The Production of colorful pigments - Science behind Ink and Paint Production

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• published: 07 Apr 2016
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Here at Stinkyink, we feel it’s necessary to respect and support those who have got you to where you are in life. And we wouldn’t be the UK’s leading printer cartridge supplier without, you guessed it, printer ink! That’s why we’ve invested significant time and effort into making a comprehensive series of “History of Ink” articles. In the 21st century it is difficult to appreciate how much printing is an accepted part of our everyday lives. Look around you, if you are sat at home you likely have a book or magazine that’s been printed and mass produced; five hundred years ago this type of print would be beyond comprehension, bordering on witchcraft! At home or work we use printers, photocopiers and faxes to produce and copy thousands of pages of text and image, usually in colour, without a second thought of how this process developed and how far it influences our everyday lives. Imagine for a moment how different life would be if we could not mass produce this material but were instead reliant on scribes and artists to produce everything by hand. Our history begins with ancient cultures using ink for writing and drawing. We know this information from archaeological evidence that remains and from written texts that have survived In Europe this time period is known as ‘prehistoric’ or a time before written evidence. Cave paintings have been found across Europe that used red, ochre or black manganese. The inks and dyes came from sap, animal blood and other things found in nature and cave painters would use walls instead of paper. They would use animal bones to suck up the ink and to blow the ink into shapes on the wall. The Islamic Empires used a writing instrument called a galam which was usually made from a reed. Burnt resins such as tar or oil and then honey or gum were added before being compressed and dried. Similar to the Chinese, early ink was compressed into a tablet which made it easier to transport. Evidence of printing exists from around 3000 BC, where an impress would be rolled onto clay tablets to copy and duplicate images. Generally, for 4,000 years all writing was done by hand, one character at a time. This was copied out by hand by a scribe and was so expensive only the rich could afford this. One of the many things that Ancient Egyptians gave to the world was black ink. This was made by mixing black soot with vegetable oil and beeswax, gelatine and gum may also have been used. To make ink of different colours a different material was used instead of soot, for example, ochre. The fact that so many clearly legible pieces of writing survive to this day is testament to the quality of this ink. Egyptian scribes used a soft reed, with which the ink was brushed on. In Ancient Egypt stencils were used to decorate tombs, where sculptors created an outline around this pattern. Once complete this would be decorated with paint, usually a bright colour such as red, yellow or blue. The Greeks used a hard reed as a pen that was split at the tip and cut into a nib which needed to be constantly sharpened. The most common form of writing was a stylus on wax or clay. The wax was poured into a hollowed out depression in piece of wood. Papyrus was available from Egypt on which ink was used. Since papyrus was expensive and sometimes not available parchment was developed. Ink was used on the parchment. Writing could be carved into wood or stone for signs or plaques. Ancient Romans also used Egyptian papyrus to write on but this was very valuable. They used quills for their pens and their ink contained soot, gum, vinegar and sometimes even octopus ink. Imperial Rome had a large population, to meet demand for printed works, battalions of slaves would copy out the works of the great classical heroes. ‘Books’ in Ancient Rome were simply a large piece of papyrus with two wooden poles on with side. News was passed on through the ActaDiurna, or government announcements by Julius Caesar; these were carved into wood or metal and put up in public places. Evidence of the earliest Chinese inks comes from around 256 BC, these inks were made from soot and animal glue. We can trace back the use of inks with the use of natural plant dyes, animal and mineral links as well as ground up materials such as graphite. The Chinese brush is believed to have been invented by Ming Ti’en in the Third Century BC alongside the development of paper, however there is evidence that painting on silk occurred much earlier than this. This was a fascination for Chinese scholars and many treatise and tracts were written on this. The chief ingredient for high quality ink was lampblack (made from burning vegetable oils) and glue. The best soot was made from burning specially selected pine over inverted pottery jars that trapped the soot. The soot was then mixed with glue, which could be made from horn or animal hides.