{"id":2953,"date":"2026-04-12T20:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T01:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/?p=2953"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:52:51","slug":"ballpoint-pen-lightfast-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/?p=2953","title":{"rendered":"Ballpoint Pen Lightfast Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I keep forgetting to post this, but last year for five months I tested some of my favorite pens I use for art along with some of the inks I&#8217;ve been using in fountain pens, including the Indigraph pen which handles India ink. I think this simple test has proven what I suspected: pigment wins. If I want to draw with a ballpoint pen, it will probably stay in a sketchbook as most faded in direct sunlight with the exceptions of the Jetstream and Ballograf blacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The control was put in an envelope and kept in a second envelope in a closed closet. The indoor light test strip was in a north office out of direct window light. The south test strip was in a south window, and so it received a lot of light. I know that most people would never put their artwork in this situation, but it helped me understand whether or not a drawing would fade even a little bit over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ballpoint pens I tested were Uniball Jetstream in black, red, and blue in 38 mm and .28mm nib sizes. I also tested Ballograf ballpoint pen in various colors. Because I sometimes use a little bit of water when I draw to pull out a hint of color, the right side of the test strips also had a small amount of water. The pens held up in indoor light but faded in the south window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also sampled Higgins Black Magic, De Atramentis Document, and Bombay India inks. I didn&#8217;t observe any fading with these inks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"956\" height=\"1024\" data-attachment-id=\"2954\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/?attachment_id=2954\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-scaled.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2389,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone SE (2nd generation)&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1775992524&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;3.99&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;80&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0099009900990099&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"20260412_161524905_iOS\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-956x1024.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-956x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2954\" srcset=\"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-956x1024.jpg 956w, https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-280x300.jpg 280w, https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-768x823.jpg 768w, https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-1433x1536.jpg 1433w, https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260412_161524905_iOS-1911x2048.jpg 1911w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 956px) 100vw, 956px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I keep forgetting to post this, but last year for five months I tested some of my favorite pens I use for art along with some of the inks I&#8217;ve been using in fountain pens, including the Indigraph pen which handles India ink. I think this simple test has proven what I suspected: pigment wins. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[380,566,457,1],"tags":[691,717,565,461,458,715],"class_list":["post-2953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-ink","category-pen","category-uncategorized","tag-ballpoint","tag-higgins","tag-india-ink","tag-ink","tag-pen","tag-test"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3wmm6-LD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2953"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2961,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions\/2961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsenettle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}