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India ink
Sign in to saveAlso known as Indian ink, Chinese ink, Black ink, encre de Chine
simple black or colored ink
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A 14th century Han Dynasty medical treatise, the ink remains in excellent quality. India ink (British English: Indian ink) or China ink (also Chinese ink) is a simple black or coloured ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing and outlining, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. India ink is also used in medical applications.
Compared to other inks, such as the iron gall ink previously common in Europe, India ink is noted for its deep, rich black colour. It is commonly applied with a paintbrush (such as an ink brush) or a dip pen. In East Asian traditions such as ink wash painting and Chinese calligraphy, India ink is commonly used in a solid form called an inkstick.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “India ink” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.