem flipping to whichever pen is available. I like writing to glide smoothly, so my preference is gel ink, but also carry a ballpoint when there's no time to sit for drying.
My four color pen( red black blue green) got me through Boolean Algebra class back in the day. And, Nand , Or, Nor were all different colors and easy to differentiate in an equation.
i write in blue pen most of the time. i use a black pen to write over important words. black on blue is distinct, blue on black isn't so much. i use red to indicate something that might be a problem, either incorrect or that i need more information on. basically something that requires further action. i go for a fairly bright blue so that it is very distinct from black. my black pen is bolder than my blue pens so it makes writer over the blue lines easier. it's also a useful technique for headings and such.
Writing in blue ink was always something I had to do for homework in school, therefore black ink is to me for something of my own, independent, more meaningful, interesting. I use blue for filling forms because I was told so - probably so that people reading forms could sea at a glance that blue (fill) is at all the right places.
The use of black or blue ink is generally acceptable for writing, I personally use both, however, when it comes to signing documents, blue ink is typically mandated. This is to ensure that the original document's signature can be differentiated from copies during photocopying processes, thus avoiding any potential confusion or misinterpretation.
I had an ex who worked at a company that dealt with medical forms, and she was told to always use blue ink and not black. I believe the reason was that blue would be easier to discern as a fresh marking and not a photocopy.
I mostly work with digital signatures now at work, but back when all signatures were wet signatures, my signature color was green. It stood out on the document, and since it was color that others rarely used, it served as a quick-and-dirty form of authentication for me.
As someone who spent most of their career negotiating, and arranging the execution of, commercial leases and associated documents, I always insisted that they were signed in blue. This was, prior to the arrival of colour copying, a simple way to know you were looking at an original at a glance. When reviewing requested changes to a draft and making notes for amendments, always red.
For journals and music, I use blue; for work I use black; for commentary/markups I use red or pink; and for art (like books, script, and illuminated manuscripts) I will get a dark brown. Sometimes I get a bit crazy and use blue/black, dark green, and silver for black-page journals.
I prefer writing with black ink but I did go through a phase in college where I switched out the ink color according to the purpose of the notes black for major points red for highlights green for side interests (like ideas for papers in other courses) etc, etc this also worked well for highlighting philosophy books one color for main points, another for arguments, and yet another for side arguments made reviewing for exams easier it especially came in handy in Calculus, when we were doing "Integrals by Substitution" make your substitution into a different color, and it is easier to keep track of thanks to a Math professor who used different colored chalk
What if my favorite ink is a Shading iron gall ink with a bit of shimmer and sheen? There is a wealth of ink out there beyond what you can get from a boring old ballpoint.
I've been in nursing for 20 years, and until recently, we weren't allowed to use ANYTHING but black ink for work. I don't really care about what color I have for recreational writing, so long as I have a pen, so I almost exclusively write in black. I'm more fussed with texture and smoothness, etc (especially as a left-handed person; nothing worse than a ballpoint pen that skips and globs ink, or wants to tear through the paper, or doesn't dry fast enough and smears on my hand).
My dad loved to write with green ink. I draw a lot so black is my go to color. Blue is seldom used unless requested and the green and red ink is usually used for accents in some of my drawings.
The short answer is I always use a black pen these days, and I have for a long time. But it wasn't always that way. I went thru a lot of phases with pens, particularly once I studied calligraphy, when I was about 13 or 14. Aesthetically, I've always preferred a pencil, but its impermanence is the main reason I don't use one all the time. I only use a pencil for drawing, writing music, and occasionally for specific effect with words. But pens are the mainstay, and black is my primary choice for ease of consistency and versatility. I have in the past gone thru different periods when i wrote mostly in blue or purple or green, and now if I have some particular goal or project, I might use colors besides black. My mom was a school teacher, and she used red for corrections, so I haven't used it much because of that. I find that colors besides black are evocative, even demanding, so I use black as a neutral medium for just about everything I do. Furthermore, I used to use ballpoints all the time (except for calligraphy), but once gels came along, I switched, and I hardly ever use ballpoints anymore. So now my favorite pen of all is a black Pilot G2. (This is not a paid endorsement. lol)
In more than twenty years of teaching, I never marked students' work in red ink. I just think red pen looks aggressive and is the equivalent of 'shouting' at the students. I always used a green bic biro, a much more positive colour and I always made a positive comment alongside any corrections or guidance. I never write in blue, I guess because most students wrote in blue. I prefer to write in black as it has a certain 'authority' to it and maybe a bit of 'stern-ness' if I am writing to Government or official organisations. Love and peace.
@@daweshorizon for some reason my teachers back in the 80s always used red, I guess that’s why I always feel a little weird using that colour to write. I have recently enjoyed writing my UA-cam scripts in purple and underlined import areas in red. :)
Back when I worked in pharmacy, every single prescription was handwritten, black print on white paper. I always wrote my notes in blue, red, green etc so I could see what I had written vs what the doc had written.
Some legal documents MUST be signed in BLUE. If they are signed in black they will be rejected. If you are filling out a legal document, always check the instructions. If the instructions don't specify, please don't assume - ask.
My first job was in a bank branch. We were told to write everything, including getting signatures, in black ink because it couldnt be forged like blue ink. I always think of black as more legal, so I found the comments about blue ink being more legal were surprising.
When in school, blue seemed to be the preferred ink color. When I got to the point where I could write in black ink without repercussions, I switched, and it became my preferred color.
It's funny how I have the opposite perception, blue is for filling out documents, etc., because it makes it clearly contrasting what was printed and what was written by a person, makes it easier to read, and also makes it easier to see at the 1st glance that this is not a copy. When in banks or any places where you are given a pen on a coily wire to fill their forms, it's ALWAYS blue. Whereas black is a personal kinda pen that you'd use to make notes in your copy book and so on. It's for stuff for yourself.
What does it say about a creative who writes in multiple colors. I go between ideas and notes for the books with various colors. Each idea gets a different color, usually black, blue, red, green, and purple. I have an 8-color Pilot G-2 set that I use when I'm working on ideas. I'm old fashioned, I used a 5-subject notebook and tabs to go between things, then I move into Scrivener or Word to work out outlines with those ideas. I just can't do it all on computer, I find my thoughts come better when I'm actually putting pen to paper. I'm 67, so it's an old habit as well. :)
I worked for a Prosecutor in the past and blue ink was preferred in that office because it stood out, was harder fake as well as it was easier to spot that it was not a photocopy, but the original document (the main printer did not have color).
