Indian ink, also called Chinese ink, is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing, and now more commonly used for drawings. Indian ink usually is not suitable for fountain pens, as it will readily clog the pen. An exception to this is Pelikan Fount India , which does not contain shellac, the substance which can cause clogging. Early treatises on the arts refer to black carbon ink that was prepared by the ancient Chinese and Egyptians. Originally design- ed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphs, the basis of the ink was a black carbon pigment in an aqueous adhesive or binding medium; for example, a mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil mixed with the gelatin of donkey skin and musk. Sometime before the 12th century, Eraclius, in his De Coloribus et Artibus Romanorum, presented a set of directions for making several types of carbon inks, including one similar to the Indian ink of China, made from the soot of burning resin or wood. Different types of wood will create different-colored inks. As the recipe shows, no binder material is necessary: the carbon molecules are in colloidal suspension and form a waterproof layer after drying; often waterproof shellac is added though. Indian ink replaced the previously widespread Iron gall ink in the opening years of the 20th century.

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