Over the past 20 years, no other field of forensic science has had greater impact on the detection of fraudulent documents than the scientific examination of writing ink. Government agencies at all levels and lawyers in the private sector use the dating of inks to establish the authentic or fraudulent nature of questioned documents. Settlements involving millions of dollars are made daily in cases involving medical malpractice, stock fraud, tax evasion, wills, copyright disputes, insurance fraud, divorce settlements, labor management disputes, and various contractual disputes. Methods for dating fountain pen inks cover the 1937-1990 period, while methods for dating ballpoint and nonballpoint inks involve the period from 1945 to 1979. Finally, methods for dating ballpoint inks using relative age solvent extraction comparison techniques are described for the 1979-1990 timeframe. The author notes advances in ink dating techniques and the constant expansion of such techniques for detecting fraudulent documents. 19 references, 1 table, and 13 figures (Author abstract modified)