I change the colour of my pen on the first of every month. This month is a purple month. I use all colours except the kind of standard blue because it reminds me too much of school. But I always have a black pen in my bag, in case I have to sign something where I don't want to stand out. I have never used that pen...
Yes to the month thing, me too! 😂 Vintage Sarasa blue-grey is absolute favourite, followed closely by green-black and red-black. Haven't used black since I retired.
In any instance where I'm signing a document, I prefer a blue pen because I want my live signature to be immediately noticeable when compared to a photocopy.
I actually like to use turquoise (light blue) and violet, because you can distinguish more colours then. Black, blueblack, violet and turquoise are easily distinguishable. Because using regular blue would clash either with violet or blue black, so with regular blue it is 3 colours instead of four.
I have been using the G2 Mini in Green ink for nearly ten years now. I use them until they run dry. Unfortunately Pilot has stopped making them and I can't find refills for them. I like them because they write really smooth for me, and the mini size is great for clipping to your pants pocket without stabbing yourself in the thigh when you sit down. I have been unable to find a replacement, either a mini pen or refill cartridges so looks like I'll be forced to switch to black ink versions of the G2 Mini. Ugh. Like Shep, I feel like I'm writing on a form with black ink, whereas the green ink just felt more creative. Oh well. First world problems I suppose.
I've always written in black. But, since I'm now drawing as a hobby, I use every color. I'm loving the different options available in colors. Also, I love gel pens. Preferred wring method is now typing since I've done it so much for work.
One of the problems with fountain pen ink is that it fades - certainly it fades in the sun, anyway. You can see this if you look at old certificates, diplomas, etc. with people's professional credentials such as you see posted up in chemist shops, for example, where the printed sections are perfectly legible after decades, but the signatures are barely discernable, if at all. Perhaps the inks are more 'sun~fast' or whatever the term is, these days? I guess I'll have to wait until 2050 or so to find out, lol! Also, call me a traditionalist, but while I don't think I could ever be accused of writing a poison pen letter, as such, I have been known to write in green ink where I want to convey a certain tone of snottiness or passive agression, but the circumstances dictate that the actual text has to be somewhat deferential in nature... Of course these days the gesture would go entirely over the heads of most recipients, but on the other hand it has the benefit that where the inference is appreciated, a certain plausible, or at least technical deniability is still feasible; ie, "It does? _Really?!_ Why, I had no _idea!_ I'm so sorry -- I know green isn't 'super~professional', but it was all I had to hand; I certainly never meant any offence! _And if you believe that, you are an even bigger gobdaw than I was aware of!"_ 😌🧏♂️
@@bcase5328 Presumably it would say on the label? I don't know how they would know, other than by waiting, but I presume they have their methods - blasting them with high~intensity ultraviolet light, for one, I'm guessing?
Usually use black ink for work: blue for personal. However, I do try to sign documents in blue so that the original vs. the photocopy can be distinguished. As a fountain pen 🖋 lover, I use various ink colors for color-coding meetings, organizations to which I belong, etc.
If you like this content please 👉 Subscribe its FREE! - / @justshepcreator I am in the planning stages of my next Pen and Ink video which I hope will be live around Halloween :)
I’m retired - not blue, not black, but dark enough to read - Purple!
I'm an engineer, which will make my answer initially seem strange. In taking notes for my job, I use a rainbow of different ink colors. (My handwritten notes are my own. No one else reads them.) Whenever I switch from one technical topic to another, I switch ink color. So when I'm skimming through a notebook, I can easily see where a meeting begins and ends. I can tie together notes on one topic sprinkled throughout my notebook by scanning for that ink color. And, as an artist trapped in an engineer's body, the pretty colors make me happy. Well, happier... 🤓🎨
Keep on creating and write how you feel the creativity flows
sounds like a great system and if it works for you stick with it.
The last time I did any coursework I took notes with black ink, wrote out announcements in grey, used orange, blue, red, blue black, purple, and green for other things, and had to build a cheat sheet so I could keep them all straight in my mind. I did suggest to my instructors that assignments were better delivered in blue, blue black, or black, and they all agreed with me on that.
I did the same thing while taking notes in college.
I also used about four colors when taking notes in college and I still use different colors when adding to my personal notes -- especially in ongoing documents that I add to over time. Now most of my notes are on electronic devices, but I still switch colors when adding new text or clarifying old text.
My favorite handwriting ink color is purple, but I almost always fill out forms in blue ink. My son does the same color-coded note-taking for college, but his default ink color is green. I buy him a new pack of his favorite green pens for his Christmas stocking every year and a set of multi-colored pens every other year.
Like you, color makes me happy (-ier) - I will never be the person whose rooms are tied together by one cohesive color palette.
An old joke from DDR made famous by Slavoj Žižek
An East German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let’s establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter, written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theaters show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair - the only thing unavailable is red ink.”
😂
🤣
All these years, when someone asks to "borrow" my pen, I pull out a red ballpoint and say "keep the change, ya filthy scriptomaniac!"
@@Euripides_Panz 😂
@@Euripides_Panz This seems like a silly and rude response.
1:39 This was good to know, but it reminded me of a story from my grand mother. She said she paid all her bills by check and only ever used a green ink pen. One day she had to pay a bill and didn't have her pen so she borrowed a pen and used that. Her bank got the check and wouldn't cash it. They called her to verify because for more than 10 years every check she'd ever written was done in green ink.
Now that's a good bank
@@joedoe7572 Sounds more like a good employee at a small bank. We used to have a small bank here in our small town. There were only a few employees but they had worked there for years. They got to know everyone who regularly used the bank and therefore got to know their habits. I'm sure it's not like that at bigger banks where they have hundreds or even thousands of customers with a high employee turnover rate. A business is only as good as the people who work for it.
In India, the green ink is reserved exclusively for gazetted officers. Common men and women cannot use it.
Love it!
My brother, who used to be a notary public, once advised me to sign a legal document in blue ink because ink in photocopies of that document tends to show up as black. That way the difference between the original document and photocopies can be seen at a glance. I still tend to write in black ink, however.
I learned that from someone I know who, fortunately, had signed a job contract in blue. A few weeks later he was able to prove that they had altered the expectations of the contract (with no pay increase of course) and copied his signature. Without that, they could have claimed he just didn't read it all before signing. Luckily I have always preferred blue anyway and usually have one on hand.
Same here. I like using black ink more than blue. But I'm also a notary public, and my state's rules for notaries require us to use blue ink when notarizing documents, but for our signatures and for the notary stamp.
