Colored Inks

Part of Pigments and Paint

Making colored inks from mineral, plant, and animal sources for writing, illustration, cartography, and decoration.

Why This Matters

Black ink handles most writing needs, but colored inks unlock capabilities that black alone cannot provide. Maps need blue for water and green for vegetation. Illustrations need a full color range to convey information visually. Administrative records benefit from red ink for emphasis and corrections. Decorative manuscripts, signage, and teaching materials all require color to be effective. In every literate civilization, colored inks followed shortly after black ink because the demand for visual color coding is universal.

Colored inks also serve critical practical functions beyond aesthetics. Medical records use red to mark urgent information. Engineering drawings use multiple colors to distinguish structural elements, water systems, and electrical routing. Agricultural records use color to track different crops, soil types, and irrigation zones. A community limited to black ink is a community that cannot fully exploit the visual channel for information management.

The challenge with colored inks is permanence. While carbon black ink is essentially eternal, many colored inks fade over time, especially when exposed to light. This article focuses on the most permanent colored ink formulations achievable with pre-industrial materials, noting durability expectations for each so you can choose appropriately based on whether you are decorating a wall (where fading matters less) or creating a permanent record (where it matters enormously).

Ink Fundamentals

Anatomy of a Colored Ink

Every ink consists of:

1. Colorant — either a dissolved dye (transparent, penetrating) or a suspended pigment (opaque, sitting on the surface)
2. Vehicle — the liquid carrier, almost always water for pre-industrial inks
3. Binder — holds the colorant to the surface after drying (gum arabic, hide glue, egg white, casein)
4. Additives — preservatives (vinegar, salt), flow improvers (bile, soap), and sometimes thickeners (starch)

Dye Inks vs. Pigment Inks

Property	Dye Ink	Pigment Ink
Transparency	Transparent — shows paper through ink	Opaque — covers paper completely
Flow	Flows easily, fine lines possible	May clog fine pens; best with brushes
Permanence	Generally poor — most dyes fade	Generally good — mineral pigments are permanent
Color intensity	Very vivid when fresh	Rich but may appear less bright
Mixing	Easy — just combine solutions	Must be ground and mulled
Best for	Calligraphy, illustration, tinting	Manuscripts, permanent records, cartography

Red Inks

Vermilion Ink (Most Permanent)

Vermilion (mercuric sulfide) produces a brilliant, permanent red but requires mercury, which is toxic and rare. If available:

1. Grind vermilion pigment to extreme fineness on a stone slab with a muller
2. Mix with gum arabic solution (10 grams gum in 50 ml water)
3. Add water gradually until the ink flows from a pen
4. This ink is effectively permanent — it does not fade

Mercury Toxicity

Vermilion contains mercury. Handle with covered hands, avoid breathing dust during grinding, and never heat vermilion (mercury vapor is extremely poisonous). Use outdoors or in well-ventilated spaces only.

Red Ochre Ink (Most Accessible)

The simplest permanent red ink, available everywhere iron-rich earth exists:

1. Grind red ochre (or calcined yellow ochre) to the finest possible powder through extended wet grinding and levigation
2. Prepare binder — dissolve 5-10 grams of gum arabic in 30 ml of warm water
3. Combine — mix ground red ochre with the gum solution, adding water gradually
4. Strain — pass through fine cloth to remove any coarse particles that would clog a pen
5. Adjust — the ink should flow smoothly from a reed or quill pen without blobbing or skipping

Properties: permanent, lightfast, earth-toned red (not brilliant). Ideal for rubrication (headings and emphasis in manuscripts).

Brazilwood Red Ink (Vivid but Fugitive)

If brazilwood or sappanwood is available:

1. Chip or rasp the heartwood into small shavings
2. Soak in water with a small amount of alum (mordant) for 24 hours
3. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours until the water is deeply colored
4. Strain through cloth
5. Add gum arabic and reduce over low heat until the desired intensity is reached
6. This ink is vivid crimson-red but fades significantly in light over months to years

Insect Red (Cochineal/Kermes)

Where scale insects are available:

1. Dry and crush the insects to a fine powder
2. Extract the dye by simmering in water with a pinch of alum for 1-2 hours
3. Strain, add gum arabic
4. Produces a deep crimson with moderate lightfastness
5. Adding a drop of lemon juice shifts the color toward scarlet; a touch of alkali (lime water) shifts toward purple

Blue Inks

Blue is the most valuable and most difficult colored ink to produce.

Indigo Ink (Best Plant Blue)

1. Extract indigo — ferment indigo or woad leaves in water for 2-3 days; aerate the liquid vigorously; let the pigment settle; collect the blue sediment
2. Grind — wet-grind the indigo sediment to extreme fineness
3. Disperse — mix with gum arabic solution; indigo does not dissolve in water, so it must be kept in fine suspension
4. Improve flow — add a drop of bile or thin soap solution to help the particles stay suspended
5. Result — a deep blue-black ink with good permanence. Shake before each use as the pigment settles.

