German fountain pen brand Lamy produces several ranges of inks in bottle and cartridge format, and due to some of their style choices when designing their packaging, they’re not always easy to tell apart.
Lamy Standard Inks
The standard Lamy ink range includes a small selection of core colours, most of which are fairly conservative and traditional; this core selection is occasionally added-to but remains largely static. In addition, Lamy sometimes releases limited-edition inks which are often matched to Lamy’s annual Safari or AL-Star limited edition pens.
These inks are released in several forms:
- T10 ink cartridges – full range of colours
- T51 30mL bottle – black ink only
- T52 50mL bottle – full range of colours (except Violet); this is their ‘standard’ bottle
Identifying Lamy Ink Bottles and Cartridges
Unfortunately the packaging for Lamy’s T52 bottles and T10 cartridges does not include the name of the ink anywhere. (This may also be the case for the T51 black ink bottle; I haven’t confirmed.)
The ink colour is represented on the packaging with a circle of the relevant colour, but this can be hard to distinguish when you have several inks in the same colour range. This is particularly egregious because Lamy’s LE colours cluster in several colour groups which are very easy to confuse with each other – the inks might look different but the packaging doesn’t!
- purples/burgundies: Dark Lilac 2016, Dark Lilac 2024, Blackberry, Cliff
- oranges: Neon Coral, Copper Orange, Bronze, an unreleased orange which occasionally appears in the wild; Lamy Red’s cartridge packaging also looks similar
- greens: Neon Lime, Charged Green
The only reliable way to distinguish between slightly different Lamy ink packaging is by checking the inks’ barcodes and/or UPC numbers. So I have compiled a database with the UPC numbers for Lamy’s standard ink range, so that you can tell exactly which inks you have.
My thanks to the members of the Fountain Pens Australia Discord server and the r/fountainpens subreddit for their assistance and contributions of information!
If you have information for any of the ink barcodes not already listed here, please do leave me a message!
Lamy Turquoise and Lamy Pacific Blue
Turquoise was a regular ink in Lamy’s standard range and in 2017 Lamy’s limited edition ink – released to match the Pacific Blue Al-Star – was a repackage of Turquoise in a new box with a different barcode/UPC, released as ‘Pacific Blue’. There’s no difference between the inks (it’s my understanding that Lamy themselves have confirmed they’re the same ink in two different packages) but the barcodes and UPCs are different on the Pacific Blue packaging compared with the Turquoise.
Lamy Dark Lilac and Lamy Petrol: the Drama and the Re-Releases
Dark Lilac and Petrol were Lamy’s limited edition inks for 2016 and 2017, in both cases sold in tandem with a matching Safari release. Both inks were popular and Dark Lilac especially so – it has long been one of the ‘grail inks’ of the fountain pen community for its nice writing experience, its very attractive rich dark purple colour, and its strong gold sheen on high-quality papers. It was only released in small quantites and sold out quickly, and over time bottles of it fetched increasingly high prices in the secondary market.
In 2024 Lamy announced they were rereleasing Dark Lilac as a permanent release in their standard range, not a limited edition. The community hit peak excitement almost immediately, but reports started filtering in that the ink was not identical.
After some early purchasers shared swatches with the community, it became apparent that the new Dark Lilac had very very heavy green sheen instead of the original’s gold sheen; Lamy had originally maintained the new release was the same as the original, but when details started filtering out, Lamy admitted they’d had to change the formulation as one of the original red dyes used in the mix was no longer available.
Lamy re-released 2017’s Petrol a year later in 2025, but this time they announced up front that it was a different formulation.
Lamy Crystal Inks
These are less conservative colours than Lamy’s standard ink range, and only come in 30mL bottles at a higher price point. Thankfully, their packaging includes their ink names, so I have not included them in the table below.
Lamy Ink Barcodes
This table shows the UPC for Lamy ink bottles and cartridge packs. You can find the UPC below the barcode on the underside of the ink bottle box, or on the back of the ink cartridge box.
