Waterproof ink is not water-soluble and can withstand exposure to water, but the written surface may still be destroyed. It comes in various forms, including pressurized cartridges for astronaut pens. Regular ink can also be made waterproof by adding glue.
Waterproof ink is a form of ink that can be used in various pens and is intended not to be water soluble and therefore not run or mar from exposure to water. Most ink is water soluble, and when exposed to even small amounts of water, it can become too blurry to read or can be completely wiped off a surface. Note however that this does not control how the written surface will behave when exposed to water. A waterproof ink used on regular paper can withstand exposure to water, but the paper it is written on can still be destroyed by water.
There are different forms of waterproof ink, and some regular inks can also be changed to waterproof. The most common form of waterproof ink is one that can be used to fill a fountain pen or comes in cartridges for use in ballpoint pens. This form of waterproof ink is typically only waterproof once it dries on paper or other writing surface. While the ink is still liquid and when it has not yet dried on the surface, it can still be soluble in water and marred, washed away or destroyed by water or other fluids.
A less common and more specific form of waterproof ink is one that comes in a pressurized cartridge for use in so-called astronaut pens. These pens use the pressurized cartridge to allow you to write upside down, underwater and in the low gravity of space. This type of pen was developed by American inventor Paul Fisher in 1965 and used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to counteract the effect of low gravity on standard ballpoint pens. These pens have water-insoluble ink and can be used to write on surfaces completely submerged in water without fear of running or ruining. The written surface must, of course, still be able to survive exposure to water and therefore specially treated paper is recommended.
Many regular forms of ink can also be made into waterproof ink by adding a small amount of glue to the ink. This amount can vary depending on the ink and usually requires some experimentation to find the correct formula. Through this process, the ink can be made waterproof from water-soluble, though typically only after the ink has dried. While this is an inaccurate means of producing waterproof ink and will usually not be as reliable as inks purchased specifically to be waterproof, it can often be sufficient if no alternative is available.
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