Talk:Green ink

Why I like green
Talk to Civic Cat  18:29, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
 * My favourite New Order song, though the video has nothing to do with the subject, nor do I think the word "green" appears in the lyrics.
 * Ken Nordine "so many different greens" It could be a case for using green.

Why green ink?
Perhaps there could be an analysis of the lightfastness of green ink as compared to other inks ( and refer (and pre-aniline textile dyes faded variably - so grass turns blue on tapestries).

Can also mention. 171.33.197.73 (talk) 16:27, 15 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I can't say I see the relevance of lightfastedness (is that a word? It should be) in the context of the article but I'm not god (yet) so why not write something yourself and post it here in the talk section so people can have a look and offer their opinion? Longdog (talk) 17:08, 15 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Although I have no idea, my intuition would tell me that green ink was cheaper than black ink, and these sorts of people wanted to economize on cost to maximize distribution. I can't imagine why this would be the case, though. Green ink was made of "green vitriol", or ferrous sulfate. Black ink was made of lampblack, better known as soot. Seems easier to collect soot and add water to it than to produce ferrous sulfate. Another possibility is that it was meant as a form of copy protection; the same reason US money was printed in green. --69.136.179.142 (talk) 17:20, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I believe it was used traditionally in the UK, especially in the government (Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming and Sir John Scarlett were noted for it), because it doesn't photocopy well so the color of the ink was used to show it was original. Which also made the demand for it fairly low so I am betting office supply places would often put them on sale.  -EmeraldCityWanderer (talk) 18:25, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Green "ink" font detected online
I thought it might be useful to actually go out into the field and collect some examples of "green ink analysis".

Here is my contribution to get the collection rolling.

This one from a creationist website - scroll down to find the "green ink" bits (click).

If the subject matter on that creationist site is also of interest it is discussed here.

Nullius 11:16, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

Holy shit this Onion article is great
http://www.theonion.com/article/only-news-source-man-trusts-has-logo-eyeball-cross-53106 22:35, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

please define "paper" and "ink"
The article mentions strange archaic substances called "paper" and "ink" but what are those? I never heard of them. Please write additional articles to define them. Thanks. 217.250.161.77 (talk) 07:54, 27 June 2016 (UTC)


 * They're like a smartphone but you can only use it once and have to throw it away after. I know, stupid, right? --Ymir (talk) 08:27, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Soylent Green
The 'random page' went from Green Ink to Soylent - so a minor joke. 82.44.143.26 (talk) 19:25, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
 * As I said in the comment, I get what you're going for. But it felt cluttered and unnecessary.  I can't help but believe more than a little green ink has been put to page in defense of Soylent, but only because there's weird crazy people for every subject.  ikanreed 🐐Bleat at me 19:31, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
 * The library computer session was about to end - so did not have long enough to put this pearl of RW's programming's wisdom on the talk page (as I have now done). 82.44.143.26 (talk) 17:30, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

See Also deletions
A BoN deleted several entries under See Also, which I reverted. Remember, just because Entry 2 does not explicitly refer back to Entry 1 in a link, does not mean that the two are unconnected. CogitoNotStirred (via telepathy) (talk) 18:41, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

It's True!
Working in an editorial office in London in the 1980's and 1990's, it was the case that letters written in green ink were considered suspect and in my experience there was some justification for this. However, it was the whole letter - not just individual words. If they wanted to emphasise a particular word it would be underlined. Sometimes more than once.

My theory is that the cranks just feel a need to stand out generally, and tended to choose odd coloured ink as part of that. For those who weren't around in the times of pens(!), normal colours were black and blue, with red and green being fairly easily available for special purposes (accounting, presumably). Personally, I prefer sepia as it's easier on on my eyes that black or blue, but I don't think I'm a crank.

Has the practice died out? Nope. You get the same vibe these days when you receive an email IN ALL CAPITALS, or possibly all lower case. On social media the cranks use emoji badges or hash-tags. I won't list them, but I'm sure you know what I mean.&mdash; Unsigned, by: Fjl london / talk / contribs

Why I used it
Just a fyi green ink didn't scan on the older systems. So when I wanted to tell my government something I wrote it in green that way it had to be retyped. I did confirm this at one government office and was happy. Yes government go ahead and sit there and have to retype my criticism of everything you do.