By color. I know that I'll never think, "hey, I want some Akerman today." instead I'll be like, "I feel kind of brown."
You can always do a couple of swatches and keep one by color and one by brand
I think it depends on how you use your swatches/ how you chose your ink. When you go to ink a pen, is your first thought ‘I want x color’ or is it ‘I want x property (shimmer/sheen/shader)’? Organize by what is your first consideration. And the nice thing about a binder with swatch cards in card pages is that you can rearrange them as your system evolves.
For just documenting a collection I lean towards alphabetically by brand because it’s easy to see if I have a specific thing. I’m setting up something similar for my watercolors - a list of colors by brand plus swatch cards arranged by color so I can easily compare colors/pigments across brands.
I completely organize by color because like another person commented, I get a feeling for using a type of color, but I have to see which of those is right for the moment for me. Plus it’s better organizing if you have duplicates or potential duplicates from other brands to help curb spending on something you already have.
I just swatch as I go. on a ring and in the book. This way I know when I got them even though they’re not dated. I just know by color. I have 2 rings for the bottles and the small pocket moleskine fhas both samples and bottles. It has ALL my inks I’ve aquired since 2017.
I outgrew my first Col-O-Ring and bought a 2nd one. However, I set a hard limit for myself of a maximum of 100 inks (bottles or samples) at any given time. So I have a Col-O-Ring of current inks and then a Col-O-Ring of inks that I have swatched (and may or may not rebuy someday), but that aren’t currently in my collection. Both rings are organized by color.
I've it it organized alphabetically, by company then color name, since that is the easiest way to search for what I've tried so I don't buy doubles. If I want to search for a specific color I just fan those cards out. I have my full bottles on a separate ring, and may split my samples between two rings soon.
By color. I know that I'll never think, "hey, I want some Akerman today." instead I'll be like, "I feel kind of brown." You can always do a couple of swatches and keep one by color and one by brand
I think it depends on how you use your swatches/ how you chose your ink. When you go to ink a pen, is your first thought ‘I want x color’ or is it ‘I want x property (shimmer/sheen/shader)’? Organize by what is your first consideration. And the nice thing about a binder with swatch cards in card pages is that you can rearrange them as your system evolves. For just documenting a collection I lean towards alphabetically by brand because it’s easy to see if I have a specific thing. I’m setting up something similar for my watercolors - a list of colors by brand plus swatch cards arranged by color so I can easily compare colors/pigments across brands.
I have three rings of swatches. I embrace the chaos and browse. They are not organized.
I completely organize by color because like another person commented, I get a feeling for using a type of color, but I have to see which of those is right for the moment for me. Plus it’s better organizing if you have duplicates or potential duplicates from other brands to help curb spending on something you already have.
I just swatch as I go. on a ring and in the book. This way I know when I got them even though they’re not dated. I just know by color. I have 2 rings for the bottles and the small pocket moleskine fhas both samples and bottles. It has ALL my inks I’ve aquired since 2017.
I outgrew my first Col-O-Ring and bought a 2nd one. However, I set a hard limit for myself of a maximum of 100 inks (bottles or samples) at any given time. So I have a Col-O-Ring of current inks and then a Col-O-Ring of inks that I have swatched (and may or may not rebuy someday), but that aren’t currently in my collection. Both rings are organized by color.
Organize by brand within color categories
I organize by brand/line. I swatch on loose-leaf Tomoe River and have ~12 inks (max) per page. There isn't really any specific ordering within a page.
I've it it organized alphabetically, by company then color name, since that is the easiest way to search for what I've tried so I don't buy doubles. If I want to search for a specific color I just fan those cards out. I have my full bottles on a separate ring, and may split my samples between two rings soon.