13 Best Fountain Pen Inks [2025]

So much ink, so little time.

Each year, the world’s best writing brands add to the ever-growing spectrum of fountain pen inks. In this article, we compile the top fountain pen inks across all the brands we offer on the Goldspot Pens website. Join us for all the shimmer, shading, and sheen!

How did we make this list?

Using sales data and customer reviews on Goldspot.com, we selected the 13 most popular fountain pen inks. This list includes new sensations as well as evergreen favorites that our pen pals can't stop raving about.

Our favorite part

Besides being an exact pantone match with the Sailor 1911 fountain pen of the same name, "Cthulhu" draws its inspiration from the tale of supernatural horror penned by HP Lovecraft.

Features

The color is a rich, dark teal with a smattering of sinister red sheen. Yet, it's not a super sheener that tends to cause flow issues. Many of our pen pals praise this ink on its wetness and ease of use in a variety of their fountain pens.

Our favorite part

This ink had a few "viral" moments on social media that had people, both pen enthusiasts and newbies, ooh-ing and aahh-ing over the brilliance of this ink color. The J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary collection set the trend for all the shimmer and sheen inks that continue to hit the market since then.

Features

Much like the Call of the Cthulhu, Emerald of Chivor's base color is a dark teal color. If you write with a dip pen or a broad/stub nib fountain pen, you'll see a high degree of red sheen paired with shimmering gold.

Our favorite part

Pelikan doesnt have many shimmer ink options. So, Golden Lapis is quite a unique offering from the over 180-year-old company who started their business making ink.

Features

A bold, flowing blue color, Golden Lapis adds a gilded accent with gold shimmer particles. The 50ml Edelstein glass bottle is desk art in itself.

Our favorite part

The chilly, contrasting blue shimmer is unusual to see paired with such a velvety red ink. It has a magic, supernatural look that best fits the theme.

Features

Your vacuum-filling pens will want to suck the blood-red ink from this 30ml glass bottle. Just make sure you’re diligent about cleaning your fountain pen after you’ve run empty or between changing colors.

Our favorite part

The richness of this black ink contrasts beautifully with the paper. Thanks to its waterproof trait, Chou Kuro is well-suited for both writing and artistic pursuits. So, you could draw line art using Chou Kuro, then apply color washes over it without fear of smearing.

Note: you do have to wait for the ink to dry prior to erasing or applying other ink or watercolor pigment on top of the artwork.

Features

This rich black ink is completely waterproof once it dries on the page. The 60ml bottle includes an inner reservoir cup that allows you to access the ink easily once the level drops.

Our favorite part

When it was released along with the Safari 2017 special edition pen of the same name, Lamy Petrol disappeared off the shelves in the blink of an eye. Lamy grossly underestimated the popularity of this ink release. After these bottles quickly sold out, they were being offered on eBay for 10 times the regular price. While Lamy couldn't replicate the color exactly, they did come close, which gives today's pen enthusiasts an opportunity to write with this economical Petrol ink.

Features

Lamy Petrol is a dark greenish teal ink with shading and some black sheen. The Lamy LT52 ink bottle has a squat design with a removable base that contains a roll of blotting paper to clean your pen after inking.

Our favorite part

For a bright magenta with greenish-gold sheen, there's nothing quite like Yama-Budo. This is a bold color, not for the faint of heart.

Features

Pilot's Iroshizuku ink bottles are aesthetically pleasing. They add a touch of distinction and luxury to your desk while providing your pen with a stunning ink color.

Our favorite part

We love inks that bring something new to the table. The Glass Bead Game is a multi-chromatic shading ink that also has shimmer. As you can see by the swatch, the ink isn't any one uniform color, but contains a variety of hues that complement each other.

Features

The base color dries into a delicate interplay of pink and green, with a shimmering layer of silver and blue glitter adorning it—evoking the universal harmony and order encapsulated within the glass beads.

Our favorite part

In contrast to other "sepia" fountain pen inks, Lamy's Sepia has a bright, saturated tone. When we think of sepia, we usually envision a muted, light brown color like in old photographs. This robust, reddish-brown Sepia ink has a fresh, exuberant energy.

Features

Lamy Sepia is a medium-toned, warm brown ink with some shading and a slight hint of sheen. The Lamy LT52 ink bottle has a squat design with a removable base that contains a roll of blotting paper to clean your pen after inking.

Our favorite part

Besides being a perfect match for the "lime wedge" grip section on the Benu Euphoria Margarita fountain pen, Cosmic Lime Explosion has a duo pigmented shimmer (gold and silver) to accent the zesty lime base color of the ink. It shades well and the shimmer doesn't hold back the explosive flow of ink.

