• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Are you a black or blue pen person? (2 Viewers)

Are you a black or blue pen person?


  • Total voters
    76
Joined
Dec 8, 2014
Messages
883
Location
Freezer aisle
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Never knew people can be so passionate about pen colours

here: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/28/24/ea/2824ea3e62c960f8d9f2bee866920136.jpg
as you can see it is hard to determine which colour is which after it being grayscaled. All were ballpoint pens (except pencil ofc) and my printer's pretty old school and still the colours showed up


ew wtf it's 2015 and you're all like 16+

who still uses a blue pen geez show some sophistication

closest i ever go to blue is that blue-black colour
yes you are right. We are talking about blue-black (aka dark blue) vs black

May I add the views of an HSC marker - please use black in exams that are going to be scanned as blue often isn't picked up all that clearly and hence the scripts become difficult, if not impossible, to read. As markers are being paid 'by the script' when marking 'online' and not by the number of hours they worked they also won't all necessarily take the time and effort to mark your work - time costs money.
for some reason dark blue and black are indistinguishable after scanning
 
Last edited:

anomalousdecay

Premium Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
Messages
5,766
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
1. Blue
2. Purple
3. Green
4. Black
5. Red

Used a VIBGYOR model. Darkest to Brightest: 4,2,1,3,5.

Inb4completelywrong
Never knew people can be so passionate about pen colours

here: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/28/24/ea/2824ea3e62c960f8d9f2bee866920136.jpg
as you can see it is hard to determine which colour is which after it being grayscaled. All were ballpoint pens (except pencil ofc) and my printer's pretty old school and still the colours showed up
Well I was pretty damn close actually. I got the red pen correct. I did not know that there was lead pencil. Also, when Blue was mentioned, I thought as in the blue I use (which is a darkish blue but it has absolutely no black), not the blue-black infusion (which is a different ink altogether I think).

So yeah almost but not quite on my part. I can say though as for an estimate, the Black to VIBGYOR to white model kinda works.
 

matchalolz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
1,179
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2015
I used to prefer writing in blue (with red underlining) but then all my blue pens died and i started using black.
Tbh now I don't really mind and the colour I use really depends on what pens I have left in my pencil case :haha:
I always write in black for exams though
 

cem

Premium Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2005
Messages
2,438
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
for some reason dark blue and black are indistinguishable after scanning

Light blue pens however can almost disappear into the page which is why I advocate black.

The actual scanned pages come through blue anyway so the dark blue and black is already losing colour to a mid-blue but the lighter blue and other colour pens simply don't scan very well.

It is important to know now that markers are largely paid 'per script' so where a marker might have said, in the past, I am getting paid the same amount whether I spend 20 minutes on this script or 5 minutes they would take the time but now that extra 15 minutes could be 3 - 4 scripts and thus not all markers will take the time.
 

cem

Premium Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2005
Messages
2,438
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
for some reason dark blue and black are indistinguishable after scanning

Light blue pens however can almost disappear into the page which is why I advocate black.

The actual scanned pages come through blue anyway so the dark blue and black is already losing colour to a mid-blue but the lighter blue and other colour pens simply don't scan very well.

It is important to know now that markers are largely paid 'per script' so where a marker might have said, in the past, I am getting paid the same amount whether I spend 20 minutes on this script or 5 minutes they would take the time but now that extra 15 minutes could be 3 - 4 scripts and thus not all markers will take the time.
 

WrittenLoveLetters

배고파
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Messages
1,948
Gender
Female
HSC
2016
Answering questions and writing essays - Blue
Sub-headings and questions - Black
Headings and dot points - Red
Maths - Pencil

Can't fucking do rainbow, hate that shit.
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2014
Messages
883
Location
Freezer aisle
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
pencil isn't a valid pen
sorry
exactly right! We are always told not to write in pencils in exams, yet people still do. I put it in there, thinking that it won't even show up when scanned but now I'm relieved that my tables and graphs that must be in pencil, will actually do fine with a hb pencil and those darker

Well I was pretty damn close actually. I got the red pen correct. I did not know that there was lead pencil. Also, when Blue was mentioned, I thought as in the blue I use (which is a darkish blue but it has absolutely no black), not the blue-black infusion (which is a different ink altogether I think).

So yeah almost but not quite on my part. I can say though as for an estimate, the Black to VIBGYOR to white model kinda works.
your model method is pretty strategic! It just tells that colours after being scanned are really hard to recognise so yes better scanners will pick your answers in some way.
the pen I used was a common dark blue colour and was nothing special. I think blue pens are getting darker by more fusing into black. I just realised that there could be two common shades of blue, I use the darker one two common blues
lastly, by the VIBGYOR model, would yellow be the lightest?
 

anomalousdecay

Premium Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
Messages
5,766
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
your model method is pretty strategic! It just tells that colours after being scanned are really hard to recognise so yes better scanners will pick your answers in some way.
the pen I used was a common dark blue colour and was nothing special. I think blue pens are getting darker by more fusing into black. I just realised that there could be two common shades of blue, I use the darker one two common blues
lastly, by the VIBGYOR model, would yellow be the lightest?
Yeah I assumed a lighter blue so it kinda muddled with my results.

Nup red would be the lightest by the model. Must be a vibrant red (use a gel pen) and vibrant yellow (again a gel pen should be used). Try it out and update if you have either of them haha. You can use colour pencil for this too as colour pencils don't contain ink mixes in them as pens do. In my opinion, colour pencils would actually be a better choice for such an experiment.
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2014
Messages
883
Location
Freezer aisle
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Yeah I assumed a lighter blue so it kinda muddled with my results.

Nup red would be the lightest by the model. Must be a vibrant red (use a gel pen) and vibrant yellow (again a gel pen should be used). Try it out and update if you have either of them haha. You can use colour pencil for this too as colour pencils don't contain ink mixes in them as pens do. In my opinion, colour pencils would actually be a better choice for such an experiment.
challenge accepted
Here are my findings: (used coloured pencils)
Different colours scanned, in black&white

answers:
Yellow is more visible than red desaturated but when I grayscaled, the yellow pretty much disappeared. I thought grayscale would be the same as desaturate
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 2)

Top