Fountain pen ink samples
What a sample is, how far each size goes, and how to get 119 inks' worth of choice down to the one you keep.
Last updated September 2026
Where can I buy fountain pen ink samples in India?
Here. We decant 119 premium bottled inks from Diamine, Dominant Industry, Endless, KWZ, Noodler's, Pilot and Sailor into 1, 2 and 4 ml vials and post them anywhere in India. You pick the size on every ink, one by one. Buy one sample, or six or more and 5% comes off every vial. Fill a tray and pay at checkout, by UPI, card or netbanking.
What is a fountain pen ink sample?
A small measure of ink taken from a full bottle and sealed into a labelled vial, so you can write with a colour without buying the bottle it came from. Ours come in 1, 2 and 4 ml screw-cap plastic cryo vials rather than glass, because glass and the Indian post do not get on.
Which sample size should I get: 1, 2 or 4 ml?
Count it in pen fills. A standard converter takes about 0.8 ml, so 1 ml is one fill — enough to see the colour on your own paper, in your own pen, which is the thing a photograph cannot tell you. 2 ml is two or three fills and is what most people want: long enough to know whether you would live with it. 4 ml is about five fills, or roughly a fortnight of ordinary note-taking, and is the one to take when you already suspect you will want the bottle. A broad or wet nib gets through any of them faster than a fine and dry one.
Is it worth sampling ink instead of buying a bottle?
A premium bottle runs upward of two thousand rupees, and a screen cannot tell you how the ink will shade, sheen or dry on the paper you actually use. A sample makes being wrong cheap. Buy the bottle after a fortnight of living with the colour, not after looking at a photograph of it.
Are the packs pre-filled, or do I choose the inks?
You choose every one, and the size of every one. A pack is a count, not a curation: six or more vials of whatever you put in the tray, in any mix of sizes — two of each size is a pack of six. The only ready-made sets are the bundles, one vial of every ink in a maker or a range, each listed with every colour in it before you add it. There are no mystery boxes and no subscription, and nothing arrives that you did not pick. All 119 inks can be bought one at a time too, which is the expensive way to buy.
How do I choose which inks to sample?
Start with a drawer rather than a colour. Browse by colour family or by maker, put anything that catches you into the tray, and narrow it there. A pack of six tells you which drawer you actually live in. All 119 inks have a page of their own.
How do I order ink samples?
Add samples to the tray and press Checkout. You give a delivery address, pay through Razorpay by UPI, card or netbanking, and get an email with your bill. Delivery is free from ₹1,500 of ink. No account is needed.
Can shimmer inks be sampled?
Yes, with one caution. Shimmer inks carry suspended particles, so shake the vial before you fill and use a broader nib with a wetter flow. In an extra-fine or a fine, the particles can settle in the feed and choke the ink. They are the inks most worth sampling and the least worth guessing at.
How should ink samples be stored?
Cap tight, upright, out of direct sun and away from heat. The vials are decanted to order rather than kept on a shelf, so a sample reaches you fresh from the bottle. Label side up, so you can read which dark blue is which without opening anything.
Where to go next
Every ink we carry is the full list, each with a page of its own. The journal is where we write about how ink behaves on paper, in a pen and under light. Shipping covers how a parcel travels, what delivery costs and when a parcel leaves us.
What we do not claim. No ink here has been through our own bench yet, so no shading, sheen, dry time or flow figure is published for any of them, and the photographs are the makers’ own rather than our pulls. Every ink shows its price on its own page.