Ink Etiquette (International)

[Olya]

Having read several currently discussed topics on appropriate ink colour, I was inspired to finally start my own thread on the topic, as I have had some questions for the longest time about ink etiquette around the world.

 

Two of the threads are these

 

What ink to use at the office?

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319641-what-ink-are-you-using-at-the-office/

 

Can a Colour be too Feminine or too Wild? Which also prompted stories about ink colours used in office and official settings

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/316819-can-a-color-be-too-feminine-or-too-wild/

 

There are also already several threads on ink etiquette (just google ink etiquette), but few touch on colours accepted (or not) in various countries, the meaning of various ink colours in other places and (imo) the discrepancies when a particular colour is viewed as good and bad at the same time (eg see red (ink) in China).

 

Examples:

 

Brown ink

Generally seen as an ink colour appropriate to use for correspondence amongst good aquaintances,

But! in Germany a bit shunned due to association with the Nazi regime.

 

Green ink

Used in accounting (the one we like to see! +!) and generally a colour that is welcome,

often associated with bosses, eg the head of a school (principal) in Germany uses green ink as does the MI6 head (association with bosses, authority)

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/105708-mi6-heads-ink/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5918467/MI6-boss-Sir-John-Scarlett-still-signs-letters-in-green-ink.html

 

But! there is also the green-ink letter, a thing in Great Britain, which means the following

green-ink letter (plural green-ink letters)

 

A letter (to a politician, the editor of a newspaper, etc.) expressing eccentric views, often characterized by prolixity and written in long hand, but not necessarily in green ink.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/green-ink_letter

There are more sites and articles referring to green-ink letters and the meaining in GB.

 

Red ink

Used in accounting (the one we don't like to see! -!), used for correcting and drawing some negative association in that regard.

But! seen also as the colour of love and used in letters (see Dita von Teese here

She likes stationery and her trademark is red ink).

 

But! What baffles me the most is the use and meaning of red ink in China. Red is seen as a happy and lucky colour. The Emperor had the sole privilege of using red ink and generally ordinary people where not allowed to use the same ink colour as the emperor,

 

However, red ink is also associated with very bad things in China, names are written of the deceased only in red ink. Hailing from past times when someone was to be beheaded or otherwise to be punished, an announcement was written and the person's name was written in red (an exception to the emperor rule). These days red ink letters in China usually mean that someone is breaking up with someone else, disowning someone, saying "that person is dead to me", threats and the like.

 

So how come red ink has prevailed to be seen as something so very very bad in China even today (stories of people freaking out seeing red writing, esp when cultures clash without intent, eg at the office, school etc -someone uses red ink just so and someone else freaks out- read a story like that recently), instead of going the way of red ink being sth positive and upper class?

 

Royal Blue -- Blurple

We generally like to use blurples, with blurple ink still being named "royal blue", "couleur royale" etc.

The opposite of the use of upper class red in China (meaning: no discrepancies; though "royal blue" hails from China, and purple being the colour of royalty as purple dye was hard to get and incredibly expensive -- see: Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng https://www.gouletpens.com/noodlers-kung-te-cheng-4.5oz-bottled-fountain-pen-ink/p/N19899 "This ink is Noodler's attempt to replicate the color, depth, behavior, properties, and general characteristics of the first royal ink of ancient China. This is the STRONGEST of all vintage emperor/royal inks.

How does one find the color of the Emperor's ink - a color know to be the original royal color, a tinge of purple with deep blue hues, the color that later was also called "royal" in France (as well as Rome)? Though clothing for the Emperor stressed royal Mandarin Yellow and the French court stressed blue/white and purple, the original royal ink was indeed this ink color. The precious remnants of the original ink stones were just enough physical and documented information for the color and the characteristics of the inks, so that Noodler's Ink could offer a sample of the Emperor's Ink - as close a replica to that royal ink as ever offered.")

 

Purple

Used in official capacity in Russia (still today?), like green in GB by MI6 head or principals (and at times bosses) in Germany

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319559-an-old-soviet-passport/

 

But! used as school colour in France as implemented by Napoleon until the 1960s. Nowadays French school kids use washable blue (royal blue).

 

Also! used by Enzo Ferrari as his signature ink colour all his life, in spite of what Debrett's claims (see below). https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/247633-the-purple-ink-of-enzo-ferrari/

 

Blue Black

According to Debrett's it's for schoolboys. Don't know why.

 

Blue

Social correspondence and more feminine (acc to Debrett's once again, clearly a very modern and forward thinking guide).

