Blue is the most popular fountain pen ink colour after black — which makes sense, because blue is the colour most people think of when they imagine writing. But fountain pen blues are not the flat, uniform colour of a ballpoint refill. The best ones shade, sheen, and shift in the light in ways that make writing genuinely beautiful. This guide covers the best blues across every shade and use case.
The breadth of blue
Blue encompasses more territory in the fountain pen world than most other colours. It runs from pale ice blue and sky blue through mid azure and royal blue through deep navy and blue-black. It also bleeds into neighbouring colours — some blues lean turquoise or teal; others lean purple or violet. Understanding where in that spectrum you want to be narrows the choice significantly.
Best everyday blue
Waterman Serenity Blue (formerly Tender Blue) is the most consistently recommended beginner blue in the fountain pen community — and the recommendation holds up. It's a clean, medium-dark blue with no eccentricities: no excessive feathering, no bleedthrough, works reliably in virtually every pen on virtually every paper. It's the ink that fountain pen experts use to diagnose problem pens, because if a pen won't write well with Serenity Blue, the pen has a problem. A 50ml bottle is extremely good value.
For something with a bit more character at a similar price: Lamy Blue runs slightly drier than Serenity Blue, which makes it excellent in wet pens and pairs well with Lamy pens.
Best medium blue: Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki
Kon-peki (Deep Azure) is one of the most beloved inks in the entire Iroshizuku range. It's a vivid, clean blue with a slight turquoise lean — more saturated and more expressive than Waterman Serenity Blue, with a gentle shading that gives writing depth and dimension. In a medium or broad nib on good paper, it shades from a pale, almost sky-blue through a deep saturated azure.
It doesn't sheen dramatically, but it doesn't need to — the colour itself is so precisely calibrated that it needs no additional tricks. If you're only ever going to own one blue ink, Kon-peki is the one to own.
Best blue-black
Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai (Deep Sea) is a rich, balanced blue-black — darker than Kon-peki but distinctly blue rather than the near-black of some blue-blacks. It shades subtly and sheens red-black in wetter pens on good paper. Professional enough for correspondence, characterful enough for journaling.
For a more dramatic blue-black with stronger shading: Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo (Moonlit Night) is a moody teal-leaning blue-black that looks almost black in fine nibs and reveals its teal depth in broader ones. One of the most sophisticated everyday inks available.
Best classic blue-black (iron gall)
The original "blue-black" refers to iron gall inks that write blue and oxidise to near-black over time. Diamine Registrar's Blue-Black is the most accessible of these — it begins as a bright, slightly grey-leaning blue and darkens to a professional blue-black as it cures. It's also water-resistant, making it the practical choice for official correspondence and any writing that needs to survive moisture.
Best vivid azure for impact
Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-gao (Morning Glory) is a bold, intense cornflower blue — slightly darker and more saturated than Kon-peki, with a dramatic red-black sheen in wet pens on Tomoe River paper. Where Kon-peki is the perfect everyday blue, Asa-gao is the ink you reach for when you want the page to respond to what you're writing.
Best sky blue
Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-iro (Sky Colour) is a bright, cheerful aqua-to-azure — the lightest of the Iroshizuku blues. It reads genuinely pale, which limits its legibility in fine nibs on busy pages, but in a medium nib on white paper it's a beautiful spring-morning blue. Also one of the fastest-drying inks in the Iroshizuku range, making it more practical for those concerned about smearing.
Best teal blue
Straddling the border between blue and green: Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku (Peacock) is a vivid turquoise that reads blue or green depending on the light. It sheens red-black in generous applications on Tomoe River — a striking contrast to the turquoise base. One of the most photographed inks in the community for good reason.
Best dark blue with sheen
Diamine Majestic Blue is a richly saturated dark blue with an eye-catching red sheen visible on smooth papers. It dries more slowly than most blues, but the combination of deep colour and dramatic sheen makes it one of the most impressive blues available at Diamine's price point.
Choosing your first blue ink
Start with either Waterman Serenity Blue (if you want reliability above all else) or Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki (if you want the best balance of reliability and beauty). Both are excellent starting points that will perform well in any pen on any paper, and both will give you a sense of what blue fountain pen ink can do before you explore the wider range.
Browse all blue fountain pen inks at The Journal Shop.
Where to start: browse our fountain pen inks and fountain pens at The Journal Shop.
