The Best Ink Swatching Supplies

Glass dip pens like those from Herbin are easy to use and clean, so they’re our favorite tools for ink swatching. To use one, dip the pen’s tip in an ink bottle and gently scrape the sides of the nib against the bottle’s opening to remove excess ink. You can then write a few sentences—enough to get a good idea of how the ink performs. Also, consider using the back of the dip pen for a thicker and more saturated swatch.

When you’re ready to move on to the next color or are done for the day, swish the tip in a cup of water to get rid of leftover ink. If you find that ink has dried on the tip, you can use a soft toothbrush to scrub the tip clean.

Since these dip pens are made from real glass, they can break when dropped. Put them down on pen rests, or store them in a cup or tray to keep them from rolling off your desk.

Writers who prefer the feel of fountain pen nibs but want the convenience of a dip pen will appreciate the Sailor Compass Hocoro. Its metal nib is similar to that of the Compass HighAce Neo, and it comes in a variety of tip sizes. The most interesting is the fude, because it creates brush-like strokes with line variation.

While most of the nibs don’t come with feeds, the fude and wider calligraphy nib versions do. Since these nibs tend to use more ink with every stroke, the feeds make sure that you’re not dipping after every letter.

When you’re done using the Compass Hocoro, you can pull the nib section out and store it inside the barrel. That way, you won’t have to worry about accidentally damaging the nib.

You can always create your own ink swatch cards, but we love the pre-printed designs of Wearingeul Ink Color Swatch Cards. Some of them have resistive coatings that make it easy to color inside the designs, or they reveal designs once colored over.

The ink swatch cards come in a variety of sizes. The business card-sized versions are about 2” x 3.5” and fit neatly in the binders mentioned below.

Wearingeul Ink Color Swatch Paper is made with the same 200 gsm paper used for the Ink Color Swatch Cards. However, because they’re full A5 sheets, you can fit more ink swatches on every page. You can hole punch the sheets using an A5 hole punch, or slip the sheets inside A5 sheet protectors to file them away in a binder—we recommend one below.

The Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book is filled with thick, fountain pen friendly paper that’s perfect for ink swatching. Inks won’t feather, bleed, or show through the 160 gsm paper. The surface won’t get scratched up by sharp nibs, either. You can swatch with any tool, from ink-soaked cotton swabs to extra fine fountain pens.

It comes in three sizes, including the memo pad-like Oversize or mini-sized Dipper. Like its name suggests, its sheets are small enough that you can curl them up and dip them directly into bottles of ink!

The idea for the original Col-o-ring came about after a stationery tragedy. Ana Reinert of The Well-Appointed Desk had been using the Maruman Mnemosyne Word Book for ink swatches (we also used them at JetPens for many years!) until it was suddenly discontinued. Reinert decided to create her own version of the Word Book and, with the help of Skylab Letterpress, the Col-o-ring was born.

You can easily create fun ink swatches with Beverly Ink Companion Stamps. They come in handy designs, including bottles that you can fill in with an ink of your choice. You can even make it look like a koala swatched an ink for you!

You’ll need a separate ink pad for the Ink Companion Stamp, and we recommend the Tsukineko Versafine Ink Pad. Its pigment-based ink is waterproof and won’t smear under fountain pen ink. Just be sure to let it dry completely.

The Kokuyo NOViTA Alpha can fit a whopping 600 ink swatch cards—though if you need every single slot, you might appreciate some tips on how to use up your ink collection!

The NOViTA Alpha is a filing system that uses an expandable book cover that has grooves inside the spine. Slide up to six Card Files into the grooves to fill it up. A Card File fits one hundred swatch cards, and each pocket fits cards up to 2.2” x 3.5” in size.

If you’d like to bring some of your ink swatches to a fountain pen meetup or just need a compact storage option, you can’t go wrong with the Maruman Into-One Mini Binder. Its Modified B7 size means it’s slightly smaller than 4” x 6”, so it fits neatly in a bag for travel or a drawer with your ink bottles. Plus, you can get a binder with an elastic band closure that makes sure the sheets inside don’t flap around.

The Into-One Mini comes with three translucent dividers that you can use to organize your swatch cards, plus a zipper pocket for extra tools. You can get Loose Leaf Card Pocket Accessories for your business card-sized ink swatch cards that are up to 2.4” x 3.4” in size.

The Kokuyo Campus Slim Slide is perfectly sized for Wearingeul Ink Color Swatch Paper, and it’s also one of our favorite binders, period. Rather than a clumsy metal ring mechanism that can pinch your fingers, this binder uses an innovative mechanism that opens the rings by sliding down a plastic tab.

The binder can fit up to sixty-five sheets of hole-punched paper. It comes with index tabs for organization, and a clear pocket for loose sheets.

Always give shimmering fountain pen inks a quick shake (with the cap closed!) before using them for ink swatches. Shaking the ink makes sure that the glitter mixes with the ink properly.

Consider using repositionable stickers or sticky notes on sheet protectors and card pockets. You can use them to label your favorite inks, inks that have recently been used, or inks that need a little extra care for cleaning.

We recommend some of our favorite stickers and sticky notes below.

• Beverly Marumi Petite Sticky Notes: These sticky notes come in pastel colors and are small enough that they won’t cover up your swatches.
• Stalogy Circular Washi Tape Patches: Use Stalogy Circular Washi Tape Patches to color-code your swatches. They can also be written on.
• Suatelier Planner Stickers: Try using different Suatelier Planner Stickers designs to mark favorites or label swatches.

When you fill a fountain pen with the ink for the first time, consider writing a bit on the swatch card or paper for a more accurate depiction of the ink in use. It could be as simple as a few loops or a pangram like “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Fountain pen inks can look different depending on the paper you use. For example, a dual-shading ink that looks blue on one paper could look green on another. Consider swatching inks on the same paper you typically use. Or, if you use a variety of different papers, you can try creating swatches on all of them to see how they compare.