Mineral Blue Ink (Azurite)

If azurite (copper carbonate mineral) is available:

1. Crush and grind azurite to fine powder
2. Levigation is essential — only the finest particles produce a true blue. Coarse particles appear gray.
3. Mix with gum arabic solution
4. This produces a vivid sky-blue ink that is completely permanent
5. Coarser particles can be used for a darker, more intense blue

Berry Blue (Temporary)

For temporary marking where permanence is not needed:

1. Crush elderberries, blueberries, or blackberries
2. Strain through cloth, pressing to extract all juice
3. Add a pinch of alum (helps fix the color) and a few drops of vinegar (preservative)
4. Add gum arabic for body
5. Fades significantly within weeks to months — suitable only for temporary notes

Green Inks

Mixed Green (Most Practical)

The easiest approach — combine blue and yellow inks:

1. Prepare a yellow ink (see below) and a blue ink separately
2. Mix in varying proportions to achieve the desired green
3. The permanence of the mixture depends on the permanence of each component

Verdigris Green

Copper acetate (verdigris) produces a brilliant green:

1. Expose copper scraps to vinegar vapors in a sealed container for 2-4 weeks
2. Scrape off the green crust (verdigris)
3. Dissolve in vinegar or water with gentle warming
4. Add gum arabic
5. Produces a vivid, transparent green

Copper Toxicity

Verdigris is moderately toxic and corrosive to paper over time. It was historically used despite these drawbacks due to the scarcity of good green alternatives. Use with caution on important documents.

Sap Green

From buckthorn berries or similar plant sources:

1. Crush ripe buckthorn berries and extract the juice
2. Add alum as a mordant
3. Simmer gently to concentrate
4. Add gum arabic
5. Produces a warm olive-green with moderate durability

Yellow Inks

Yellow Ochre Ink

Permanent and readily available:

1. Grind yellow ochre to extreme fineness through levigation
2. Mix with gum arabic solution
3. Strain through fine cloth
4. Adjustable from pale golden to deep mustard by varying pigment concentration
5. Completely lightfast and permanent

Saffron Yellow (Brilliant but Expensive)

If saffron is available (or cultivated):

1. Steep saffron threads in warm water for several hours
2. The water turns a brilliant golden-yellow
3. Add gum arabic
4. Excellent transparency and brilliance
5. Moderate lightfastness — suitable for manuscripts stored away from light

Turmeric Yellow (Vivid but Fugitive)

1. Grate or powder dried turmeric root
2. Simmer in water for 30 minutes
3. Strain, add gum arabic
4. Vivid golden yellow that fades significantly in light
5. Best for temporary or decorative use

Weld Yellow

The most lightfast plant-derived yellow:

1. Simmer weld (Reseda luteola) plant material with alum in water for 1-2 hours
2. Strain and reduce to desired intensity
3. Add gum arabic
4. Good lightfastness for a plant dye — survives years with minimal fading

Brown and Sepia Inks

Iron Gall Ink

The standard brown-black writing ink of the Western world from the 5th to 19th centuries:

1. Gather oak galls — round growths on oak trees caused by wasps; rich in tannins
2. Crush and soak — break galls into pieces and soak in water or wine for 3-7 days
3. Add iron sulfate (copperas/green vitriol) — the tannin and iron react to form a deep blue-black compound
4. Add gum arabic — for viscosity and adhesion
5. Strain through cloth

Properties: starts pale gray-blue when written, darkens to rich brown-black over hours as the iron-tannin complex oxidizes. Very permanent but eventually attacks paper (iron corrosion).

Iron Gall Ink Caution

Over centuries, iron gall ink corrodes the paper or parchment it is written on. For truly permanent records, carbon ink is safer. However, iron gall ink flows from a pen far better than most carbon inks, which is why scribes preferred it despite the long-term risk.

Sepia Ink

From cuttlefish or squid:

1. Collect the ink sac from a cuttlefish or squid
2. Dry the ink, then reconstitute with water
3. Add gum arabic
4. Produces a warm brown with good permanence
5. If no cephalopods are available, substitute walnut hull ink (see below)

Walnut Hull Ink

1. Collect green or recently fallen walnut hulls (the outer covering, not the shell)
2. Cover with water and simmer for 4-8 hours until deeply colored
3. Strain, add gum arabic and a pinch of salt
4. Produces a warm, rich brown with good permanence
5. One of the easiest colored inks to make — walnut trees are widespread

White Ink

For writing on dark surfaces:

1. Grind lime white or chalk to extreme fineness
2. Mix with gum arabic solution or egg white
3. Must be kept thick enough to be opaque — thin white ink is invisible
4. Apply with a brush rather than a pen (too thick for most pens)
5. Alternatively, mix zinc white or lead white for superior opacity

Ink Permanence Chart

Ink	Permanence Rating	Notes
Carbon black	Excellent (millennia)	The benchmark
Red ochre	Excellent	Completely lightfast
Vermilion	Excellent	But toxic to produce
Iron gall	Very good (but corrosive)	Darkens, then slowly damages paper
Indigo pigment	Very good	Suspension settles; shake before use
Azurite	Very good	Mineral blue, completely lightfast
Walnut hull	Good (decades)	Warm brown, moderate fade
Weld yellow	Good (years)	Best plant yellow
Cochineal/kermes	Fair (years)	Moderate fade in light
Berry inks	Poor (weeks-months)	Temporary use only
Turmeric	Poor (months)	Fades rapidly in light

Mixing and Storing Colored Inks

Mixing Tips

• Always mix small test batches first
• Record successful formulas with exact proportions
• Colored inks from different sources may not be chemically compatible — test combinations on scrap material before using on important work
• Most colored inks look different wet versus dry — always make a dried test swatch

Storage

• Glass or ceramic containers with tight lids (not metal — many inks corrode metal)
• Cool, dark storage extends shelf life
• Add a preservative (vinegar, salt, or clove oil) to prevent mold
• Label every container with contents, date, and recipe
• Shake or stir pigment-based inks before each use
• Shelf life varies from weeks (fresh plant inks) to years (mineral pigment inks with preservative)