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calluna
May 12th, 2013, 11:41 AM
Does it seem to anyone else like the variety of FP inks in every color has just exploded in the last ten years?

Apologies if this is an old thread; I didn't research it. I find myself wondering if that is indicative of the art world, of the health of the FP hobby, or if there are just lots of garage chemists like Nathan who like to explore new things and then go into business. :)

Uncle Red
May 12th, 2013, 01:01 PM
The crazy guy tinkering would account for Organics Studio and Scribal Workshop (check them out, great inks). Some of it though is competition in the online stores; the Goulets brought in De Atramentis that Art Brown had but didn't market well, I forget if anybody in the states had Rohrer & Klingner before the Goulets. Also, the newer websites do a better job of displaying everything, including inks, than the sites for the old B&M stores. I'm using the Goulets as an example, ISellPens and IPenStore are also well done sites e.g.

calluna
May 12th, 2013, 02:18 PM
I think there are many more online stores than there used to be, that is true. They were around ten years ago, though, independent of the brick and mortar stores. :) Think Swisher, which was online before b & m, for example.

Pendragon
May 12th, 2013, 02:29 PM
Does it seem to anyone else like the variety of FP inks in every color has just exploded in the last ten years?

Apologies if this is an old thread; I didn't research it. I find myself wondering if that is indicative of the art world, of the health of the FP hobby, or if there are just lots of garage chemists like Nathan who like to explore new things and then go into business. :)

Fountain Pen Inks - A Sampler, January 2007 edition by Greg Clark contains swatches of over 500 different inks, and in every hue imaginable. Some of those inks have since been discontinued and new inks introduced, but it seems that there has been a vast selection available for quite some time. Does the number of inks available reflect the extent of fountain pen use? It stands to reason that it would to some extent. That use would include those for whom fountain pens are everyday writing tools, as well as hobbyists.

This article (http://www.tigerpens.co.uk/blog/are-fountain-pens-on-the-decline/), written in 2009 on the Tiger Pens blog, indicates that the market for new fountain pens was shrinking. Fountain pen interest searches declined dramatically over the past eight years according to Google Trends, but have rebounded slightly.

2640

Here (http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%22fountain%20pens%22,%22fountain%20pen% 22) is a link to the above Google Trends search. Lettered links to news articles on fountain pens are shown if you check the news headlines box.

How accurate are these metrics? Not terribly accurate in my opinion. The total bottles of ink sold, rather than the number of ink colors, would be a better indicator of fountain pen use. Even that metric would not tell use how many pens are in use, as some people with one pen could write much more than others who own many pens. Google trends only shows the number of searches on Google. Searches on Bing and Yahoo could well show very different results.

The above is just my 2 cents and is speculation. At the end of the day, 2 cents is about all speculation is worth. To accurately determine the level of fountain pen use, sales figures from the manufacturers would be required. Failing that, a properly designed market research study would do.

ardgedee
May 12th, 2013, 04:22 PM
Interesting how the searches peak -- looks like a lot of people are googling for gift ideas right before Christmas.

firstpancake
May 13th, 2013, 09:17 PM
I believe it may be due to the recent design improvements in steel nibs/injection molded feeds, which aided the proliferation of reliable economy class pens. People can take up fountain pen usage at a lower cost, and because these sub$50 pens write better than they did 10 years ago. This may also mean more people have many many different pens --which could promote the exploration of many different ink colors.
It also may be due to the similar reasons why soda companies have so many varieties. Sign a deal with a retailer to carry x-amount of your product line, and then flood the shelves with a million different colors to crowd out competitors for shelf-space (of course, this might be something that only applies to brick-and-mortar stores)

Pendragon
May 13th, 2013, 10:25 PM
Interesting how the searches peak -- looks like a lot of people are googling for gift ideas right before Christmas.

Yes, and also note the valleys, which occur around Summer. These variations have become much smaller since 2010, however.

Saintpaulia
September 24th, 2013, 11:33 AM
I am glad I looked in previous postings first before beginning a new thread! Although this is certainly not the first time I noticed this, it has been a while; but then this weekend I began to do a search for a turquoise ink. I periodically decide to research a particular color of ink and then buy the one(s) I decide are my favorite(s).

So anyway, I was on the Goulet website in the Swab Shop. And I was looking at all of the turquoise inks they have. As I went about this exercise I went over to the Diamine inks pages to review some of their turquoise-y inks and I realized that I was once again back to that place where I could not, for the life of me, understand why they have so many inks that are all approximately the same color. I mean the difference in hue between three of their turquoise-y inks is so negligible!

