The analysis of ball-point inks for forensic purposes

Abstract

Ball-point pens and the variety of colored inks that flow from them have been a ubiquitous part of our society for about 50 years. They are the most common of all our writing instruments. The examination of these kinds of inks sometimes becomes important in a legal case, and in a typical crime laboratory, the analysis of the ink used on questioned documents such as contracts, wills, checks, tax returns, threat notes, etc., becomes the responsibility of the forensic chemist. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the typical steps used in the analysis of ball-point ink.The ink that flows from a bail-point pen is not a pure substance, but a complex mixture of many different chemicals.

Characterization and sequence determination of pen inks, red sealing inks, and laser toners by TOF‐SIMS and ATR FTIR

“…Characterization of inks, dyes, and pigments on paper is of importance in forensic science and in the study of valuable documents and works of art. In the forensic science area, many documents contain writing made with pen inks, and a review of the literature reveals that pens are still the most common handwriting implements used in such applications . The identification of pen inks in documents under study is important to investigate the authenticity of a document based on marks from a variety of implements including pencils, ballpoint or fountain pens, laser toners, and photocopy toners.…”

Application of time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry to the in situ analysis of ballpoint pen inks on paper

“…The majority of documents examined in a forensic laboratory contain writing made with pen inks (Bird, 2002, Personal communication) and a review of the literature suggests that ballpoint pens are still the most common hand writing implements used in such applications [6,7], and especially for personal signatures. The inks used are specially formulated depending on their application.…”

New perspectives in the use of ink evidence in forensic science

“…The following five meanings attributed to the concept of source are commonly encountered in forensic ink examination [3,8,16,17,[31][32][33][34][35]]:…”