@@tchristianphoto After seeing this video, I’m experimenting with using blue ink and seeing if it changes the writing experience for me. The jury is still out.
I knew someone who worked with a government agency, and worked on federally funded projects with some regularity. He said that certain documents had to be signed with blue ink so they could readily be seen as an original signature because of the photocopy thing.
@@NiallMor in the UK, Registrars (similar I think to your notaries public), who have to arrange formal certificates such as Birth, Marriage and Death use special black ink that gets darker with age.
Pink glitter gel pen is the choice of a man of taste and class.
Writing with glitter is the height of decadence 😉
i tottally agree
Ah yes, "Dudes For Harris". 😉
As opposed to f'tards for the Gilded Turd.
@@chrislj2890 Exactly.
When I was a teenager, a friend told me that she didn't use blue ink, because she felt it looked indecisive. So I always used black, after that, until I was about 50, and got bored with it. Now I primarily use pencil........which is incredibly indecisive. lol
😂😂
Always use a pencil on your walls. Ink will not be covered over.
When I was a teenager I thought blue ink looked unserious. Now I can’t get enough of a rich cobalt blue. I think pencil is a mature choice; it acknowledges that things change even when you weren’t expecting them to and you’re prepared for that eventuality.
i'm also team pencil, unless i'm signing a document or sending a letter
Pencils are for children; ink pens are for grown-ups.
Found this on the internet: "In the UK, green ink was stereotypically used for more interesting submissions. Journalists also used the term "green ink brigade" to describe people who wrote letters to news organizations". I'm an American, and now I want to use green ink whenever I write letters, just to be contrarian.
I like that
Oooh, didn't Rita Skeeter have an acid green pen?
Love this!
@@sarahrosen4985She did! This comment makes the choice of her ink color an important detail.
There is an urban legend that the head of the British secret service, in the old days, would sign his name as One initial in green ink. 🟩🔏
Fountain pen user here, self-employed. There’s nothing I love more than to switch colours when writing my notes. I’m currently using a light grey, a turquoise blue and a yellow. I’ve also got a dark, dark red I love from Diamine, named “Writer’s Blood.” Switching colours is too much fun to just use black or blue - but I get the need in formal settings.
I worked in preclinical pharmaceutical research for almost 40 years. For some reason, federal regulations do not allow the use of any color pen except black. They also did not allow the use of white-out or other correction fluids. If you made a mistake in entering hand-entered data you had to draw a line through the mistake, put a footnote number in a circle next to it, then at the bottom of the page, repeat the same circled number and put "entry error, should be xxxx" and date it with your initials. This was to prevent fraud.
I'm a sailor and in the logbooks we normally use blue ink. Red is for special things like drills, shore inspections and so on. They need to stand out so you can find it back easily.
We are using black pen for oil record book. For the rest of the logs we use electronic logs.
When I began my legal career nearly 50 years ago the preferred color for signing legal documents was in blue ink. The majority of copiers back then could only make black and white copies so it was easy to tell the original document from a copy. And since legal documents rarely use color, the signing of the original document in blue ink and then copying in black and white remains an easy way to distinguish original signatures from copied signatures.
Thanks for sharing it’s great getting even more context for this subject.
Exactly.
This is what they taught us real estate agents as well.
That's what I was told, back then copiers were only black. Red Bic pens are horrible! Never smooth writing.
Personally I prefer purple ink because it’s my favorite color. I used to sell pens, and I was told that blue ink ballpoint pens had better viscosity. I have no idea if that is actually true. Red ink often gives an angry vibe.
A friend who worked in insurance told me once that notes in red ink get addressed more quickly. Ever since, for customer service, disputed bills, etc., I write a note in red ink on the original document and send it back. It does seem always to work.
Teachers used to use red ink pens when correcting tests and homework!
@ yes, I learned in my teaching classes in college that it would be better if teachers used another color than red to grade with because of the negative vibe that red gives.
@@donnadrane4977 But when an editor corrects a manuscript, the expression is that they "blue pencil" it. Maybe it would be kinder if teachers didn't use red. Maybe green is available.
@ Actually, since most school work is now done on a computer, there is very little handwritten correction. Back in the day, however, it was the red pen. Now, for the most part, I see teachers being kinder than ever when correcting students, and I chalk it up to our changing times.
I work in an office of public institution (Europe): it is required to sign documents in blue to easily distinguish original from a copy. We know that there are color copiers - but blue ink still copy inconsistently most of the time: with uneven colorization, darker spots, not fully mixed-in colors (copiers make dark blue using more than one ink). Black ink looks the same most of the time - no matter if originally signed or copied.
With my personal notes I use black and blue interchangeably - But I like gel pens the most (my personal favourite is made by Polish brand Rystor)
When I bought my first house, I had to initial and sign all of copies of the transfer documentation in blue ink as directed by the attorney handling the purchase. I was told that this was to allow anyone reviewing the documents to determine that they were original signed versions vs copies/faxes as those would only ever be black. This was back before color copiers were commonplace...
Our finance officer insisted on blue ink on the printed time sheets, completely ignoring the fact that all the timekeeping was done by computer and printed timesheets were superfluous. The printed copies were stored in some file cabinet, never to be seen again.
I was told the same thing about using blue ink on some Probate documents. But he added that judges were behind the times about knowing about color copiers.
This remains true today. Most legal documents are standardised and printed in black. Having read a standard form, once, if a lawyer recognises the standard form elsewhere, you don’t read it again, as you already know what it says. Writing in blue ink makes it easier to spot the signature, initials, and any annotations, such as striking out standard, printed text. The signature, initials, and any annotations are more important than the standard text because these things establish provenance, authenticity, and context. And they establish these things because they are the result of particular people performing particular actions with their pen. Many lawyers, myself included, use several differing ink colours in their own writing, with each colour bearing a particular meaning. For example, writing in red ink records something said by the judge, and something written in green ink is a reference, usually a partial reference being a unique reference code, to a previous decision. My standard ink colour is purple, because nobody else uses it, so when I see purple writing in a pile of papers, I can quickly know it was written by me.
I actually like both blue and black. But red is discouraged in the financial world because it’s used for debits and/or liabilities vs black which is use for assets and or deposits.
Blue ink is acknowledged as the “original” signature, Iused to only use blue ink for checks and signatures.
Dark brown. Uncommon, warm, yet formal.
Where do you get brown ink? I have never heard of it.
@@Momiji-e8k Search for CultPens. They have a huge range - I have Aurora Borealis and Deep Dark Brown from Diamine. (I do use two fountain pens!)
