Page:The History of Ink.djvu/14

8 almost universally Paper. Parchment is still used in many legal documents and writings of form and ceremony. Cotton, linen, and silk, when woven into fabrics for garments and like uses, are also subjected to marks of ink for the purpose of identifying property. So are wooden and leathern surfaces, in similar conditions. It is also employed in writing on stone, in the quite modern art of lithography.

Though its great original and continual employment is in writing, it must be remembered that it is also largely used in the delineation of objects by artists. Ink and paint are mutually convertible to each others uses, but are yet so distinct in character and objects, that no one regards the words as synonymous, and no precise definition is needed to teach the distinction between them. As, for instance, in pen-and-ink drawings and sketches, the ink serves the purpose of paint. So likewise in the letters on sign-boards, &c. paint may be considered as a substitute for ink. The artist who traces his name on the canvas in a corner of his painting, employs paint in a similar manner. Printing-ink is used as black paint. In the best red inks, carmine (a paint in water-colors) is the essential ingredient. Indian Ink is used here only as paint,—in China, as ink.