There was a time when virtually every promotional pen was supplied with blue refills as standard. That preference has changed gradually over the last ten years and now the refill colour of choice is either blue or black. Why is this? Increasingly, public sector companies and organisations are turning to promotional pens as a giveaways and consequently are specifying black ink in preference to blue ink because many official documents require black signatures as standard.

The primary reason why black is preferred to blue is because photocopiers can see black print or writing much easier than blue and rather than compromise official documents public sector organisations stipulate this colour when they order personalised pens. This has given many pen wholesalers a huge headache as they need to carry the same pen lines in both black and blue ink, whereas previously blue was sufficient. This has meant twice the stock levels as previous for the same levels of sales. Why do some buyers prefer blue? Well many of us grew up with blue ink fountain pens and we carried on with blue inked biros as a matter of habit. That is the main reason and about 50% of us still prefer blue in preference to black. Will it change in time? Probably is the answer as there is strong evidence that the younger generation prefer black refills to blue. However, blue is by far the most popular corporate colour when it comes to logo pens and many buyers still specify blue refills because of this. The most popular shade of blue in company logos is very close to the colour of standard blue refills so it is unlikely they will disappear completely.

The quality of ink used in pens these days is very high and is referred to as documental ink. You can now expect the same life from a black refill as a blue one but this has not always been the case. In recent years there has been significant developments in ink technology and much greater compatibility between the pigment and the solvent in black refills and we should now expect similar longevity to blue. As an aside, it is worth mentioning that some colours such as red and green tend to dry out quicker and consequently stockists are very careful about stock rotation in case they are left with shelves full of personalised pens that cannot write. Whatever your choice of colour you can be sure that there is no better value for money than the humble promotional pen and long may it continue.