@@Momiji-e8k Noodlers has some nice shades. Walnut is nice
I haven’t heard of brown ink before either, but I find the idea of brown ink attractive.
@@Momiji-e8k My earlier reply has been deleted.
A company the sells Pens and is a sort of Cult. They sell Diamine inks.
I always consider black for formal, blue for informal, red for quality control action, and green for quality control approval. My go to ink, is blue/black.
@kierangoddard2198
I use a blue/black 1.0 gel, a 0.38 "prussian blue" for finer writing, and an "archival" blue of one or another type, in fine nib fountains for official documents. Then bordeaux or grey for personal correspondence.
Then blacks for general ballpoint and fountain note-taking.
Gel Orange, white, green, gold, violet, even red, for situational use when I have my bag with me.
Blue is NOT for informal writing - for decades, at least, maybe longer, blue ink is the color of formal, official signatures for legal documents.
@@cathynewyork7918 I guess it depends on where you live. In the UK, many official government documents will be returned if they are not signed in black.
@@kierangoddard2198 That seems like a silly waste of time.
Growing up I was always told not to write to anyone using red ink as it may cause offence. Red ink was used to signify owing money or to be in debt. The final demand for your gas bill would be in red and the term in the red is still used to this day.
In the black is the corresponding term. Banks used black ink for any accounts in credit and red ink for overdrafts. Red is a great reminder that the balance is literally costing you money in interest charges.
I had heard of people taking offense at red markups/edits or getting stressed by it (because it was like blood all over the page). So I turned to purple…because Klingon blood. 😂
I use fountain pens because of the variety of ink colours available. I use a waterproof black ink for anything formal (waterproof is essential for anything legal, regardless of its colour, and not all fountain pen inks are waterproof). I dislike blue (unless it's really dark) because I was made to write in blue at school, and school was not a pleasant personal experience for the most part. My favourite colour for personal use, note-taking, journalling etc, is dark green.
@@LewisLittle66 I’m hearing quite a few comments about dark green and it is intriguing me.
@@JustShepCreator Monteverde offers a Jade Noir, a very dark green. Monteverde offers 10 (I think) different Noir inks.
But which dark green, inquiring minds want to know! is it R&K verdigris?
@@annafdd Diamine Sherwood Green :)
Noodler’s offers many colors of “Bulletproof” inks: Inks that are cellulose-reactive so their marks can’t be removed without removing a noticeable amount of paper. I’ve been a fan of Noodler’s black for over 20 years now and I’ve lost track of how many times they’ve saved my research from unstable cups of coffee, sudden rain showers, and productive bubble baths.
For me it's the Feel of the pen on the paper that's more important than the color. It must be smooth and easy enough to lay down a bold line with firm pressure and a thinner line with lighter pressure. Lines need to taper as you lift the pen. 😊
I prefer a very fine pen - I have a heavy hand so I feel like a fine pen looks better and less messy. 🤷♀️
As an old’un I attended Primary School in the 1950s. In Australia (well, Victoria anyway) we graduated from slates, to pencil, & finally (hurrah!) to pen & ink. Being selected as the ink monitor was a pretty good wheeze - you basically (very carefully) wandered about the classroom with a huge bottle of ink (it seemed that way at the time…), filling all the inkwells on the desks. The ink was always Swan Ink & it was always BLUE. I was very unfairly banned from this task, not because I did it badly, but because in a fit of whimsy I (almost accidentally) placed the plait of the girl sitting at the desk in front of me, into my inkwell. Looking back I think it showed great intellectual promise: I’m sure Newton or somesuch genius would have applauded the experiment, investigating the ink take-up propensities of human hair. Somehow the teacher (cruel soul that he was, did not see things that way. I would have thought that six double-hander applications of the strap were more than sufficient, but no, I was banned from ink monitor-ship for the rest of Grade 5!
You are using the scientific method😂
Loved the trip down memory lane. I'm Victorian too, but 1970's. Luckily no strap but I was the last in my class to get my pen licence.
That sounds really interesting, your a good storyteller!
Interesting story that would make a nice short story/film. You're a great storyteller as someone already pointed out in the comments. 😀
Just the sort of thing I would have done. Top man👍
I do real estate closings and I am a Notary Public as well, and blue is required because it makes it easier to determine if a document is an original or a copy. Yes, color copiers exist, but they are purposely not used in my line of work. For my own personal writing, I bounce back and forth between black and blue. Just depends on what I am feeling on that particular day.
I copy my previous comment here:
I work in an office of public institution (European): we know that there are color copiers - but blue ink still copy inconsistently most of the time: with uneven colorization, darker spots, not fully mixed-in colors (copiers make dark blue using more than one ink). Black ink looks the same most of the time - no matter if originally signed or copied.
Blue-Black ink is a really fun color to use in fountain pens, but if you don't want to mess with fountain pens there are a few gel pens that come in blue-black ink. One example that's pretty easy to find online is the "Pentel Energel Clena," which is basically just a regular Energel but with a bit of a retro style and comes in a few fun colors like blue-black and brown.
Pentel Energel Clenas are my favorite gel pens. Other than those, I write with fountain pens.
Black was used for bookkeeping in profits and expenses in red. Blue was used for notes about transactions made. It made it very clear for accountants and bookkeepers to see them at a glance on a long list of pages. Inks were used with permanent inks.
Computers now print (@ 1975) almost everything in black because they use laser printers and not inks which can be smeared or lost if the colour fades.
Many, many decades ago, green ink was reserved only for the head manager of our branch for his signatures.
When a coworker told me that a few years ago, I added green ink to my repertoire of Lamy fountain pens with different colored inks, just to make my phone notes a little bit more colorful.... and to breach that "green is for the manager" barrier.
I grew up in Eastern Europe. Blue ink is required for legal documents and was the standard color used from pre-school to graduate school. I've been using black ink for the last 20 years and recently began using blue for taking some some notes and making some lists. I somehow got a strange feeling of nostalgia and began writing more with blue ink. It has been rather uplifting.
Thanks!
No problem! 🎉
Regarding 2:06, in Asian cultures using red ink to write a person's name is taboo. This is because only names of dead people are written in red ink. However, if a living person's name is written in red ink, then this is considered to be a curse and is very insulting.
I worked as a manager for 40 years and I didn't notice or care if people used blue or black ink. I did notice when girls used green or pink or some other color ink. Immediately I'd put their application in the no chance pile. I wouldn't even read it because I couldn't take it seriously. I agree the blue ink is more noticeable on an application but I tend to take it less seriously. I feel it's more pedantic.