 

At times a requirement for signing official work, to differentiate originals from copies (which is silly because even cheap printers can reproduce such good copies, the signature looks like the original).

 

At times required to not! be used for signing official work, because it won't copy or last as well as black (had to make a scan recently in black&white and whilst the blue scanned well, the black was stronger, even in my modern scanner).

 

Black

Deemed to be masculine and most appropriate for business (looking at you again Debrett's!).

At times seen as essential in business, at times as odd. Like in one of the threads above where one member wrote that black was frowned upon at the office, again because copies are black and staff is discuoraged from using it, whilst another member wrote in another similar thread a while ago that they were the only one to use bog standard blue ink at meetings (not even some eye-catching blue, but "boring normal" blue) and being eyed by others, who all used black and they then switched as well as not to be looked at like some idiot upstart who has no clue - these are my words, hope people don't mind me paraphrasing them, can't find all the threads and link to all that and I suppose this is long enough as is, I don't want to clutter a whole novel in this post!).

 

Japan

Obviously not a colour But I'm singling out Japan because I googled a lot over time what is acceptable, best selling, odd in terms of ink colour around the world, but never came across any satisfactory article or post, just info clustered all over the place, and during one of my searches I came across a comment or blog (don't remember) where someone wrote that they had real trouble finding a blue pen in Japan, all pens in shops were basically black and all people they saw writing only ever used black for their writing (talking disposables here). Can anyone tell more on ink etiquette in Japan?

 

 

Soooo...

 

Anyone any ideas how this comes? Any stories to share? Any further knowledge, like what use CEOs or officals these days in Russia, France, Germany, Japan, wherever else; what is general ink etiquette in your country or office, and is there any ink colour etiquette left at all? etc etc..

 

PS And before anyone writes: "The one sure ink etiquette is that condolence cards be written in black", I have to say that I received one recently written in blue. The ink colour did not upset me, by the way. Someone else might be offended however, so I'd stick to black ink in such a situation, but maybe that's just the stationery nerd in me who thinks too much about it and the general population just grabs any ol' black or blue pen, whatever is grabbed quickest from the latest promotional pen pack that's available at every corner..

Edited March 2, 2017 by Olya

[Arcadian]

In Denmark one seldom sees anything besides black and blue in the office. Everybody uses promotional pens or the same standard office supply stuff. Mostly blue, though, because it is a requirement for signing documents.

 

The rule, or at least tradition, of signing documents in blue, apparently started with Parker's Quink. I read somewhere on this forum that when that ink was launched, it became so popular that it soon became the standard for all office correspondence and signatures, which, combined with the advent of the black/white copy machine, codified into an actual rule, even if only an unwritten one.

 

The extent to which the rule that signatures must be in blue ink apparently varies from country to country. In Denmark it is very firm, though. So much so that I recently learned that a valid signature in any ink other than blue has to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Justice!

 

I know that in modern day China, signatures mostly have to be in black ink (AND made with a ball point!) in order for Chinese notary publics to authenticate them. Some Chinese notary publics are less harsh on this point now, but I have experienced having documents rejected because they were signed in blue. The ball point requirement is because they like to rub the signature and see if they can feel the indentation in the paper made by the ball point, which of course is nearly undetectable if made with a fountain pen. I don't know where the preference for black came from, though. Maybe it has to do with their tradition for black ink calligraphy?

[chromantic]

Hmm, the only personal experience I've had of this is: I handed a rollerball inked with Yama-budo to an Asian lady (Vietnamese, I think) who was a contestant in a beauty pageant, for her to sign and initial her registration card. After the first initialing, she dropped the pen, saying "oh, that's red! give me a different pen!"

[Gudi]

I don't think it's actually ink etiquette, but I had to send some documents to Portugal and I was required to fill in the form and sign with a blue rollerball and it had to be the same pen for both form and signature. I couldn't use a black rollerball nor Montblanc permanent blue.

[ac12]

US accountants in the past (at least as told to me by my supervisor) used BLACK and RED ink.

BLACK ink for debit journal entries, and RED ink for credit journal entries.

This is the reason for the 2 pen desk holder with one being a red taper or red pen, for the pen with red ink.

 

This ended when the photo copier came into the offices.

When photo copied, the red entries looked the same as the black, and the auditors could not tell the difference.

So the current use of brackets around the number to indicate a credit entry was used <123.45>, and the red pen became a thing of the past. Though some still used red ink as <123.45>

 

I never heard of green ink used in accounting. But I did not have knowledge of the accounting practice of the entire country, only one state.

