Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books
A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

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colored inks

Inks of various colors used for both printing and writing. Numerous dyes and pigments have been used in the manufacture of these inks. Those made from pigment and vegetable colors were used for hundreds of years, but are rarely used today. Inks made from minium (red lead), red ochre (rubrica) or vermillion were used by the Romans, while in the middle ages verdigris or metallic inks (powdered gold or silver in a gum) were often used. From about 1600 to the time the first use was made of inks produced from alizarin or aniline dyestuffs (1861), natural indigo, logwood, cochineal, and similar vegetable pigments were commonly used ingredients in colored inks.

Inks made from synthetic dyestuffs. while inert in solutions of the dye and water, and therefore not harmful to paper, are not nearly as permanent as iron-gall or carbon inks, although they are more permanent than the early synthetic dyestuffs. (143 )




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