Before I retired as a Q.C. inspector I always used blue ink on routings and other paperwork since it was often copied and I needed to know which was the original. For problem issues I used red to signify such. For personal things such as writing checks it's always black ink. If you ever get into fountain pens beware of the ink color rabbit hole, as I probably have close to a hundred different ones.
Thanks for you comment and thank you for your info on ink colours
Hear hear, brother.
I have many fountain pens and each has its very own ink painstakingly matched to it. I scored a zero in the x-rite hue test, so yes, they truly are all different colors to me. I am very close to the point that I could write in a different color every day for half a year.
I acknowledge that I have a problem.
@@polymathica
What's rather sad in my case is that with all of the pens and ink I have I only keep one inked up. That is my Montblanc 146, filled with either Mystery Black or Burgundy. Most of the time I just use one of my Tactile Turn Nautilus or Retro 51 rollerball pens.
@ Aww, that is a little sad, but we all have only so much time in a month and I have to admit my fountain pens are a very time-consuming hobby. While my pens are technically all inked up all the time, with the gap between uses, all but the Platinums and the Benus dry out. It’s a bit irresponsible of me, but I- 😐 Prepare yourself for the heresy-I flush them out with their own ink as I fill them when their time in the rotation comes. My theory is that ink will dilute itself and when the ink gets too dry I can add distilled water to return it to the right concentration. I do have my own ultrasonic cleaner if something gets really clogged
I'm an elementary school teacher so I RARELY write in either blue or black ink. I like to be colorful and flair pens are my pen of choice so it could be any color from lime green to purple just depending on my mood. I work a reading interventionist on my campus so I don't really have papers to grade but back when I used to I might grade them in red, or it might be orange, or turquoise...the kids loved the colors and so did I! When I have to use a blue or black ink for something official I call it writing with a "grown up color"...lol.
I use different colors depending on my mood too. I love that you use different colors for the kids. I bet they do too.
😮i have arthritis and carpal tunnel, I just discovered papermate flairs, this year...I like them because the marker is a strong bold line I can see (bad vision too!) but it doesn't bleed thru the paper like sharpies do. They're easier to control than the gel type pens and easier to write with than the ball point pens. I now but them by the 12pak! I just wish they didn't have that sharp feeling rim near where your fingers hold it. My only complaint.
Nurses used to do the different shift stats and notes in different colors for day, evening and night shifts were some agreed upon system of blue red and green ink. Pre computer days of course
Once upon a time, blue ink was the “original” document, black was the “photostat.” Now a day, with colour scanners it really doesn’t matter. In the US and Canada, unless they state in the directions, the colour of pen doesn’t matter as long as it is blue or black.
Personally, I keep a fountain pen loaded with one of each colour, and something else, like a brown, or a green, or purple. Red for corrections and editing, unless it’s a more burgundy like “Writers Blood.”
Loving the thought of the dark red colours, got to try this!
Notfamiliar with "writer's blood" but have what must be similar called "oxblood".
@@greggi47 Writer's Blood is a Diamine color. It behaves well and cleans easily. It isn't water resistant, though, if that's a concern.
I worked as a bank teller in college and we were not allowed to use red ink on checks or any financial documents as the microfiche scanners couldn't read it. That was back in the 90's so that may no longer be the case but it was a big deal back then.
I don't know about red, but for a while during college, I wrote my cheques with a purple Flair pen. Those always went through.
I like Pilot G2 pens, mostly black, but also red, blue and green, in the sizes 07 and 05.
I use a set of multicolored G2 pens for my personal finances and notes. My son will use those too but prefers Sarasa Zebra pens 05. He is VERY Picky about his pens, but since he is working hard in his last year of college, I figure he's worth the extra expense.
@@nanszoo3092 I am also very picky, and love the G2s, but I have never tried the Zebras. I will have to look for them.
As a secondary school teacher (now retired) we traditionally marked students work with red ink, until, around fifteen years ago, school marking policy required us to use green for marking. I believe the philosophy was that red was an alarming colour and green more passive. I am not sure if this is now universal across UK schools.
@@rodjacob1000 oh wow that’s some amazing insights green being preferred is not something I had heard. Thanks for sharing your comment 👍
You gotta be kidding me! Sorry Sir, what I meant was, you have got to be having a joke! 😉
@@richiehoyt8487 Not joking.... Typical of the kind of initiatives that those in charge came up with.
For marking papers the Japanese use cute little stamps to add pleasant encouragement.
I rebelled and used purple because it was the color of Klingon blood 😂
I've been studying part-time for years, and have found (after a lot of experimentation), that I use green ink for names and dates (which stand out on my notes), black ink when I'm copying a quote from an author (again because that stands out), and blue ink for my own thoughts on what I'm reading. I have found that copic markers work best when you are writing in text books - they are waterproof and don't bleed through the thin pages - I have a brown copic pen that I use which stands out from the black print in my books.
Thank you so much for sharing that useful tip!
A loooong time ago, when I was in school, before there were computers, you hand wrote everything and the paper and notebooks always had blue lines; mimeographed copies had blue text. Blue ink written on paper with blue lines or blue text looked muddy to me, hard to read, so I started using a black pen solely for legibility. Now everything is black lines so I often use blue, again just because it is easier to read.
In Germany ink colours are used to indicate peoples' the status in bureaucratic hierarchies. That way you can immediately which comments to a document come from whom. The lowest level is black ink and the highest is green, I don't quite remember the intermediary levels - except purple which (at least in ministerial bureaucracies is used by politically picked officers that didn't rise through the bureaucratic ranks. The German word for purple is "lila" which is jokingly extended to "liegen lassen" (let sit, i.e. ignore)
Good to find about some of the colours and meanings in different countries :)
I use whatever color I want for my signature.
Good luck ever finding a judge who will say, "Ah, this entire form is void and the plaintiff is free of all liabilty because he signed his name with a *green* pen."
Pilot Precise v.5 black (primary)
Pilot G2 v.7 black (secondary)
Pilot G2 v.7 red (editing)
but a few weeks back took a chance with an off brand through TEMU and they are working:
v.35 black
I mostly write freeverse poetry and a I've done some work with novellas.
I was taught at school in the '50s:
Blue for personal or private;
Black for formal and funeral;
Green - leave it to the tax man;
Red - leave it to your teacher and poison-pen letter writers.
