Author Topic: Ink Swatches  (Read 6761 times)

Offline jilliandanica

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Ink Swatches
« on: January 13, 2015, 06:28:40 PM »
I do a lot of my supply shopping online and some vendors do not always have swatches of their products. I think it would be great if there was a section of the forum that had ink, paint, pigment, etc. swatches categorized by brand. It would be so helpful and would save some $ too since we'd have a better idea of what we're buying!

If something like this already exists, please direct me because I tried searching for swatches and nothing come up.




Offline ericp

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2015, 05:20:35 PM »
I like the idea, since I have spent (like others) a lot of time trying out many products.

Actually it would make sense to gather all ink related discussions in one place, including swatches and calligraphy samples.  Right now I believe some of that is done in the Supplies section of the forum.  I am not sure whether we should have a spinoff or not.

The idea would be to break it down into ink type (acrylic, watercolor, calligraphy ink, pigmented, etc) and then in brands, so that it would accelerate the process of finding the information.

Offline ivymai

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2015, 10:07:17 PM »
Yeah I think it'd be great to see how colours turn out, what nibs work with the ink and if they've had to alter the ink at all for use i.e. had water or gum arabic or whatever.
So many times I'm on instagram and wondering what ink I'm looking at!  ;)

Offline tintenfuchs

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2015, 05:02:58 AM »
Well then, feel free to start! ;D
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Offline AndyT

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2015, 05:53:09 AM »
Swatches would be useful, but producing them is not a straightforward business.

Most of the companies which sell a wide range of fountain pen ink have made an attempt, some more successfully than others: Goulet Pens in particular have put a lot of effort into it.  The comparison tool is a real boon to customers, because every single swatch is on the same paper and photographed with the same lighting and white balance - so if the colours are a bit off, at least they're all off in the same way.  If anyone wants swatches of fountain pen ink, that's as good a place to go as any.

It would be a different proposition for a disparate group of calligraphers to attempt the same.  For colour comparisons to be meaningful a standard light source would have to be agreed, and although daylight sounds great it does vary a good deal.  White balance would have to be set manually, which is more of an art than a science, and a standard, widely available paper would be essential.  I don't want to put people off, but these are significant problems.

On the other hand, notes on flow, line quality and so forth would be well worth having.

Offline elsa.d

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #5 on: April 24, 2015, 12:32:04 PM »
I would love to have a place where I could find more information about certain inks, but Andy is right about the issues with swatches. Not that I would discourage anyone from posting, but it's very tricky to get an accurate representation of color with a photograph, especially if, like me, you are unskilled with a camera. Another point is that ink performance, like nib performance is rather unique to the user. For instance I hated thin inks as a beginner and preferred more viscosity, but as I've gained more experience my ink preferences have changed quite a lot. Still it would be very useful to share insight about supplies.

Offline schin

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2015, 02:12:00 PM »
This reminds me a lot of makeup swatches!  ;D Lots of people swatch eyeshadow or lipstick colors against their skin and note which color is what, and of course everyone has different colored skin.. but by looking and comparing the makeup against different skin colors and lighting, one gets an idea of what it is in 'real life'. So there is no 'master list', instead a whole bunch of different examples.

Theres lots of swatching on the Fountain pen network too, someone posts an ink written with a thin nib and someone else posts the same ink written with a broad nib, it's fun to see how the ink behaves with different nibs/paper etc.
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Offline ericp

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2015, 04:48:30 PM »
Theres lots of swatching on the Fountain pen network too, someone posts an ink written with a thin nib and someone else posts the same ink written with a broad nib, it's fun to see how the ink behaves with different nibs/paper etc.
I am not that familiar with the Fountain pen network.  I suspect that these folks don't fill their pens with watercolor or acrylic  paint :P

I agree that just seeing examples (if not scientifically white-balanced/calibrated swatches) of various combinations would be fun.  I love ink on paper, I could stare at it for hours  8)   (just like my day job)

Offline schin

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2015, 05:55:05 PM »
You might like them, they can be pretty intense about fountain pen ink!
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Offline AndyT

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2015, 06:24:16 PM »
You might like them, they can be pretty intense about fountain pen ink!

That's true.  It's my practice to avoid FPN as much as possible because they're pretty intense about forum politics there too from what I'm told, but I do make a point of reading ink reviews by the wonderfully witty Sandy1.  Here's a random sample: how's that for thorough?  :)

Offline JohnNealBooks

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2015, 08:05:02 PM »
I like this thread.  I have been making color charts (someone else is actually making them) for use when I have conference stores.  So far I have charts for Ziller, Spectralite, dr martins iridescent, Finetec watercolors along with markers (wink of Stella, pentel colorbrush, zig Cocoiro and a few others).  I would be pleased to send them to someone to create images for the forum.  If you have the photography skills and are interested, please let me know. 

Next week: pop up store in Portland, OR then a store at Letters of Joy in Seattle!  Check out our IG for photos of the shops.

Cheers, Michael

Offline Inked botanicals

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2015, 03:01:42 AM »
The problem of the different photos is also the different computer monitor we all use. Almost nobody have their monitor correctly calibrated (at least people a round me, myself included). So, even if the photos were perfect, we all could see different colors.
Although, I like the idea very much and maybe we could define some important info and have some guidelines to follow so everyone could do a review of whatever material they use and all the reviews would have the same info and we all could compare with each other. I would love to participate!
Alba.

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Offline chiarag

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2015, 03:07:13 AM »
I like ghisa topic! Thanks

Offline JanisTX

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2015, 07:48:32 AM »
You might like them, they can be pretty intense about fountain pen ink!

That's true.  It's my practice to avoid FPN as much as possible because they're pretty intense about forum politics there too from what I'm told, but I do make a point of reading ink reviews by the wonderfully witty Sandy1.  Here's a random sample: how's that for thorough?  :)

Andy, reading that review JUST WORE ME OUT!  Boy, those people take ink WAY TOO SERIOUSLY!  I like ink, but I don't love ink to the point that I'm going to tediously write and experiment with it for hours at a time!  I've got WAY too much to do for that!

Janis

Offline AndyT

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Re: Ink Swatches
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2015, 08:26:27 AM »
Boy, those people take ink WAY TOO SERIOUSLY!

That's the truth!  To be fair, Sandy's reviews are leavened with plenty of in jokes, and I'm sure she's well aware that her quest for the perfect blue-black ink got a little out of hand a long time ago.  mhphoto's reviews are more succinct: Noodler's Apache Sunset for instance.