It seems to me that for thousands of years, across all cultures, ink was almost exclusively black.
Who decided ballpoints should use blue? And why?
I do wonder about blue pens, but it does seem like we’ve been moving back to black. Most pens I get that do not identify their color are black.
But I do believe there was a time fairly recently where pens were more often blue than black. And I do wonder why.
I’ve variously used ballpoints with black, blue, red, green, and violet. And I’m sure other colours too. They’re all on sale in the shops. People are free to buy whichever they choose. Evidently they’re choosing blue.
Those are a relatively recent development, and are very much exceptions. The default colour for disposable pens still seems to be blue.
Well, if you are filling out a form, the blue contrasts with the black print on the form making it easier to read.
In some situations, I’ve been asked to use blue ink to sign a document so that the original can be distinguished from subsequent copies.
What are you thinking of a “relatively recent”? I’ve been using disposable ballpoints in blue, black, red and green since the sixties.
I think Quartz is very likely right: the reason most pens come with blue ink is that the majority of people prefer it. Thinking back to the bottles of ink I would see on sale in the stationers as a kid, it seems to me that a preference for blue writing ink may actually predate the ubiquity of ballpoints.
In my experience, those colours were selected for specific reasons. But if I go to buy a generic ballpoint pen, the ink will be blue, and it has been that way for my whole life.
Is it anything to do with the original design for the Biro? I know they used printer’s ink but had to amend its recipe to ensure it flowed correctly… perhap whatever they added turned it blue?
There as a time when copiers did a poor job of reproducing anything in blue. A blue signature would be clear in an original but obviously fake in a copy. It seems like blue came into favor around the time this became generally true and stopped when copying blue ink was no longer a factor.
This can’t be a full explanation, but it may have some bearing.
We’ve had discussions on this in the past…
When I was in the Navy, we exclusively used black ballpoints. Blue pens were actually prohibited for signing anything officially. (I remember in NROTC a platoon commander being given a blue ballpoint by a new student, and the commander actually throwing the pen in the trash in disgust.)
Anyway, when I got out of the service, I continued this practice until I had an important application rejected by a state agency because I supposedly had not given them enough original signed copies of the application. In fact, I had, but because they were all signed in black ink, it was not readily apparent that they were all originals. At that point, I threw away all of my black ballpoints and switched to blue. It is now much more apparent what is an original and what is a copy.
Miss Manners has maintained that handwritten formal correspondence (including, in particular, letters to Miss Manners), should be in black or blue-black ink.
Why?
Because only black pens were acceptable to use. This is the military we’re talking about–does there need to be any more explanation than that?
Interesting. Your experience does not match with mine.
In my industry, it’s very common for suppliers to give away free promotional pens with their names on them. I just checked out 5 different free ballpoint pens that I have been given, and all of them are black ink. The only blue pen I have is an ultra cheap one that I got from a hotel chain.
Perhaps the OP should be changed to “Why was ink primarily blue”, as I too remember most ballpoint pens by default seem to have had blue ink during the 1970s/1980s, although of course other colors were available (red/green/black/blue all in one pen with 4 clickers - remember those?), but most promotional (from banks, insurance agencies, etc) or cheap pens tended to be blue. This seems to have changed in the 1990s, as most pens I used to get at, say, PC Expo (remember that - hey wait, apparently it still exists?) were black (when they weren’t some sort of funky kind of color)
When I was first allowed to write in pen (in about the third or fourth grade, so that would have been about 1966 or 67), blue was the most common pen color, followed by black, and then blue-black. Blue ink was regarded as the best because it flowed somewhat more easily than other colors did. The four color clickers were VERY highly regarded among my age mates, and I loved them too. When I was a couple of years older, I started using the cheap Sheaffer fountain cartridge pens. I found that blue-black ink flowed the most easily, followed by blue, then black. I’m not sure if other colors were available in Sheaffer cartridges at that time. Possibly red was. For schoolwork, we were only allowed to use blue, black, or blue-black ink, which meant that we would use just about any color other than those three in our personal writings. When I got older, the default ink color moved to black. I’m pretty sure that this came about because of improved ink technology, that is, because the black ink formulas changed enough that the black ink would flow more easily, more consistently, and the black ink was less likely to clog than previously.
Mostly, it seems that blue ink will flow more easily than other colors will, and this has pretty much always been the case. However, these days the difference is less noticeable. We even have metallic inks that will flow easily and consistently. Helpful hint: don’t sign or endorse a check or other legal document in silver ink, it might be rejected because it’s mistaken for pencil lead.
Currently, I use purple ink if I possibly can, for everything, though I’ll occasionally use teal or turquoise ink if I am feeling blue. When I sign legal documents, I usually use the blue pen that’s provided.
I just remembered the old Bic ballpoint pens, the “accountant fine” ones that had a yellow plastic barrel. I used to love those pens, and I’d use them when my fountain pen was not up to the job…the fountain pen didn’t really work well on anything that had a carbon copy.
This is a fair point. I must admit I haven’t bought a pen in a long time, so perhaps it really has shifted.
But all the generic disposable pens I remember using in the last ten years have been blue. Black has still needed to be specifically selected. (This is in Australia, btw. America does tend to be contrary)
I think it’s the opposite phenomenon. Black is more popular than blue, which is why you only see blue on sale at stores. Black is sold out. I always see too much fat people clothes on sale when I go shopping. Obviously, the thin people are buying all the normal clothes leaving the tent clothes on the rack. That doesn’t mean everybody who shops there is fat.