The popularity of the Frixion pen range continues to grow exponentially with each year that passes by due to the excellent performance of the pen range as well as the low price tag that Frixion pens are known for. With sales of regular Frixion pens, their Fineliners, and their Highlighters all growing rapidly, it is not surprising to see so many people reaching out with questions about the Pilot Frixion range.
Although we have already answered a number of different questions about the Frixion pen range, we have noticed more and more people reaching out to ask if Frixion pens fade over time or not. Due to this, we have decided to publish this dedicated article going over the fade potential and the common reasons that Pilots erasable Frixion ink may fade on you as well as how you can sometimes get it to reappear depending on the circumstances.
Our hope is that this article will be able to help any of our readers who do use the Frixion range as it is an excellent set of stationery that has a huge user base that is constantly growing. Please note that some of the points raised in our article may be accurate for other brands of erasable ink pens, we are specifically focusing on the Frixion range for the purposes of this article.
Do Frixion Pens Fade Over Time?
Although the Frixion pen ink has been designed from the very beginning to be an erasable ink, Pilot have done an excellent job of engineering the ink formula to be fade resistant. Due to this, the ink is able to last you for years without fading the slightest provided that your keep your work in ideal storage conditions. This tends to be in a cool, dry place that is also out of direct sun light if possible due to the thermo-ink technology that the Frixion ink uses.
We have lost count of the number of people that we have seen accidentally erase their Frixion ink and mistake it for the ink fading too so you also have to keep this in mind. If you accidentally heat your notepad that you have wrote on using your Pilot Frixion pens to 140°F/60°C then the thermo-sensitive compounds in the ink will activate and it will disappear.
This is common for students who accidentally leave their bag in their car on a hot day while they are in class only to return and find that their notes have accidentally been erased. People also commonly make this mistake by leaving their notebook on or near a hot radiator too resulting in the same issue of their Frixion ink having disappeared.
This does not mean that the ink has faded though, it is still there, just the temperature regulator in the ink has activated so it looks invisible to the human eye. Due to this, you can usually put your book in a freezer that is around -10°C for a few minutes to de-activate the temperature regulator compound in the ink to make it visible again.
If your Pilot Frixion ink had actually faded then the formula would be too weak for this little trick to work and we usually find that most people who mistakingly think that their Frixion ink has faded can chill their notes and their ink comes back. Due to there being a number of issues that can cause your ink to accidentally disappear due to getting too warm, it is usually wise to remember this little trick.
Does All Erasable Ink Pens Disappear Over Time?
At the time of writing, the Frixion range are definitely the market leaders when it comes to erasable ink. Although they do have a small number of competitors who have a solid product, they do tend to be well behind when it comes to their thermo-sensitive ink formulas resulting in issues with accidental erasal as well as the ink actually fading.
Due to this, going with a pen from the official Pilot Frixion range is almost always going to be the best option as the perform better than the competition while usually being a very similar price to them. The official Frixion pens also have less issues due to having a better ink formula and tend not to fade like some of their competition can too.
How Do You Get FriXion Ink To Reappear?
You can pop your notebook into a freezer that is around -10°C for a couple of minutes to make the ink reappear quickly. Although there are a number of other methods that you can take advantage of, this does tend to be the one with the highest success rate while also being quick and easy to do.
This will de-activate the temperature regulator compound in the ink formula and make the ink reappear as if it had never been erased. If you do think that your Frixion ink has faded then try this quick and easy trick as it usually does the trick and makes your ink visible again with the issue usually having been down to user error on your part as explained earlier in the article.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if Frixion pens fade over time to a close and as we have mentioned above, many people mistakingly think that their Frixion ink has faded when in actual fact, it has not and the issue is simply user error. All of the products in the current Frixion pen range has an excellent track record for their ink standing the test of time and not fading so you can rest assured that you should not have any issues moving forward with your ink.
