Ink Database - A New Way To Find Your Goto Inks - Feedback/help Wanted

[bardiir]

I've started a new side project a few weeks ago. Some people might have already seen this: http://www.fp-ink.info/en/

 

My goal is to compile a database of all the inks available (and not available) complete with data about them. Currently I collect color samples and review data about the following: sheen, saturation, shading, flow, feathering, bleed through, ghosting, drytime, lubrication, nibcreep, lightfastness, water/soap/alcohol/bleach-resistance.

 

The main goal is to provide a help to find inks with given properties that you search for in an ink.

 

As well as providing a possibility to reference inks with their properties like this during discussions:

http://fp-ink.info/colorcard/1.png

 

Currently this is under heavy development so any feedback/comment/opinion is welcome. As well as any wishes for features or comments. I'm even taking translation/text corrections and you can submit ink reviews there.

 

If you're doing a lot of ink reviews but don't want to index them yourself I'm also thankful for permission to use data from anyone here too. Already got the permission from some people so I've got some work at hand currently but there is never too much data.

 

Everything is built on top of averages, so all collected data will be calculated in an average, thus the database gets more reliable with every ink review indexed.

 

I'd also take feedback on the webpage layout if there is a more capable designer amongst us compared to my humble steps on "design"

I'd like to keep the grey/grey color scheme however as it's least likely to affect color perception this way.

 

I've also compiled a ink review form with front/backside where most of the collected data is on the same sheet: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41028515/FPN/inkreview_form.pdf

Just the light fade test part needs to be cut out and replaced after lighting it.

Edited August 7, 2014 by bardiir

[Kosmic-kowgirl]

too bad the Forum doesnt have a "like" button cuz this is awesome!! kudos to you for creating it!

[sd10521]

Thank you for your efforts, this will be something I will look at often.

[Lyander0012]

I agree wholeheartedly about the "like" button idea. That's something I feel FPN would benefit quite a bit from if implemented. Haha, this is an amazing resource! Thanks for taking the time to make this, bardiir! It'll make ink selection that much easier


Kevin

[bardiir]

You're welcome

 

Spread the word, this project will basically depend on people using it and over the long run contributing by themselves, collecting all the data by myself will probably never fill the data for all the inks in a way that is nicely usable.

 

Aside from looking for feedback on the page, if a shop owner or basically anyone has an urge to sponsor ink samples or other useful stuff to improve the database - I'd probably not put up much of a fight currently

I'd currently not accept/consider money for sponsoring however, I don't feel that is what would get me further in terms of project improvement.

[Lyander0012]

Haha, how might one contribute information to the page? I've a Sailor ink or two not listed. About the only problem I can see with this becoming open-source, so to speak, would be that impressions of flow, lubrication, and even saturation tend to be fairly subjective experiences. Haha, not much you can argue with discretely measurable things such as dry time and water/light-fastness, though

 

 

Cheers!

Kevin

[Vlad72]

Great idea so far.

Lubrication etc. data could be accompanied by a text field explaining things like the paper used for the tests etc., I guess.

Sticking to the site itself, intermediate page buttons would be a great help.

[bardiir]

Haha, how might one contribute information to the page? I've a Sailor ink or two not listed. About the only problem I can see with this becoming open-source, so to speak, would be that impressions of flow, lubrication, and even saturation tend to be fairly subjective experiences. Haha, not much you can argue with discretely measurable things such as dry time and water/light-fastness, though

 

 

Cheers!

 

Kevin

There's a Contribute Link in the Navigation: http://fp-ink.info/en/help?

Edited August 7, 2014 by bardiir

[bardiir]

Great idea so far.

Lubrication etc. data could be accompanied by a text field explaining things like the paper used for the tests etc., I guess.

Sticking to the site itself, intermediate page buttons would be a great help.

 

I'm currently considering to add a paper quality datafield to weight informations a bit based on that. I'm not quite sure how free-text comments could be handled as this should remain searchable/sortable and paper quality as a written note is basically nothing that can be weighted. There is a note field already in the contribute form.