Contrary to the argument often presented that the ink companies do this to increase sales by offering more variety to their customers, I think it is counter-productive. It certainly is for me. I have a tendency to simply give up trying to figure out the differences in these kinds of colors with these companies, and instead I go to a company that offers ONE turquoise. In other words they put all of their effort into creating THE best turquoise they can and leave it at that.

In this vein I am attracted to ink companies that make a "reasonable" number of inks rather than companies which make hundreds, with little difference between those in certain color groups. Quality not quantity.

Laura N
September 24th, 2013, 12:58 PM
I am glad I looked in previous postings first before beginning a new thread! Although this is certainly not the first time I noticed this, it has been a while; but then this weekend I began to do a search for a turquoise ink. I periodically decide to research a particular color of ink and then buy the one(s) I decide are my favorite(s).

So anyway, I was on the Goulet website in the Swab Shop. And I was looking at all of the turquoise inks they have. As I went about this exercise I went over to the Diamine inks pages to review some of their turquoise-y inks and I realized that I was once again back to that place where I could not, for the life of me, understand why they have so many inks that are all approximately the same color. I mean the difference in hue between three of their turquoise-y inks is so negligible!

Contrary to the argument often presented that the ink companies do this to increase sales by offering more variety to their customers, I think it is counter-productive. It certainly is for me. I have a tendency to simply give up trying to figure out the differences in these kinds of colors with these companies, and instead I go to a company that offers ONE turquoise. In other words they put all of their effort into creating THE best turquoise they can and leave it at that.

In this vein I am attracted to ink companies that make a "reasonable" number of inks rather than companies which make hundreds, with little difference between those in certain color groups. Quality not quantity.

I can sympathize with that response. It reminds me of my paralysis in the cereal aisle. Too many choices does not ease decision-making.

Diamine does have a plethora of blue inks. They are all interesting, and slightly different in shade as well as behavior. But sometimes you just want something basic.

On the other hand, I can't object to any company bringing out any ink it judges interesting and saleable. I have no data, but I suspect that offering more ink varieties means you will sell more inks in total. Sure there is the rare Saint who wants only one ink and will use it till it's empty. But then there are folks like me, who will buy a few blue inks, even with others on the shelf. Perhaps I'm more like that because I don't think there's one "best" of any color. What's best for one pen or paper won't necessarily be best for another.

Good standard turquoises for me include Diamine Turquoise, Waterman South Sea Blue (or whatever it's called today), and Lamy's and Pelikan's turquoise inks. In fact, I haven't found a bad one. There is also cyan blue. Sigh. I once got ripped by, not one, but two, ink people on FPN for not properly differentiating between the two categories. :) An experience that makes me beg your pardon if I have mislabeled an ink as "turquoise" that you consider not properly turquoise; I am just speaking generally. But that might also explain the variety of inks. So many people are so particular.

cwent2
September 24th, 2013, 04:29 PM
My BIGGEST problem with ink is I am shade color blind. The other issue is there are no stores in RI that have fountain pen ink - so I either have to rely on a computer monitor or a pen pal to use an ink I like.

AndyT
September 24th, 2013, 04:42 PM
Funny stuff, turquoise ink. There's an awful lot of different varieties of it about, but they all look much of a muchness to me. I must have a blind spot, anyway it's not my thing.

On the other hand I just can't get enough of blue-black in all its wonderful manifestations, and then there are the people who are on an endless quest for the perfect blue. So I'm all for of as much variety as possible within my favoured part of the spectrum, and I guess the blue and turquoise lovers feel the same.

One nice thing about Diamine: those little 30ml bottles work out quite inexpensive, so at least you're not landed with a year's worth of the stuff and a hefty bill if an ink turns out to be less inspiring than you'd hoped.

dobemom
September 26th, 2013, 12:49 PM
I've always used fountain pens and until I came to the realization the internet has about everything possible for pen and ink I always had to go with whatever the local shops carried. When I was a little kid I went along with my mother and she would get her Peacock Blue and I would get blue/black. The shops had the basics. In high school the same went for cartridges ( my rebellion then was to write with a Parker 45! ). Most shops carried black, blue/black, red, green, and sometimes brown. A few years ago finding the odd bottle of ink became very rare and frankly I was down to a bottle of black Quink. Then I discovered I'm not the only person left on the planet who uses a fountain pen and the rest of the folks were having a ball on-line!

So for me the availability of ink and the wonderous invention of samples has ushered in a whole new rainbow of colors and brands. It seems like an explosion to me, but I'm sure its been this way for a while. I'm having a great time enjoying it all.