[Olya]

In Denmark one seldom sees anything besides black and blue in the office. Everybody uses promotional pens or the same standard office supply stuff. Mostly blue, though, because it is a requirement for signing documents.

 

The rule, or at least tradition, of signing documents in blue, apparently started with Parker's Quink. I read somewhere on this forum that when that ink was launched, it became so popular that it soon became the standard for all office correspondence and signatures, which, combined with the advent of the black/white copy machine, codified into an actual rule, even if only an unwritten one.

 

The extent to which the rule that signatures must be in blue ink apparently varies from country to country. In Denmark it is very firm, though. So much so that I recently learned that a valid signature in any ink other than blue has to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Justice!

 

I know that in modern day China, signatures mostly have to be in black ink (AND made with a ball point!) in order for Chinese notary publics to authenticate them. Some Chinese notary publics are less harsh on this point now, but I have experienced having documents rejected because they were signed in blue. The ball point requirement is because they like to rub the signature and see if they can feel the indentation in the paper made by the ball point, which of course is nearly undetectable if made with a fountain pen. I don't know where the preference for black came from, though. Maybe it has to do with their tradition for black ink calligraphy?

Quite informative! Didn't know that Quink Blue was directly responsible for that craziness!

One thing I remembered but didn't want to fuddle with my original post anymore was this:

Blue ink

Letters signed in blue will receive a quicker response than letters signed in black, regardless of content. It looks more personal and the receiver assumes that the writer actually took time to sign the letter and did it themselves, it is the "personal touch" in our very digitalized world. I have noticed a trend wherein I find I receive more and more promotional stuff "signed" in blue (it was actually a copy of the editor's signature in a magazine, impossible to be signed personally and upon closer look definitely wasn't, but it sure was an eye-catcher and did make it seem more personal, but many other brochures and whatnot have a signature printed in blue).

 

I find it interesting that the Chinese want to feel the indentation, but I have to say in the way copiers today make such good copies it seems to be the best way to be sure that someone actually signed it.. They are too rigid about blue ink though! As are the Danish, only in the opposite manner!

 

I actually remember reading the blue signing colour peculiarity in Denmark & China before on this forum! Thank you for the reminder and addition!

 

 

Hmm, the only personal experience I've had of this is: I handed a rollerball inked with Yama-budo to an Asian lady (Vietnamese, I think) who was a contestant in a beauty pageant, for her to sign and initial her registration card. After the first initialing, she dropped the pen, saying "oh, that's red! give me a different pen!"

I can well imagine that the "red ink/ name in red ink = bad omen" notion spread across China's borders and Yama Budo though pink is in the family of red, so maybe that's why? But goodness, some people really freak out over red ink, have read about some reactions and they are sure strong!

 

 

US accountants in the past (at least as told to me by my supervisor) used BLACK and RED ink.

BLACK ink for debit journal entries, and RED ink for credit journal entries.

This is the reason for the 2 pen desk holder with one being a red taper or red pen, for the pen with red ink.

 

This ended when the photo copier came into the offices.

When photo copied, the red entries looked the same as the black, and the auditors could not tell the difference.

So the current use of brackets around the number to indicate a credit entry was used <123.45>, and the red pen became a thing of the past. Though some still used red ink as <123.45>

 

I never heard of green ink used in accounting. But I did not have knowledge of the accounting practice of the entire country, only one state.

I suppose the green in accounting might once again be one of those regional things, where it's the done thing in some places and uncommon in others.. I did a quick search and found this "In some accounting offices, many new professionals are required to write in green pen. This denotes that they are new to the company and makes their position evident during group projects where several accountants have to write their edits on a financial document." http://smallbusiness.chron.com/color-meanings-accounting-60662.html I do remember reading people using green in accounting, but it's not my field so can't say anything more on it! Commonly I only know of being "in the black" as its said in some languages, when the bank account has money on it.

 

Also this as an addendum for green ink and it being for "loons" only in GB http://blog.tigerpens.co.uk/green-ink-the-colour-of-eccentrics-and-spooks/

 

And on signing with ball pens vs fountain pens.. I think many suffer from delusions that oil based ink is somehow more durable than water based ink and think it's safer re spills, fading etc etc not knowing that even a uni rollerball can easily outperform some ball pens, esp promo pens don't always have the best ink in them.. Many want to stick to the ISO certified writing instruments, even though ISO isn't perfect, I think some fountain pen inks would stand a better chance against fudging than some ISO ball pens..

Edited March 3, 2017 by Olya

[praxim]

I thought green was more on the auditing side than the bookkeeping side?