Features

This light, lime green color glistens with pigmented silver and gold pearl. Brewed exclusively for Goldspot and packaged in a 30ml bottle with themed outer box artwork.

Our favorite part

For those of us who love a good blue ink - and, face it, there are plenty of us who enjoy the "blues" - Kon Peki is a bright, saturated blue that is easy to clean out of your pen.

Features

Of course, you buy the bottle for the ink. That Iroshizuku 50ml glass bottle does look handsome on the desk, though. It'll even look better once you've used all the beautiful blue ink inside.

Our favorite part

We love it when brands work with the pen community to create something the people want. Such is the case for the yearly Reddit ink. The entire r/fountainpens subreddit community gets involved in the color selection.

Features

The rich, bordeaux red of this ink flows freely with a little shading and a hint of coppery sheen.

Our favorite part

There are shading inks and there are multi-chromatic shading inks like Sailor Manyo Haha. Instead of shading from dark to light, an ink like Haha contains multiple dyes that separate when the ink is spread on paper. That's why the swatch can look both pink and blue with a hint of green.

Features

Packaged in a 50ml glass bottle, this Sailor Manyo ink has a more efficient cost per ML than most Sailor inks, which are usually contained in smaller 20ml bottles. "Haha" is one of several multi-chromatic shading inks that Sailor produces. Yet, its the most popular hue of the mutli-shaders.

Now that we covered our top, bestselling inks of 2025, many of you will have additional questions based on how you prefer using your pens and inks. Below, you’ll find our most current answers to the popular questions posed by today’s pen enthusiasts.

Best Black Fountain Pen Ink

Our favorite black ink for 2025 has to be the Platinum Chou Kuro as mentioned above. In the conversation of the best waterproof black inks for artists, we have always recommended either Platinum’s Carbon Black or Noodler’s Bulletproof Black. Chou Kuro, while being more expensive, provides the richest and deepest black. It should be advised that Chou Kuro has a longer-than-average dry time. But, once it dries, it’s not going anywhere!

Best Fast-Drying Fountain Pen Ink

For those who write left-handed, or need an ink that dries quickly so you can close your notebook after jotting down ideas, a fast-drying ink like Graf von Faber-Castell is a must-have in your ink arsenal. Although Graf hasn’t introduced any new ink colors this year, we’re still giving them kudos for having such a great selection of colors that all dry relatively quickly.

Best Value Fountain Pen Ink

One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing with a fountain pen is the near-limitless choice of ink color. Although inks are not as expensive as fountain pens, buying a bunch of bottled inks could quickly close the cost gap. Thankfully, there are several options to grow your ink collection without having to break the bank.

1. Ink Samples - Although the cost per ml volume is higher than buying a full bottle of ink, trying out a color is the more cost-effective option in trying a large variety of colors.

2. Diamine 30ml bottles vs 80ml. Diamine offers dozens of their inks in either the 30ml plastic bottle or 80ml glass version. The 30ml bottles are very reasonably priced and the bottles are smaller so they take up less space if you collect a bunch.  

3. Noodler’s Ink offers the best cost per ml for their fountain pen inks. However, most of their bottles contain 90ml (or more) of the color, which might be more volume than you can handle in a lifetime, especially if you have a variety of colors.

What Makes a Great Fountain Pen Ink?

Looking through the list of the 13 best fountain pen inks, you might struggle to find a common thread that links each ink. They’re all different colors from different brands with different properties that make them unique. But what do great fountain pen inks have in common? Let’s break it down.

Good writing experience and performance

Great inks play nicely with a majority of fountain pens and nib sizes. This means you shouldn’t have to worry about these inks clogging your pen, causing flow issues, or bleeding through fountain pen-friendly paper. Excellent fountain pen inks should flow nicely, can be cleaned out easily, and have a reliable consistency across the paper you use with your fountain pens.

Your Favorite Ink Color, Gradient, and Style

Fountain pen inks elicit an emotional response when you see the gorgeous color on the page. Your choice of favorite ink color is highly personal. So, your definition of a “great fountain pen ink” could differ significantly from someone else based on the preference of color. Just like with popular movies, books, and music, ink colors can be raised to greatness due to the general consensus. There are some colors that a majority of writers gravitate towards. Hence, the topic of this post.

Fast-Drying Pen Ink

Fast-drying fountain pen inks are ideal for lefties and writers who quickly jot down their thoughts and immediately close their notebooks. Save yourself the waiting, blowing, and blotting, try writing with an ink that dries quickly.