For ages, the main source of ink for writing documents and books has been natural
dyes and vegetable inks. Biochemists have identifed these natural inks and dyes that
act as antibacterial and antifungal agent whereby they protect the historical writings
and documents from bacterial or fungal infections. It also acts as moth deterrents. Natural colorants derived from plants have been used for at least 4,000 years as dyes and
inks for writing because of their antimicrobial properties. Tus, documents and books
written with these inks have survived moisture, humidity, and microbial degradation
or deterioration. Te type of ink used to write books or documents have forensic relevance. Terefore, the present study was undertaken to understand the antimicrobial
properties of older dyes and inks compared to today’s inks and their comparative antimicrobial activity. Fountain pen ink and gel pen pigments are water-based but even
then their antimicrobial activity have been clearly seen against 5 different bacterial
strains in the present study. Against all the bacterial strains, ball pen ink and gel ink
demonstrated the greatest Inhibition region. It was also deduced from the results that
of all the three, the black ink gave the maximum zone of Inhibition and toxicity to all
the fve strains of Gram -ve as well as Gram +ve bacterial strain. Tus the study proves
that the ink pigments have high antibacterial effect and that both printed and written
documents and manuscripts could be preserved without the fear of deterioration.