Welcome to installment #3 of “What This Says About You.” Today we are going to look at the color of the ink you choose, its association with stuff, and what it says about you. In case you missed the first two installments I’m including them here:
Maybe you don’t give your selection of ink color a second thought, or maybe you select the color of your ink to match emotions, or maybe to match the pen, or maybe to suit the writing material.
In the broadest of terms, colors are grouped as either warm (red, orange, yellow) or cool (blue, green, violet). Warm colors evoke energy and excitement while cool colors are calming – guess that is why I prefer cool colors.
Personality Studies (so they claim)
Blue ink: people choosing blue ink, including the palest sky blue right to deepest dark midnight blues, are seen as having an outgoing personality, are friendly in nature with a warm and welcoming temperament. Are someone who conforms but still has a personality of their own.
Black ink: people choosing black ink are in charge of their life, the captain of their destiny, considered dominant and a force to be reckoned with. Possibly conservative and maybe a little uptight, rarely showing emotions, and thinking with their head rather than their heart.
Red ink: people choosing red ink are emotional, passionate, and love being the center of attention, everyone knows exactly how you feel. Emotions and their heart are worn on your sleeve! Someone who is creative and artsy and loves to experiment and try new things.
Typical usage of ink by color
Black is the ink choice of business. Projects professionalism, is often a requirement when signing legal documents and completing forms. Copiers and OCR equipment are better at picking up black ink.
Blue is the typical day-to-day ink. Blue ink is a pleasing and clear contrast to the black print on forms.
Red ink is used often used to correct or identify errors, and provide warnings! The use and impact of red ink is a blog post unto itself.
Green ink, back in the day was used for stocktaking and my preferred ink color.
Purple ink is often associated with poetic writing and literature. Historically, purple-colored ink was used to indicate power and sacred knowledge (royalty and religious orders).
The Skinny on Colors
- GREY/WHITE: balance, neutral, clean, purity, innocence, perfection, timeless
- PINK: romance, feminine, creative, sweet, cute, fun, sensual
- RED: provocative, energy, urgency, excitement, passionate, powerful
- ORANGE: youthful, creative, aggressive, action, fun, playful, lively, exuberant
- YELLOW: optimistic, youthful, cheerful, happiness, friendliness
- GREEN: plentiful, healthy, fresh, balance, relaxation, youth, growth, sustainable
- BLUE: trust, honesty, security, intelligence, confidence, calm, stability, integrity
- PURPLE: royalty, regal, soothing, imagination, wisdom, creative, calm, spiritual
- BROWN: stability, simplicity, dependable, rugged, outdoor, natural, sustainable
- BLACK: elegant, classic, powerful, luxury, dramatic, sophisticated, edgy, sleek
Just For Fun
- Personality trait correlates of color preference in schizophrenia. This was a surprise.
- Connection Between Eye Colour And Personality. BTW, I have green eyes.
- The Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision, spoiler alert we only see three colors.
- Luxury Pen Advice – What does the color of your ink say about you
- The Fridge Agency – What color psychology says about your brand
Chronicles of a Fountain Pen 
I usually write with a pink gel pen. Black of course for evening writings…
LikeLike
I’ll take a gel over a ballpoint every day. Pink, an interesting choice but I am not surprised by that choice for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love gel pens. The writing is just so much cleaner. There’s a stationary store near here that has most awesome selection of individual pens. I like it it be not fine, nor medium but somewhere in between. How’s that for specifics…. (Though someone told me the other day to unfollow her because I wasn’t positive. I guess she didn’t see the pink side of my personality)
LikeLiked by 1 person
OMG you arent positive – lol. I was thinking more along the line of artsy and creative. We have a collection of fine and medium point gel pens. Mostly all blacks and blues, the wife doesn’t care for choices.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😉😂
LikeLike
Always Black for, as you highlighted, professional work use. Since retiring I journal in black still. But with the new Bullet Journal scenarios it will be good to have a bit of colour in my life. Black and White photography I absolutely love. Won’t take camera film as colour choice…..no way! Vintage snob. 😆 So colour in life can ‘artistically‘ be introduced in the form of ink. You’ve got me confused with your observations here. I must have a bit of different character traits and inclusions from reading what you have highlighted here. Love Dark Green, my fave colour always. But love the ink choices of deep reds and deep blue/turquoise when I have mucked about with them. As ever. Love your post here. Will look at the ones you suggest you wrote previous to this one too. All the best. 🙏🏼
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to enjoy taking B/W photos until one day while reload the Pentax it slipped and I put my finger thru the shutter…. Always have a black inked up, I’m an accountant by training and like you said, old habits die hard. Thanks for reading.
LikeLike
Love film. But do not develop it myself anymore. Will now have to find a source that does it well. Shame about your Pentax. Great cameras. I’m getting familiar with India/China/Art inks and Black is such a great medium to work in. Also, shellac based browns, sepia, walnut type colours, which have great sheen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I was a young man in college I used to draw and ink wealthy people’s houses using dip pens, some of the inks you mentioned and a splash of watercolor. It paid the tuition bill.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great story. It’s so good that you used your artist skills for setting up your future dreams. A couple of craft shows selling my pottery set up the deposit needed for our first house mortgage. Now it’s good to carry on enjoying for therapy. Ink? The gift that keeps on giving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting. I always used blue-black ink because I don’t like anything too flashy, but I also want people to know that the words weren’t photocopied or printed.
I say that, but Diamine Oxblood still remains one of my regular ‘colourful’ ink. I even used it to fill an immigration form once, lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stuart, sorry for the late reply, I was buried by spammers. I have not tried Oxblood but it is on my list. My fave is Papier Plume Cafe Diabolique. It is a brown and has a crazy back story – inspired by Cafe Brulot, a trance-inducing after-dinner coffee. Thanks for visiting.
LikeLiked by 1 person