See below the table for notes on specific inks.
| Range | Year | Name | Cartridges | Bottle | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Black | 4014519020752 | 4014519422853 | ||
| Standard | Blue | 4014519021933 4014519020776 | 4014519089339? | ||
| Standard | Blue-Black | 4014519106555 | 4014519089360 4014519422914? | See note 1. | |
| Standard | Green | 4014519429593 | 4014519089353 | ||
| Standard | Red | 4014519020769 | 4014519089322 | ||
| Standard | Turquoise | 4014519089346 | 4014519422891 previously IDed UPC, seems to be incorrect? | ||
| Standard | Violet | 4014519057833 | not available | ||
| Standard | 2024 | Dark Lilac (2024) | 4014519764052 | See note 3. | |
| Standard | 2025 | Petrol (2025) | 4014519789383 | See note 4. | |
| Standard | 2025 | Sepia | 4014519789390 | ||
| Special Edition | 2014 | Neon Coral | 4014519906032 | 4014519624271 | |
| Special Edition | 2015 | Copper Orange | 4014519632269 | 4014519635307 | |
| Special Edition | 2015 | Neon Lime | 4014519632276 | ||
| Special Edition | 2016 | Charged Green | 4014519662310 | 4014519662341 | |
| Special Edition | 2016 | Dark Lilac (2016) | 4014519662365 | 4014519662358 | |
| Special Edition | 2017 | Pacific Blue (Turquoise rerelease) | 4014519679660 | 4014519679684 | |
| Special Edition | 2017 | Petrol | 4014519679677 | 4014519679691 | |
| Special Edition | 2018 | Vibrant Pink | 4014519966056 | 4014519696094 | |
| Special Edition | 2019 | Bronze | 4014519712848 | 4014519712879 | 4014519712878 also provided as an alternative bottle UPC but no image so it may have been a typo (one digit off) |
| Special Edition | 2020 | Mango | 4014519726289 | 4014519726272 | |
| Special Edition | 2020 | Turmaline | 4014519726340 | 4014519726364 | |
| Special Edition | 2024 | Blackberry | 4014519770282 | 4014519767398 | |
| Special Edition | 2024 | Cliff | 4014519770275 | 4014519767404 | |
| Orange (unreleased?) | no barcode | ||||
| Range | Year | Name | Cartridges | Bottle | Notes |
Notes on Specific Lamy Inks
- Lamy Blue-Black changed its formulation in 2011/12. Previously the bottles contained an iron gall formulation while cartridges contained a standard dye formulation; after the change, both formats have the non-iron gall ink.
- The UPC for the product may not have changed; this is unclear and available info is conflicting.
- Lamy Violet is only available in cartridges. (Which is a shame as it’s a gorgeous ink.)
- Lamy Dark Lilac changed formulation from 2016 limited edition due to discontinuation of a specific dye component.
- Lamy Petrol changed formulation from 2017 limited edition.
Looking for More Info…
Missing UPC Barcodes
I’m still looking to source the following UPCs to fill in the blanks in the table. If you have one of these products, please snap a photo of the packaging including the barcode and DM it to me on Instagram at @inktipodes or drop me a comment here for my email details.
- Turquoise (standard ink): T10 pack of cartridges
- Dark Lilac (2024 standard release): T10 pack of cartridges
- Petrol (2025 standard release): T10 pack of cartridges
- Sepia (2025 standard release): T10 pack of cartridges
Unknown (Unreleased?) Lamy Orange Ink
Lamy also produced an orange ink which, to my knowledge, was never officially released. As far as I can tell, it’s not Copper Orange, Bronze, Neon Coral, Mango or Red, and the packaging has no barcode on it. (You can see pics at the top of the page, showing the cartridges and their box alongside the other orange-adjacent inks, and a swatch included on the orange swatch page.)
So if you have any more information on this ink, please, please, get in touch! I have four lonely cartridges of it, and I’d really love to know more about it.