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INK ANALYSIS

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  p537-538

2026-08-26

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INK ANALYSIS

In recent years forensic document examiners have become more comfortable per forming chemical analyzes as part of their routine work. This has been aided by research into the composition of inks that has led to the development of easier methods of characterizing and comparing inks. Understanding the composition of an ink sample and the chemical changes that it undergoes as it dries can be very important in several types of document cases. For example, there are a number of questioned document cases where an examiner may be called upon to determine if two documents could have been written using the same writing instrument such as a particular ball point pen. In other cases, a question arises as to whether a document could have been altered by means of adding writings after the original document were written, as for example, a check that was altered by adding zeros to the amount of the check. Other cases involve a question of the possibility that a document could have been altered by adding additional writings and then backdating them to make it seem as if they were put in at an earlier date. The first two of these questions involves the chemical analysis of an ink sample and comparison of two or more writings. Although it is not possible to individualize an ink sample to a particular writing instrument, it is possible to show that a suspect pen, for example, could be included in the population of pens that could have written a document, or that it could not have possibly written a document. The last question involves determining the age of the ink sample either relative to other writings on the document or by estimating the actual age of the ink. This involves knowledge of what happens to the ink as it dries.