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Blue or black?

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Loomis

14:44 / 17.06.05

This is something I often ponder. Blue pen seems more common but there doesn't seem to be an official colour, although you rarely see people using colours other than blue or black for official (ie. work) purposes. I know some forms say to use black pen but that's purely because it photocopies better isn't it?

I prefer to use blue on the whole but I find that whenever I get a blue pen it gets nicked with two days whereas no one ever steals a black pen off my desk so most of the time I stick with black. Every now and then I decide to risk it and I liberate a nice new blue biro from the stationery cupboard, but without fail it disappears within two days.

How about you?

Benny the Ball

14:52 / 17.06.05

Black, always black. I like doodling, and black always doodles nicer than blue to my eye.

Axolotl

15:04 / 17.06.05

As a southpaw I am very particular about my stationary as most pens tend to result a big smeary mess as my hand is dragged across what I have just written. Therefore I use a Pilot Hi-tecpoint V5 extrafine as the thinness of the point means it dries very quickly. As for colour I use black as that is clearly the colour of champions. The one exception to this is crosswords where I prefer biros as you can rough a word in if you're not sure.
Fascinating stuff eh?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:11 / 17.06.05

Black. Like the metal.

w1rebaby

15:16 / 17.06.05

Less searchable M0rd4nt

15:20 / 17.06.05

Whatever colour of gel ink pen is left after Scintilla has made off with the black and blue ones. Frequently green.

Kit-Cat Club

15:24 / 17.06.05

Black Bic fine. No other will do, even though they do sometime splodge a bit.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:29 / 17.06.05

Grey. Specifically, gris nuage, from J Herbin's range of inks.

What?

invisible_al

15:33 / 17.06.05

Currently using a black fibre tipped Muji fineliner with my notebook, but if we're talking Biro's I'd have to say blue it looks cleaner and is easier to read I find.

If we're talking stationary I have to give it up for Muji, I can lose myself quite happily for half an hour as they have the coolest notebooks and pens.

Smoothly

15:35 / 17.06.05

Black where possible. For some reason it seems more grown-up to me. Not sure why – perhaps because we had to write in blue ink at school and so seeing my handwriting in that colour has associations of childish things.
That said, most occasions which require recourse to a handwriting instrument involve scribbling a hurried note or jotting down a phone number – and so I grab whatever is nearest; as often a pencil or highlighter as anything else.

Loomis

16:08 / 17.06.05

Wow, I didn't expect black to get such a resounding mandate. I guess black is the new blue.

I'm with you Smoothly on the grab whatever is nearest thing. Both at home and at work I have a random assortment of pens that seemed to have appeared magically, and funnily enough I often find myself using a pencil. No one ever nicks pencils. I went through a phase when for some reason my hand kept finding a 2H pencil and I could never read my notes properly. I mean what is the fucking point of any H pencils unless you're an architect or whatever. How do they find their way into normal useage?

Ariadne

16:19 / 17.06.05

Blue, I'm afraid. Well, ideally purple, but that's a bit girly so forget I said it. And wet ink, roller bally things - I hate scratchy pens.

Sekhmet

16:56 / 17.06.05

Black only. For work, preferably a Sanford Uni-Ball Micro, because it's a nice fine clear line for writing notes in margins and on Post-its. For home and personal, a Pilot G-2 07, which writes very smoothly and has a nice sized barrel with a grip pad; good for long entries in a dream journal, or scribbling in greeting cards.

Hmm. I have a preferred type of mechanical pencil, too. I didn't realize I was so particular about writing instruments.

missnoise

18:43 / 17.06.05

blue specifically if i need to remember something
but i don't discriminate with the colours
i like to use green alot

interesting things you ponder

Red Cross Iodized Salt

19:08 / 17.06.05

Black fiber tip, for the same reasons as Benny the Ball above (doodling, always doodling). Red for reviewing / marking up printed documents.

I could only ever use blue ballpoint when taking lecture notes in college though, as it meant I (a) doodled less and (b) could actually read the notes come study time. For some reason I could never pay as much attention to notes written in black ink. It kind of bordered on the pathological now that I think of it.

astrojax69

19:10 / 17.06.05

pencil!

but if i have to use pen, i have metallic colours - green, mauve, blue and red; usually preferred in that order.

but pencils are great. i love the tactile feedback, the sharpening, the way they change as they go blunt. and pen's always fail at the critical moment. no running out of ink in a pencil...

All Acting Regiment

19:23 / 17.06.05

One of those ace clickey rainbow efforts, you know: *click* Red! *click* Blue! *click* Poiple! etc etc.