As a Sanitation Supervisor, my job requires we carry a 4 color pen. Black was required for writing summonses, before we got the NOVAS printers, blue was required for Derelict Vehicle Operations forms. Official logs and documents require black or blue ink. Night operations and diesel fuel is required to be green. Snow operations and gasoline is required to be red. The lubricant log is blue for B Preventative Maintainance records and Red for A's. (We also have the very labor intensive C PMs but that color is not specified, so I use black or green for those.)
When filling in 350s (cardboard forms issued to each truck to record the truck #, crew names, supv names, day, date, function, cutoff times, tarekey weights, weather, section, route, etc) that my fellow supvs neglected to completely fill out, if it's a day ticket (black or blue ink) I will purposely use the opposite color to show how much work I did; if a night ticket, I'll use a different kind of green pen then the original supv. Things I don't have info for, I'll circle in red. I take all my personal notes in red in an effort to even out it's use with the other colors, but as a 4-12 garage supv, I still use green at a rate of 2/3 to 1 Vs the other colors.
As a Sanitation Worker, I was required to carry a black or blue pen as part of my uniform to fill out 350s and sign documents. We could get written up for not having one. I once signed in on the official sign in sheet in green on St Patty's Day to be cute and was threatened with disciplinary action. These days it seems anybody can do anything they want and nobody gets in trouble. None of these S/Ws these days seem to have a pen ever.
When I was in the Navy, I was told to use black always as it was the most clear and would copy the best.
Later when I went to work as a government attorney I was told all signatures had to be in blue to distinguish them from a copied signature. That never changed after color copiers came into use.
Personally, I like a deep teal, but mostly I love using fountain pens with colors other than basic blue or black.
Thanks for the comment, everyone's input is really making me stop and think
Yeah when fountain inks come into play, there are some exquisite options out there! Teal sounds interesting and unique! I love me a rich sapphire blue or ultimate fav is a fun burple! 🥰
Where do you get teal? That's my favorite color but I have never found teal pens except as the "bonus" pen in a promotional package of ordinary black and blue.
@@epicnamepwns1242 I find in bottled inks to use in my fountain pen. Not always called teal but there are literally thousands of colors out there!
@@epicnamepwns1242 Monteverde makes at least one teal ink, California Teal. Diamine makes a teal ink. Noodler's makes a teal black ink under the name of "Aircorp Blue-Black" or "Air Corp Blue-Black", but it's much more teal black than blue black.
If you don't want to use a fountain pen, Noodler's makes three different refillable roller ball pens and Jacques Herbin makes six.
Great video. Blue/black is the best because it is ‘old school’ and retains elements of formality while being aesthetically pleasing.
And copies well. 😊
As a nurse, we HAD to write our notes in black ink. This is because the colour black photocopied better, we were told.I
So, black has always looked better to me. Of course, nowadays, everything is done On a computer screen and it is black. Very professional.
Health care worker in the USA here. That was the same for us too before electronic charts. The only other color allowed was red ink, and that was for notes that were going to be dictated later, and when the dictation came back it had to go directly under the original hand notes.
I use blue-black in an attempt to win-win…can tell the original + copies well.
Autumn and Winter I use black ink, Spring and Summer blue.
my mind is blown ❤ Iove it. I hope what you are saying is true
@@SewHealthy8 Straight up, I use Diamine ink in a Lamy fountain pen, currently using Earl Grey (dark grey rather than black), last month I used Eau de nil (a dark green- blue).
@@SewHealthy8 yes it is. Currently my pen is filled with Diamine Earl Grey (ok, grey not black). Next weekend (end of November) I’ll clean it out and refill with either Diamine Onyx black or anther jet black. I’ll use that until the end of February, March back to Earl Grey, then Eau De nil for April and May, Blue Black for June and July, Eau De Nil for August and September, then back to Earl Grey…
Before the days of color copiers, the military used to require blue on financial documents because you could tell by the blue that it was the original signature and not a copy.
Growing up in elementary school and middle school my teachers would use red for notes on what is wrong with assignments, green for praise or constructive criticism, and blue for suggestions of improvement.
Until someone came up with the bright idea of printing signatures in blue to make a form letter look hand-signed.
@@cliveadams7629 true I have received letters mass printed with a blue signature.
Philip Caputo, a US Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, tried to fill in a form with blue ink, and was told only black ink was acceptable in the Marines. (Caputo, _A Rumor Of War_ first published 1977.)
A fountain pen has always been my preferred pen of choice with Royal Blue (Quink) ink. I've used blue/black at times and is my preference over black ink. I loathe having to use biro pens. Therefore, if I don't have fountain pen then I use a pen which gives me an equivalent feel/ink-flow which tends to be the "ball pens" (OK, I know a biro is a ball pen too). I'm currently working through using a pacl of [Mitsubishi Pencil Co.] Uni-Ball Signo 0.7 pens.
Uni-ball are very smooth writers. You'd probably enjoy fine tipped gel pens with your ability to alter pressure on different parts of penstrokes.
I learned working in a supermarket that checks should be written with a dark blue or black pen. That is because checks are sent between banks by fax, and checks with light ink are illegible in a fax.
Also, as I was growing up, on bank statements, a number printed in red ink represents a negative amount, while black ink represents a positive amount. Thus, a business whose monthly total on their statement is positive is known as "in the black", indicating that the business is prospering. A total in the negative indicates that the business is "in the red", meaning that they lost money that month.
anti Goth propaganda. Black is always best.
😅 Brilliant 😅❤
I always prefered pencil, lately I'm using sanguin pencil on buff paper. It just feels better! What does that say about me?😮
@@sirlurk_calot I would say that probably makes you a New Romantic (a bit like a Goth, but Goth lite , an arty Goth so to speak)
Meh. Silver ink on black paper FTW.
99% pencil writer. 1% fountain pen / ballpoint pen blue or black. No preference.
I didn’t know Goths could write!
In high school, I used colored pens for Top 40 music countdowns. Pink was for a song moving up the chart, light blue was for moving down the chart, green was for staying still, and purple was for new debuts.
In college, I did away with the colored pens, but vacillated between blue and black.
Working the last 25+ years in the restaurant industry as a server, I eventually switched to all black pens. I noticed that tip percentages tended to be lower with blue pens. Not sure why, but maybe blue feels more casual and informal while black feels more fancy and sophisticated. (I work at a somewhat upscale seafood restaurant). I remember in my early years experimenting with red pens for customers, and tips were absolutely awful, so I did away with them!
I only use black ink in my pens no matter what type they are, fountain, ballpoint, gel or rollerball. If I buy a pen and it only comes with blue ink, I immediately swap it for black ink and just throw the blue cartridge away unless I can give it away.
