Fountain Ink

Ink lightfastness test

I have made my own lightfastness test for almost all the ink and pens that I currently own. This means that it is very random which inks and pens you will find here, I have never bought a full set of any ink or pens, but I thought that maybe someone else but me have use for this so I decided to publish the result anyway.

Method and theory
I made swatches of all ink and pens and put them in a window facing south for three summer months. Since I am an amateur, I always consider my own testing like this: even if the product (pen, pencil, ink or paint) doesn't show any proof of fading this doesn't prove anything for sure. It is only to consider as a chance of being lightfast. If the samples however show fading of the color, it is safe to say that it is not lightfast.

Fountain ink

I will categories my ink and pens in different groups. I will start with all my fountain inks. Almost all had faded quite bad, as expected.  No fountain pens ink claim to be lightfast, but I still wanted to see for my self.

The brands that I tested and the colors:

Caran d´Ache (Chromatics)                    Hypnotic Turquoise 

Caran d´Ache (Chromatics)                    Infra Red

Caran d´Ache (Chromatics)                    Cosmic Black

Parker (Quink)                                         Blue

Pilot Iroshizuku                                       Ina-ho

Pilot Iroshizuku                                       Take-sumi

Diamine                                                   Terracotta

Diamine                                                   Monaco Red

Pelikan (fount India)                                Black

Sailor (Jentle ink)                                    Black

Caran d´Ache

Ironshizuku

Parkert

The colors that faded worst where the Hypnotic Turquoise, the blue Parker and Ina-ho (Ironshizuku). 

The both blacks that I have from Caran d´Ache and Pilot Iroshizuku and the red browns (Terracotta and Monaco red) from Diamine did better but had all four still lost a lot. 

Diamine

Caran d´Ache ink

Sailor Jentle Ink

The black ink from Sailor had almost no visible changes in the colors. I can barely see it, but in certain light and when I hold the sample in an angle to the light I can spot a slight change.

Pelikan

The only ink that hadn’t faded at all was the ink from Pelikan. But then again it is called Fount India, and is drawing (not writing) ink for fountain inks. Also, India usually indicate that it is pigment-based and lightfast. On the bottle it is also stated that it is lightfast ink. Also it is different in another way. All the other fountain inks are matt but the ink from Pelikan is shiny, just as most of my Indian inks are.