Frequently Asked Questions¶
Welcome to the Black Ink FAQ!
- Purchasing & Licensing
- What do I get when I buy Black Ink ?
- Will future updates be free?
- What payment methods can I use?
- Do you have a software reseller program or reseller discounts?
- How and when do I receive Black Ink after purchasing?
- How do I upgrade from the Black Ink Trial to the full version of Black Ink ?
- Can I create assets for a game which I intend to sell?
- Can I sell graphics created with Black Ink?
- Do I get updates?
- Can I use Black Ink on several computers?
- Is there an educational license?
- General
- Technical issues
Purchasing & Licensing¶
What do I get when I buy Black Ink ? It will depend on the license you have purchased (for more information, see here).
Will future updates be free? We have been developing Black Ink for 10 years, and we must choose between finding funding independently or discontinuing the project. We believe that continuing Black Ink with a paid update after 10 years is the best solution. We could have remained entirely free, hoping to gain enough new users, but at the risk of disappearing, which from a user's perspective seems more problematic.
Unfortunately, we do not have the visibility of Blender or Krita to seek donations or private sponsors. So it's possible that we may release paid updates in the future to justify the work put into the software over several years. However, we will always offer a discounted migration option for our loyal users.
What payment methods can I use? We use the Paypal Checkout on our website. Therefore, you can use all the payment methods allowed by the platform.
How and when do I receive Black Ink after purchasing? After purchasing a Black Ink license, simply download the software if you haven't already. Then, follow the procedure described here to unlock all of its features.
How do I upgrade from the Black Ink Trial to the full version of Black Ink ? You can unlock the trial version of Black Ink by purchasing it and then activating it.
Can I create assets for a game which I intend to sell?" Of course! We welcome and would appreciate hearing about your game on Twitter.
General¶
How to download the previous version of Black Ink? released before Black Ink 2023 Simply by clicking here: Black Ink Standalone Installer
Do you have plans to release Black Ink on Mac or Linux (or both!) in the near future? Currently, we are solely focused on developing Black Ink for Windows, and we do not have immediate plans to release versions for Mac or Linux. As a small team, we are working diligently to deliver the best possible experience for our users on the Windows platform. Expanding our software to other operating systems, such as Mac and Linux, requires significant additional resources, including time, manpower, and testing efforts. At this moment, we are fully committed to refining and enhancing the Windows version of Black Ink to ensure a stable and feature-rich application. However, we understand the demand for Black Ink on other platforms, and we appreciate your interest in our product. Rest assured, we are constantly evaluating our options for potential future developments, and we will certainly take into account the possibility of supporting Mac and Linux in the long run.
Is Black Ink open source? No, Black Ink is not open source. And if you're wondering why, it's because we're too lazy to manage a GitHub with all that it entails.
We have our technology, which certainly isn't on par with NASA or OpenAI, but we prefer not to clutter our minds with third-party code suggestions for Black Ink. It's possible that we may change our minds, though. We're not closed to the idea.
Technical issues¶
Where can I get assistance if I encounter a technical issue? You can get assistance in several ways: By joining our Discord server and asking a question. By using our forum.
By sending us an email at support@bleank.com
Why do the child windows of Black Ink flicker? We have received feedback about certain laptop configurations indicating that the child windows of Black Ink flicker abnormally.
Apparently, this issue could be related to the management of the GPU driver on laptops with insufficient VRAM. Generally to fix the issue you have to Enable de VSync for the rendering of Black Ink. And / Or you can disable the desktop composition of Black Ink ( the application and his children Windows will use the standard OS frame around each window ).
To do do so open the Config.xml and set the Composition member to false. If you still encounter this problem contact us at support@bleank.com for further help.
How do I manually send you my crash report? Usually, when Black Ink crashes, a crash report submission window appears to help you send us crucial information to fix the issue.
However, if that doesn't work, you may need to send it to us manually at support@bleank.com or through Discord (those files are overwritten after each BlackInk launch)
Here's how to retrieve these files: Standalone
Steam
Note that the .dmp file may not exist (if Black Ink has never crashed, which would be good news). Similarly, sometimes you will only be asked to send us the .Log (when Black Ink behaves unexpectedly but does not cause a software crash).%APPDATA%\Bleank\BlackInk 2023\BlackInk.Log
%APPDATA%\Bleank\BlackInk 2023\Minidump.dmp
C:\MySteamFolder\SteamApps\common\Black Ink Steam\Datas\BlackInk.Log
C:\MySteamFolder\SteamApps\common\Black Ink Steam\Datas\Minidump.dmp
Why can't I launch the software? Some users have reported instant crashes with the introduction of Black Ink version 2020.2.
This is due to the use of AVX instructions in the Black Ink code.
These instructions are available for most CPUs released from 2011 onwards. However some older CPUs do not support these instructions. So if this applies to you, I'm sorry, but you won't be able to use Black Ink unless you upgrade your CPU.