Sad to see that cursive is a fading art these days though, don't they teach that in schools now? When I was at school, cursive was called 'proper writing' and you got extra marks for using it.
One of my high school English teachers insisted that we use a fountain pen in his class. I became hooked on Blue Black ink as a result. (looking back, the teacher was probably on the autism spectrum... He had a lot of very arbitrary rules which drove me nuts.) The first ink cartridges I bought for my fountain pen were "Peacock" which was a colour of ink I'd never seen before. The English teacher responded that he would only accept Blue and Black ink. I started using Blue Black because I didn't like his limits and he had to allow for variations in blue inks.
I worked for a software company that was temporarily housed in a bank building. And the bank only had blue pens. Not because of forgery issues, but because as photocopies got better it became harder to tell the original from the photocopy. The original document has legal standing, a photocopy of it however is just a piece of paper - of no legal value at all. So it was important banks didn't mix them up. Thus blue pens as signatures and such stood out on the original, but were in black on the photocopy. Myself, I prefer a medium dark blue ink. It's a restful color. Being a lefty though some colored inks are slower drying than black ink and that can cause smudging. So I always have a couple known non-smudging black pens at the ready just in case.
I love writing with brown ink too. It feels really special and looks antique.
Blue is personally my favorite color. Funny you should bring up financial industries. I worked in the mortgage industry. At our company, loan processors used black, underwriters used red, closers used green, post-closers used blue. I worked in secondary marketing, and I used whatever color I wanted...except red.
With my military background, I usually use black ink. When I am making notes on a black-and-white map (marking errors or objects to add), I like to use a contrasting color, and blue is most available, but I have used green and red on occasion when they were available.
I worked in a microbiology lab for a while, and the way we kept track of who made the plate counts was that everyone used a different color. Blue, black, green and red, along with some more exotic colors like purple, were already taken. I found some gold metallic ink pens in a thrift store and that became "my" color.
I like writing notes in blue ink, if using a ball pint. Fountain pens always get black - it's weird that I never thought about this, it just feel correct to be that way.
I've written both creatively and scientifically for decades. In my teens and 20's, I preferred black ink because I saw it as dramatic, high contrast, and permanent. In my 30's, I switched to blue because our company wanted to show 'original signatures' even though a colour copy would negate the effect. Since then, I've taken a liking to blue for signatures and original writings but no problem flipping to whichever pen is available.
I like writing to glide smoothly, so my preference is gel ink, but also carry a ballpoint when there's no time to sit for drying.
green is for auditing ,red for correcting. blue is legal
Blue pencils used by editors.
In my early days in the military we were required to use black ink because the early models of the copy machines had trouble copying the blue ink.
My four color pen( red black blue green) got me through Boolean Algebra class back in the day. And, Nand , Or, Nor were all different colors and easy to differentiate in an equation.
The old four colour pen, I think this is the first comment about them thanks for sharing!
i write in blue pen most of the time. i use a black pen to write over important words. black on blue is distinct, blue on black isn't so much. i use red to indicate something that might be a problem, either incorrect or that i need more information on. basically something that requires further action. i go for a fairly bright blue so that it is very distinct from black. my black pen is bolder than my blue pens so it makes writer over the blue lines easier. it's also a useful technique for headings and such.
Writing in blue ink was always something I had to do for homework in school, therefore black ink is to me for something of my own, independent, more meaningful, interesting. I use blue for filling forms because I was told so - probably so that people reading forms could sea at a glance that blue (fill) is at all the right places.
The use of black or blue ink is generally acceptable for writing, I personally use both, however, when it comes to signing documents, blue ink is typically mandated. This is to ensure that the original document's signature can be differentiated from copies during photocopying processes, thus avoiding any potential confusion or misinterpretation.
I had an ex who worked at a company that dealt with medical forms, and she was told to always use blue ink and not black.
I believe the reason was that blue would be easier to discern as a fresh marking and not a photocopy.
I mostly work with digital signatures now at work, but back when all signatures were wet signatures, my signature color was green. It stood out on the document, and since it was color that others rarely used, it served as a quick-and-dirty form of authentication for me.
As someone who spent most of their career negotiating, and arranging the execution of, commercial leases and associated documents, I always insisted that they were signed in blue. This was, prior to the arrival of colour copying, a simple way to know you were looking at an original at a glance. When reviewing requested changes to a draft and making notes for amendments, always red.
being an engineer, technical drawings were only signed in black because plan copies were in blue and blue never showed. ( that was before CAD )
Always blue ink for me - always fine tip too unless there are none around. I also love gel ink, it just glides so nicely 😊
As an artist I would have to say that there is no true black ink, but very dark blues. If the ink fades it typically turns to a grayish blue.
Black is for writing.
Red is for editing.
Blue is for signing.
Have we fallen so low we have forgotten SOP for the work place in an analog world?
For journals and music, I use blue; for work I use black; for commentary/markups I use red or pink; and for art (like books, script, and illuminated manuscripts) I will get a dark brown. Sometimes I get a bit crazy and use blue/black, dark green, and silver for black-page journals.
Worked in banking, and when using a fountain pen, my ink color of choice was blue-black.
I prefer writing with black ink
but I did go through a phase in college where I switched out the ink color according to the purpose of the notes
black for major points
red for highlights
green for side interests (like ideas for papers in other courses)
etc, etc
this also worked well for highlighting philosophy books
one color for main points, another for arguments, and yet another for side arguments
made reviewing for exams easier
it especially came in handy in Calculus, when we were doing "Integrals by Substitution"
make your substitution into a different color, and it is easier to keep track of
thanks to a Math professor who used different colored chalk
What if my favorite ink is a Shading iron gall ink with a bit of shimmer and sheen? There is a wealth of ink out there beyond what you can get from a boring old ballpoint.
I've been in nursing for 20 years, and until recently, we weren't allowed to use ANYTHING but black ink for work. I don't really care about what color I have for recreational writing, so long as I have a pen, so I almost exclusively write in black. I'm more fussed with texture and smoothness, etc (especially as a left-handed person; nothing worse than a ballpoint pen that skips and globs ink, or wants to tear through the paper, or doesn't dry fast enough and smears on my hand).
My dad loved to write with green ink. I draw a lot so black is my go to color. Blue is seldom used unless requested and the green and red ink is usually used for accents in some of my drawings.