[Lyander0012]

 

There's a Contribute Link in the Navigation: http://fp-ink.info/en/help?

 

 

Whoops, missed that. Thanks, bardiir! I'll work on that as soon as I can, haha.

 

Anyway, it might be good to specify a standard paper for comparison purposes. Rhodia comes to mind fairly quickly, but it's still a premium brand, and as such would be inaccessible to a lot of people. Hmm, this really reminds me how personal an experience writing with a fountain pen is; each pen is eventually made to adapt to the hand of its owner, and people all have different preferences in wetness, smoothness, etc. Well, I'll contribute what I can, since this seems like a fun project. Best of luck!

 

Kevin

[bardiir]

Well since the idea is basically to provide an average of ink behavior (I'll probably show a graph of the vote distribution later on like amazon does on the star reviews) it's pretty good to have samples from different papers because only this will show the good/bad sides of the ink. And on average a well behaved ink will be better than a badly behaved ink that is unusable on cheap paper but great on good paper which is basically correct information in my opinion. If you're only using high-grade paper you can still ignore the behavior category on the ink and just look for resistance or color and such

[bardiir]

I'd also accept ink reviews sent to my by snail mail for contributions to the database if you haven't got a scanner

[Davros]

This is awesome.

 

How are you measuring "lite" and "vibrancy"? Are those the equivalent of value and saturation?

 

Can I suggest a numeric hue, based on a computer read from each scan, or pulled off your sample light or dark color? It would be straightforward enough to do with free tools. It's nice to have hue be a family in a way, but an actual "here's where it is coming in on the color wheel" might also be helpful. It would also allow sorting by hue, which would be awesome when someone is looking for an ink "like X, but warmer/darker/brighter/etc."

[bardiir]

This is awesome.

 

How are you measuring "lite" and "vibrancy"? Are those the equivalent of value and saturation?

 

Can I suggest a numeric hue, based on a computer read from each scan, or pulled off your sample light or dark color? It would be straightforward enough to do with free tools. It's nice to have hue be a family in a way, but an actual "here's where it is coming in on the color wheel" might also be helpful. It would also allow sorting by hue, which would be awesome when someone is looking for an ink "like X, but warmer/darker/brighter/etc."

 

Thanks

 

Colors are converted to hsl color system and so you can sort by hue, saturation(vibrancy) and lightness. There is a numeric hue value behind the colors on the page but I don't think the real numeric value is of much use as I rotate the spectrum dynamically to allow for selections based on the current base ink. So if the current base ink (ink detail page or the first on a page is hue value 140 for example the whole spectrum gets shifted up by 40 so the base color is in the middle of the spectrum to allow for a wider range of selection without hitting the spectrum borders. I might consider this in the future however as an additional information on display

 

Btw, you apparently submitted an ink review with some values but you didn't select the appropriate ink for it nor did you specify it in the notes

Edited August 7, 2014 by bardiir

[Davros]

Yep, forgot and couldn't get it back, sorry. It is for Akkerman #29.

[bardiir]

Well actually that is valuable feedback too. I think I need to prevent submitting the form is notes is empty and you got ink set to other or no ink.

[Newjelan]

Fantastic! thanks

[mhguda]

There are inks from Camlin, Chelpark and Bril in India, Hero in China, that are not on your list of available inks. These are inks that I know and use. I'm sure there are others but these are the ones I missed.

But this is a wonderful project. I've bookmarked your page, and plan to visit often. I saw you even put on Susemai!

[bardiir]

There are inks from Camlin, Chelpark and Bril in India, Hero in China, that are not on your list of available inks. These are inks that I know and use. I'm sure there are others but these are the ones I missed.

But this is a wonderful project. I've bookmarked your page, and plan to visit often. I saw you even put on Susemai!

 

If you can send/link me a list of those inks that would be great, then I can add these to the contribute form and people can submit ink reviews for them.

[Diderot]

This is really useful.

Thank you for what must have been a huge amount of work.