With the surge in the popularity of fountain pens recently, we have noticed a huge number of questions being asked each month by people looking to ensure that they are getting the best possible writing experience out of their pen during use. As you may expect, when it comes ot fountain pens, we have noticed a ton of questions specifically about ink with questions ranging from the type of ink you should be using with your pen to how you should be refilling your ink.
One of the more commonly asked questions that we have noticed being asked is based around the best fast drying fountain pen ink on the market right now. Although traditional inks still have the majority of the market share, fast drying fountain pen inks are becoming increasingly popular with each passible month and for a number of different reasons.
Although there are a number of suitable inks on the market right now that do tend to dry faster than their competition, we feel that the Pilot Iroshizuku is without a doubt the best option. It offers an extremely fast-drying ink formula that also provides an excellent writing experience as well as a very budget-friendly price tag for its performance.
We would guess that this is why the Pilot Iroshizuku range of inks in addition to the huge color selection that they are available in is why the ink has managed to earn itself such an excellent reputation in such a short period of time. If the last few years are anything to go by then we expect the demand for a fast drying fountain pen ink to steadily continue where as the sales and reputation of the Pilot Iroshizuku ink to sky rocket as more people try it and use it as their go to ink of choice.
The Best Fast Drying Fountain Pen Ink
As we touched on above, in our opinion, the Pilot Iroshizuku range of inks is the best fast drying ink option for fountain pens currently on the market. If you are left handed or need a fast drying ink for any other reason then it is our primary recommendation to our readers.
Please note that depending on your fountain pen nib size, some fast drying inks can tend to feather more easily than traditional inks but this is just a trade off for using a fast drying ink and at the time of writing, is unavoidable. This tends to only be an issue with broad or double-broad nib sizes though and as most people tend to use a fine or medium nib size, this should not be too much of a problem for our readers.
One strong selling point of the Pilot Iroshizuku ink is that it is currently available in twenty seven different colors meaning that you should always be able to find exactly what you need and still be able to take advantage of their fast drying ink formula. Although we touched on a few of the compeating brands on the market earlier, the majority of them only offer their inks in black, blue, green, and sometimes red.
Although they do make up the four most common colors for fountain pen ink with the majority of people sticking to either black or blue ink, having the option to dry other colors is always nice. Unlike some other fast drying inks on the market right now, the Pilot Iroshizuku tends to hold its color well and not fade overtime helping to preserve your work without any special treatment being required.
As this is a bottled ink, it is ideal for anyone using a fountain pen with a piston filler or cartridge convertor but you are also able to refill some cartridges with the ink too depending on the pen that you are using. This is easy to do with some ink cartridges where as others may need a syringe to refill the cartridge but it allows you to use this fast drying ink with pretty much any modern fountain pen available on the market.
Although the ink is not fully waterproof, Pilot Iroshizuku does have some water resistant properties once it has dried into your paper. Due to it being a fast drying ink, this doesnt take long and offers your work some protection against water but due to the ink formula not having been designed to be waterproof, we would still recommend that you avoid water where possible.
We know that some fast drying fountain pen inks have had a number of issues with bleeding and ghosting due to their formula rapidly absorbing into the paper. Although the Pilot Iroshizuku formula may ghost a little on thin paper, it should not have any issues with ghosting or bleeding for the vast majority of people and if you do tend to use a thin paper, you can always upgrade to some cheap, high GSM paper to prevent the issues.
How Long Does It Take For Pen Ink To Dry?
Although the average person will find that their Pilot Iroshizuku ink will dry in under a second when writing with it in their favorite fountain pen, there are a few factors that you have to take in but we are confident that it’s average dry time will always be less than a second. If you are left-handed and drag your hand when writing with your fountain pen then this can easily help to prevent you from smudging and smearing your writing.
The main factor that comes into play for how long it will take for your ink to dry is the nib size of your fountain pen. A wider nib path for a broad or double-broad fountain pen nib will transfer more ink to the paper to provide you with that wider font size. Due to this, it can take a little longer for the ink to dry but it is still a faster drying ink than a traditional ink helping to ensure that the smear risk is minimal.
A less common factor that we touched on earlier in the article is that different types and thicknesses of paper will also take a different amount of time for your ink to dry in on. The majority of the time though, the differences is a fraction of a second and most people won’t be able to tell the difference anyway as the ink will still dry extremely quickly on the vast majority of paper types.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over the fastest drying fountain pen ink on the market to an end. We doubt that anything is going to be able to knock Pilot Iroshizuku off the top spot anytime soon and it is our primary recommendation for our readers looking for an ink for their fountain pens that dries quickly. It has a number of advantages going for it over the competition as well as its excellent reputation that is has rightfully managed to earn amongst penthusiasts over the years.