The short answer is I always use a black pen these days, and I have for a long time. But it wasn't always that way. I went thru a lot of phases with pens, particularly once I studied calligraphy, when I was about 13 or 14. Aesthetically, I've always preferred a pencil, but its impermanence is the main reason I don't use one all the time. I only use a pencil for drawing, writing music, and occasionally for specific effect with words. But pens are the mainstay, and black is my primary choice for ease of consistency and versatility. I have in the past gone thru different periods when i wrote mostly in blue or purple or green, and now if I have some particular goal or project, I might use colors besides black. My mom was a school teacher, and she used red for corrections, so I haven't used it much because of that. I find that colors besides black are evocative, even demanding, so I use black as a neutral medium for just about everything I do. Furthermore, I used to use ballpoints all the time (except for calligraphy), but once gels came along, I switched, and I hardly ever use ballpoints anymore. So now my favorite pen of all is a black Pilot G2. (This is not a paid endorsement. lol)
In more than twenty years of teaching, I never marked students' work in red ink. I just think red pen looks aggressive and is the equivalent of 'shouting' at the students.
I always used a green bic biro, a much more positive colour and I always made a positive comment alongside any corrections or guidance.
I never write in blue, I guess because most students wrote in blue. I prefer to write in black as it has a certain 'authority' to it and maybe a bit of 'stern-ness' if I am writing to Government or official organisations.
Love and peace.
@@daweshorizon for some reason my teachers back in the 80s always used red, I guess that’s why I always feel a little weird using that colour to write. I have recently enjoyed writing my UA-cam scripts in purple and underlined import areas in red. :)
Back when I worked in pharmacy, every single prescription was handwritten, black print on white paper. I always wrote my notes in blue, red, green etc so I could see what I had written vs what the doc had written.
Some legal documents MUST be signed in BLUE. If they are signed in black they will be rejected. If you are filling out a legal document, always check the instructions. If the instructions don't specify, please don't assume - ask.
My first job was in a bank branch. We were told to write everything, including getting signatures, in black ink because it couldnt be forged like blue ink. I always think of black as more legal, so I found the comments about blue ink being more legal were surprising.
When in school, blue seemed to be the preferred ink color. When I got to the point where I could write in black ink without repercussions, I switched, and it became my preferred color.
It's funny how I have the opposite perception, blue is for filling out documents, etc., because it makes it clearly contrasting what was printed and what was written by a person, makes it easier to read, and also makes it easier to see at the 1st glance that this is not a copy. When in banks or any places where you are given a pen on a coily wire to fill their forms, it's ALWAYS blue. Whereas black is a personal kinda pen that you'd use to make notes in your copy book and so on. It's for stuff for yourself.
What does it say about a creative who writes in multiple colors. I go between ideas and notes for the books with various colors. Each idea gets a different color, usually black, blue, red, green, and purple. I have an 8-color Pilot G-2 set that I use when I'm working on ideas. I'm old fashioned, I used a 5-subject notebook and tabs to go between things, then I move into Scrivener or Word to work out outlines with those ideas. I just can't do it all on computer, I find my thoughts come better when I'm actually putting pen to paper. I'm 67, so it's an old habit as well. :)
I have 6 colours available when I use white boards so I do a very similar thing
I worked for a Prosecutor in the past and blue ink was preferred in that office because it stood out, was harder fake as well as it was easier to spot that it was not a photocopy, but the original document (the main printer did not have color).
I change the colour of my pen on the first of every month. This month is a purple month. I use all colours except the kind of standard blue because it reminds me too much of school. But I always have a black pen in my bag, in case I have to sign something where I don't want to stand out. I have never used that pen...
@@peter84624 oh wow, what a cool idea 💡
Yes to the month thing, me too! 😂
Vintage Sarasa blue-grey is absolute favourite, followed closely by green-black and red-black. Haven't used black since I retired.
In any instance where I'm signing a document, I prefer a blue pen because I want my live signature to be immediately noticeable when compared to a photocopy.
I liked to write in green ink in university. I’d occasionally get a little note praising it, never got a negative reaction from a professor.
I actually like to use turquoise (light blue) and violet, because you can distinguish more colours then. Black, blueblack, violet and turquoise are easily distinguishable. Because using regular blue would clash either with violet or blue black, so with regular blue it is 3 colours instead of four.
I have been using the G2 Mini in Green ink for nearly ten years now. I use them until they run dry. Unfortunately Pilot has stopped making them and I can't find refills for them. I like them because they write really smooth for me, and the mini size is great for clipping to your pants pocket without stabbing yourself in the thigh when you sit down. I have been unable to find a replacement, either a mini pen or refill cartridges so looks like I'll be forced to switch to black ink versions of the G2 Mini. Ugh. Like Shep, I feel like I'm writing on a form with black ink, whereas the green ink just felt more creative. Oh well. First world problems I suppose.
I've always written in black. But, since I'm now drawing as a hobby, I use every color. I'm loving the different options available in colors. Also, I love gel pens. Preferred wring method is now typing since I've done it so much for work.
One of the problems with fountain pen ink is that it fades - certainly it fades in the sun, anyway. You can see this if you look at old certificates, diplomas, etc. with people's professional credentials such as you see posted up in chemist shops, for example, where the printed sections are perfectly legible after decades, but the signatures are barely discernable, if at all. Perhaps the inks are more 'sun~fast' or whatever the term is, these days? I guess I'll have to wait until 2050 or so to find out, lol!
Also, call me a traditionalist, but while I don't think I could ever be accused of writing a poison pen letter, as such, I have been known to write in green ink where I want to convey a certain tone of snottiness or passive agression, but the circumstances dictate that the actual text has to be somewhat deferential in nature... Of course these days the gesture would go entirely over the heads of most recipients, but on the other hand it has the benefit that where the inference is appreciated, a certain plausible, or at least technical deniability is still feasible; ie, "It does? _Really?!_ Why, I had no _idea!_ I'm so sorry -- I know green isn't 'super~professional', but it was all I had to hand; I certainly never meant any offence! _And if you believe that, you are an even bigger gobdaw than I was aware of!"_ 😌🧏♂️
Some fountain pen inks might fade, but not all, just like some are water resistant and others aren't.
@@bcase5328 Presumably it would say on the label? I don't know how they would know, other than by waiting, but I presume they have their methods - blasting them with high~intensity ultraviolet light, for one, I'm guessing?
Usually use black ink for work: blue for personal. However, I do try to sign documents in blue so that the original vs. the photocopy can be distinguished. As a fountain pen 🖋 lover, I use various ink colors for color-coding meetings, organizations to which I belong, etc.
My go-to ink is brown, with blue as my secondary choice. I have and occasionally use black ink, as you say, for official documents.