I’m torn between using blue ink so lenders can spot wet signatures vs sticking with black because some county recorders and grayscale scanners choke on blue and kick back deeds. Has anyone actually had a recording or POA rejected for blue, or is this one of those quirks we repeat - especially when e-recording seems to flatten blue to near-black anyway?
I’ve had a county clerk kick back a blue‑ink POA when their grayscale scan lost contrast, so now I default to black for anything that will be recorded. Does your e‑recording vendor convert blue cleanly on deeds in your county? I keep both pens handy but note black for recordables in the confirmation so title knows what they’ll get.
Before blue goes anywhere near a deed, I do a 10‑second test — snap a grayscale phone scan of a sample line; if it looks like a shy Smurf, I grab black. Title/closing instructions override for me, and some lenders still ask for blue on affidavits. Which county or e‑record vendor are you dealing with?
I split it by document type: black archival gel ink for anything recordable, blue only on the note or lender copies so lenders can spot wet signatures. That’s kept deeds from being bounced while still satisfying the “flatten blue to near-black” reality with e-recording. Are your counties still microfilming, or fully digital now?
Quick tweak that’s kept me out of rejections: pigment black gel, 0.7 mm+, for anything that hits the recorder; blue only if title/lender puts it in writing. Even when systems “flatten blue to near‑black,” some counties still microfilm () and the blue reads like pencil, so I keep one blue‑black pen for borrower‑visible pages. @sami322 do you have a county whose bulletin calls out ink color?
Had one blue-ink POA kicked back last year — QC said the sig was too faint after a grayscale pass, and I had to re-sign and eat a $25 courier… Now I default to pigment black on anything that records and only use blue if title/lender puts it in writing, @dolphin9512’s gel tip tracks. If you’re on the fence, run a test through the same scanner the office uses and see if it ‘chokes on blue’ like you mentioned.
It’s really a contrast problem, not a color debate: I treat anything recordable as pigment‑black only, and if a signer insists on blue I’ll snap a 300‑dpi phone scan of a test sig to be sure it won’t get washed when systems “flatten blue to near‑black.” @jay6560’s split is solid, and I also keep my notary stamp in black since some counties still microfilm and faint hues don’t survive.
I’ve had e-recordings go through with either, but the only time I got dinged was a blue ballpoint that went faint after the title office’s auto-threshold — … Now I snap a 300‑dpi grayscale of the first sig on my phone; if it looks thin, we swap to a bold archival black for recordables and leave blue for non-recordables unless the lender wants “wet signatures” to stand out. Any county you’ve seen specify ink color in writing?