 

Official forms here in Oz often have a demand to sign in black ink, not blue, although some allow either (this is just recollection, not a survey of forms). I think it is that they are afraid of washed out blues and skippy ballpoints. It seems blue black, royal blue or any sober dark shade is not a problem

[Runnin_Ute]

Spent many years in accounting but never used green. However, I was never an auditor. But think of this, in the days before pc's were widespread 4 column and more columnar pads were used and can still be purchased. Color? Mostly green but I have seen a tan color as well. Why this color? Easy on the eyes.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Runnin_Ute

[ac12]

I don't know where this person got her information, but the general statements fail when looking at the specifics. The one reference "CPA Site Solutions website" is a site that builds web sites for accountants. Hardly a reliable reference point for color usage in the business. I take odds with the black and red color statements, again referring to a web site, not the actual color of ink used in bookkeeping.

 

My audit days are a LONG time ago. But, as I recall, we did NOT write in ink.

We used primarily black pencil. I do remember using colored pencils, for a rather funny reason. The soft core of a colored pencil would easily break in an electric pencil sharpener, and one could easily start with a new pencil, and end up with a half length pencil. But I do not remember why we used the colored pencil. It may have been the entry number of the adjusting and reclassification journal entries. But it has been too many years ago.

 

For reviews, the in-charge auditor would use one color pencil, the supervisor/manger another and the partner a 3rd. Again, pencil, not ink.

[Randal6393]

I'll throw my 2 cents in here, for what it is worth. Navy useage, from mid-1970's to mid-1990's (and probably still used today) was:

 

Black ink for enlisted personnel, pencil if a first draft of a message (on every other line to leave room for edits),

Blue ink for officers, especially department heads,

Green ink for the executive officer,

and Red ink for the commanding officer.

 

Enjoy,

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

I am rendered breathless. (which is not so unusual.)

 

Bye,

S1

[ink-syringe]

When I was young I was told to sign all original documents in blue or blue black so that one would quickly be able to distinuish an original from a copy.

 

Here, in Korea, I have been asked on several occasions to redo documents I had originally signed in in Blue in Black ink. I finally took the hint and kept a desk pen in black ink on my seminar table.

 

Also here in Korea: You never put anyone's name in red for all the same reasons outlined above in the OP under China. Red is only used for death notices. If I am in class and have a red marker in my hand I will not use that marker to write anyone's name but switch to blue or black. It is a shame as I love red but it leads me to using a lot less of it. I recently loaded up a bit of my last sample of the beloved and adored Sailor Red Brown and wondered if that was un-red enough to use for names with out offense.

[Satchmo]

This is fascinating stuff. Prior to discovering this forum, I had no idea there even was an etiquette for inks, other than that conservative, darker colours tend to be recommended for "official" use. Although I'll admit I tend to shy away from red ink* due to its negative connotation from my schooldays. Funny how that baggage sticks with us.

 

* Although I'm a big fan of dark reds, red-blacks and the like. I use those a lot.

[amberleadavis]

This is a wonderful discussion, thank you!!!

[Cincinnatus]

Having just come back from the Post Office renewing my Son's passport today they have only one color. I had used the fillable PDF on line and printed it out to take with me. Once in front of the clerk she had my son sign and then me. She handed my son a ball point and I started to reach for my fountain pen she said "It must be in black" - they got Noodler's Black and Blue but she did not complain. So apparently the U.S. State Department only recognizes black ink.

[Astronymus]

Brown ink

Generally seen as an ink colour appropriate to use for correspondence amongst good aquaintances,

But! in Germany a bit shunned due to association with the Nazi regime.

That's nonsense. There is no problem in using brown ink in Germany.

[ca49reber]

I am glad I live where I can use any color that I wish to use for any reason that I wish.

[Notgatherox]

IMHO, green isn't the most popular ink locally (especially the lighter shades) as it brings up a connotation of corrections. (Kids here write with blue or black, do corrections with green, teacher marks with red)

 

Shades that don't look the typical ballpoint green like 4001 Dark Green, Chiku-Rin and Alt-Goldgrun do just fine.

 

Green ballpoint ink: https://daviswebtech.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/cimg4726.jpg

 

 

~Epic

[visvamitra]

Great post. Personally I don't care about etiquette and use whatever I like wherever I like. On the other hand I find this thread very interesting, the way cultures approach colors is quite fascinating.

[Chrissy]

One time when I was on a plane to Miami I completed my US temporary immigration form with my Montblanc rollerball that contained a Barbados Blue refill. The guy at the desk in Miami rejected it and told me I needed to complete it in either blue or black. Obviously Barbados Blue isn't blue.