Favorite Fountain Pen Inks in Every Color: The 2026 Update

Introduction

Picking one favorite ink per color is harder than it sounds, and the list changes as bottles get used up and colors disappear from shelves. This 2026 refresh keeps several long-standing picks, adds a few new favorites, and quietly retires some choices that no longer earn their place. The common thread: every ink here is well behaved, works in any pen, and is enjoyable enough to actually finish a bottle.

Black: Sailor Black

Three years on, the favorite black has not changed. Sailor Black is a super wet, super dark, cool-toned black that leans slightly purple and behaves flawlessly in any pen. It does nothing flashy; it is just a reliable, affordable default black that is easy to find almost anywhere. Honorable mention goes to Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black as the runner-up.

Gray: Roshuku Fuyu

The gray pick also stays the same. Fuyu is a cool, wintry gray with purple-blue undertones, a strong shader, and a wet, free-flowing feel that suits daily writing. It gets inked up every December or January, and roughly half the bottle is already gone. It is evocative, well behaved, and an easy repurchase when it runs out.

Brown: Diamine Tobacco Sunburst

This is the all-time favorite ink on the whole list, and it has not moved. From the Diamine Gibson guitar series, Tobacco Sunburst is a wildly shading yellowy brown with yellow and a faint green undertone that recalls KWZ Honey. It works in every situation, shades heavily, and rewards a whole page of writing.

Yellow: Colorverse Golden Leaves

The yellow spot wins by default this year: Golden Leaves is the only yellow in the collection. From Colorverse’s tree series as the companion to the orangey-brown Ginko Tree, it is as yellow as a yellow crayon. That makes it hard to read on cream paper and tiring over a full page, but it would suit art and drawing use with fountain pen inks. Better yellows, like Sailor Yamabuki or Roshuku Toro, are on the sampling list.

Orange: Sailor Tea Time Afternoon Tea

New to the list, Afternoon Tea is meant to evoke English breakfast tea, and it truly does: a brown-leaning orange that looks like spilled tea on paper. The catch is availability. The Tea Time series comes in tiny 20 ml bottles in very limited runs, and this color is no longer easy to buy. Dominant Industry Earl Grey Tea, part of the standard line, serves as a practical backup with a similar character.

Red: Diamine Oxblood

A longtime favorite and an easy pick. Oxblood is exactly what the name promises: a dark, moody, true red that works in a business setting or a personal journal alike. It is preferred over Diamine Writer’s Blood, which leans too purple. Graf von Faber-Castell India Red takes second place for when a straight-up regular red is wanted. Roughly a third of the bottle remains, and a big bottle repurchase is already planned.

Purple: Montblanc Lavender Purple

The purple pick has changed. Montblanc Lavender Purple is a red-leaning purple with no sheen and little shading, just a genuinely pleasant everyday color that works in every pen. The downside is that it has been discontinued; Montblanc’s current purple is similar but not identical. Expect this to be a bottle to savor until it runs out.

Blue: Roshuku Aogal

Blue is the favorite ink color overall, so this pick carries weight. Aogal is super vibrant and super blue, well behaved for any occasion, and it scratches the Baystate Blue itch without staining pens or bleeding through paper. It sits comfortably in the top five inks overall. Monteverde Capri Blue remains a very close second, bright and summery, and close enough to Noodler’s Cactus/Capri that owning both felt unnecessary.

Green: Tasha Midori

A change from previous list stalwart Sailor Gently Epinard, which still gets regular use. The search was for a straight-down-the-middle, crayon-green green: not teal-leaning, not yellow-leaning, just green. Midori delivers exactly that leaf-green tone in a wet, free-flowing, well-behaved ink. Diamine Meadow runs too bright and too dry by comparison.

Blue-Black: Diamine Prussian Blue

The blue-black category stays put, though it is a close race with Roshuku Sankai. Prussian Blue leans a little gray within blue-black territory and is a moody, heavy-shading ink that makes a full page of writing genuinely enjoyable to look at. It served as the daily writer in a vanishing point pen for two or three months straight. Balanced wetness, good shading, and suitability for any purpose make it the pick.

Pink: Roshuku Suzuji

A new favorite, and sadly a discontinued one. Suzuji is a vibrant but fully readable pink with a gold sheen, which is rare in any ink. It makes a whole page readable, unlike some bright colors, and it is simply fun: the gold sheen peeking out in writing never gets old. This one ranks in the overall top ten, and a full bottle is on hand to ration carefully. If it runs dry, Cherry Blossom of Kazan is the fallback for moody pink days.

Ambiguous: Colorverse Dark Energy

The first special category is for inks that refuse classification. Dark Energy sits right between red and brown, close to a mahogany tone, and carries an odd reflective blackish sheen that shifts as it dries. It was originally found while hunting for a substitute for Bungubox Piano Mahogany, and it became a top all-time favorite: a whole bottle has already been used. It is a chameleon that keeps pulling you back to the pen.

Sheening: Scribo Blue Cosmico

A sample vial turned into a full 90 ml jam-jar bottle, which says everything. Blue Cosmico is a very dark midnight blue, almost black, with a coppery bronze sheen that evokes a night sky. It is very wet, well behaved in every pen, and can smear slightly as sheening inks tend to do. If you have not tried a Scribo ink yet, this is a strong place to start.

Shimmer: Jacques Herbin Vert Atlantide

The shimmer pick has not changed. Vert Atlantide is a dusty seafoam blue-green with both silver and gold shimmer, one of the first dual-shimmer inks and still one of the best executed. The shimmer is subtle and tasteful, the base ink shades well and behaves in pens, and the wax-sealed bottles are a nice touch. That restraint is the difference from overly shimmer-loaded inks that clog everything they touch.

Buying Advice

Three things stand out across this list. First, wet, well-behaved inks that work in any pen get the most use, so behavior matters more than exotic effects for daily writing. Second, shading often beats sheen for everyday enjoyment; sheening and shimmer inks are wonderful but need the right pen and a little patience with dry times. Third, several favorites here are discontinued or produced in tiny limited runs, so if one of them appeals, grabbing a bottle sooner rather than later is a reasonable move. For a balanced starter set from this list, Sailor Black, Diamine Oxblood, and Roshuku Aogal cover three everyday colors with zero fuss.

Conclusion

One ink per color is an artificial constraint, but a useful one: it forces every bottle to justify its spot. This 2026 list leans toward cool-toned blacks, straight-down-the-middle primaries, and a few genuinely special inks like Suzuji and Dark Energy that make writing fun again. If a few of these disappear from the market before the next update, that will say less about the inks and more about how good small-batch fountain pen inks have become.