Loomis

07:54 / 18.06.05

Ah yes those rainbow pens - I remember them! Man that takes me right back to my childhood. We all loved them even though all the evidence proved them to actually be really shit.

Grey Area

08:25 / 18.06.05

When writing notes and letters I use blue Parker ink. When filling in forms and other official stuff I use black ink. Lately there amount of personal stuff has outweighed the official, so I guess the answer's blue. Although usually there's an even balance (fence-sitter, indecisive, yadda yadda yadda etc.).

Mourne Kransky

08:54 / 18.06.05

Write? You mean, on paper, with a pen thing? How nineteenth century.

Spaniel

10:12 / 18.06.05

I hate my handwriting so I try to avoid writing with a pen where ever possible, but if I have to I'll go for black every time.

cfm

10:42 / 18.06.05

I prefer pencil, because it looks cleaner and neater to my somewhat obsessive-compulsive eyes (you can change the pressure and width more easily). When, however, I must resort to pen, black is the only option. Smooth roller ball pens are preferred, but ballpoint is the last resort.

I'm a bit quirky when it comes to writing implements.

ibis the being

12:56 / 18.06.05

I can't help but think that people who prefer blue ink are somewhat... warped. Starved for attention perhaps.

And those poor souls who use Bics/biros. Bent on creating an actual physical impression of their written wrods. Anal-retentive, clearly.

alterity

13:08 / 18.06.05

Blue. Pilot V Razor Point Extra Fine.

If I were in the business world it would be black, but, while my wardrobe has more than a bit of black in it, I find that as an ink color it's a bit oppressive.

I also use a lot of red--for marking papers full of grammar mistakes and faulty logic.

Loomis

19:31 / 18.06.05

See, I always thought blue was meant to eb the official colour. As Smoothly noted, blue is the colour we used at school. Did anyone here use a colour other than blue at school? So is there some reason behind it?

I know it's a bit different these days as anything hand-written (in any colour) would be automatically less offical because proper work-related letters etc. would be printed from the computer, so I guess pen colour becomes a moot point as far as officialdom goes.

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:37 / 18.06.05

Depends on my mood!

8===>Q: alyn

22:36 / 18.06.05

What kind of question is this?

Olulabelle

23:36 / 18.06.05

Purple.

Or sometimes green. Mordant you should know that if you ever write a letter to a celebrity it wil be thrown away because you write in green pen. Apparently in the world of celebrity, green ink stands for mad person and means your letter goes unread and straight in the bin.

sine

01:00 / 19.06.05

Black - but only if I absolutely hafta. I'm a mechanical pencil man myself.

The Puck

13:15 / 19.06.05

When i was at school, i always wrote in a green biro (until it got me seven shades of shit beaten outta me, long story) appartantly according to graphology a green pen means a creative and origonal thinker.

i now favour a mechanical pencil (0.5 lead) or a Uniball black long nibbed pen.

astrojax69

21:57 / 20.06.05

sine and puck, don't you find the thin little stick of carbon so unsatisfying in those mechanical pencils, compared to the tactile thrill and thickness of a real one? and you don't get to stick them in an electric sharpener. now there's fun!

Ariadne

04:33 / 21.06.05

Loomis - your school told you what colour of ink to use? Wow. Did they specify a specific pen type? Or did they supply them?

sine

07:00 / 21.06.05

Yeah, back in the day I used to use real pencils - buy a whole pack, sharpen every one in the electric sharpener, line them up, take the first and then switch to the next and the next and the next the moment the tip was less than razor fine. Hence switching over to mechanical pencils (also 0.5 mm)...laziness, basically, but I like a consistent line.

Sax

07:20 / 21.06.05

Black if I can. Generally a Biro for work, shorthand notes etc, or a Staedtler Lumocolor 317 Fine for writing hate-mail and signing cheques.

Loomis

07:56 / 21.06.05

Loomis - your school told you what colour of ink to use? Wow. Did they specify a specific pen type? Or did they supply them?

*starts to wonder if I went to some weird school*

Um, yeah they gave them to us! Is that unusual? When you're little everyone writes in pencil, and then in year 4 (age 8-9) when the teacher decides you're writing neatly enough you get allowed to start writing in pen and they gave us a couple of blue pens. I don't remember if we weren't allowed to write in black but it probably wouldn't have occurred to me. Brainwashed by the state.

I'm a little surprised by how so many people use specific pens. I just use whatever comes my way. I do like mechanical pencils though and go through phases of using them a lot. Only at home though, as they'd get nicked at work.

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