UPDATE: The new Copic Ink refill bottles are now available at Blick
New Copic Ink Refill Bottles To Be Released Summer 2020
Copic is set to launch its redesigned Copic Ink refill bottles this summer as the old Copic Various Ink refills have been discontinued. The new bottle features a sleek pen-shaped form and a nozzle that makes it easier (and cleaner) to refill Copic Markers.
The Same Great Ink
The new refill bottle holds 12 ml of alcohol dye ink in the same 358 colors that you already know and love – only the bottle has been updated.
Quick And Easy To Refill
The long bottle nozzle is designed to reach the ink reservoir inside the marker’s barrel to enable smooth and quick refills.
New Transparent Bottles
The new highly transparent bottle makes it easy to see the remaining ink level.
Caps Match the Ink Color
The revamped Copic Ink bottle caps now closely match the actual ink colors.
Specifications
Amount of ink needed to refill each style once:
- Sketch：Approx. 1.8ml – The new bottle should give you 7 refills
- Ciao：Approx. 1.4ml – 9 refills in the bottle
- Classic：Approx. 2.5ml – 5 refills
- Wide：Approx. 3.4ml – 3.5 refills
Copic Ink refill bottle:
- Length – Approx. 140mm
- Diameter – Approx. 15mm
- Weight – Approx. 20g
The suggested retail price is $5.99
The New Copic Ink Empty Bottle
Blend and create your own custom colors with the Empty Bottle: includes empty bottle that holds 12ml, a nozzle, and a cap. The suggested retail price is $4.99.
Copic Various Ink Has Been Discontinued
Production of Copic Various Ink has been discontinued. Copic retailers won’t receive any further shipments of Copic Various Ink refills. Sales of Various Ink will end as soon as stock is out. Discontinued Various Ink refills contained 25 ml, more than double the new ink bottles. This may explain that as of this writing (5/28/2020) almost all of the Various Ink refills were sold out at Blick, Jerry’s Artarama, and most online retailers.
Availability
The word on the street was that the new refill bottles would be available at retailers the last week of June however as of this writing (July 16) it still isn’t available at any of the major online art supply retailers. In fact, the only place I found that currently has the new ink bottles available is a store out of Oregon called The Merri Artist.
UPDATE: The new Copic Ink refill bottles are now available at Blick.
The Copic statement regarding distribution:
We will be informing on the progress regularly on this page and rest assure that there will be new stock of Copic Inks and a more stable supply in the coming months across markets starting with Japan and certain Asian markets in May/June followed by North America and the EU.
Please note that with the unfortunate Covid19 situation it may also take longer to reach specific countries and retailers. We deeply apologize about the frustration caused by the out of stock on specific refill colors during this transition, we hope though that you will enjoy the improvements we have made and that you will continue to refill your markers to minimize waste and use of plastics.
Read the MacKendrew Arts Editor’s review of Copic Markers here.
See handcrafted swatches of all 72 Set A Copic Sketch Markers in the Art Swatch Gallery™.
I will also no longer be purchasing these, too expensive. They were already expensive, but now they are ridiculously expensive.
It is just ridiculous. Old inc was 9,90€ new one is 6,95€. This is a price increase of 46%!! I will look for alternative markers.
Thanks for your input Soeren.
Love the new design as it makes refills way easier. Absolutely agree that its a massive waste to have only 12ml…at the same price as the 25?! I dont see the logic in this. Makes me want to switch to another brand outright. So sad
Hi Brian, thanks for your comment. Yep, the consensus seems to be that the new, longer nozzle is great, if only it came with more than 12 ml per bottle.
I’ve just ordered some Copic Refills and I’m very disappointed to see that they have changed the refill bottles. I’m even more disappointed on how little that is in a bottle 12mls which is just over 2 teaspoons which are 5 mls each. The older refill bottles were 25mls but the price of the new refill bottle is the same as the old shaped bottle. They state that they hope we carry on using the new refills to minimize waste and the use of plastic. I’m no rocket scientist but I would be using two refill bottles rather than one, wouldn’t that be increasing the use of plastic and more plastic in our landfills? Value for money I would be better off replacing my markers with a new one rather than refilling them and again more plastic in our landfills. I’m very disappointed as I have been using Copic for many years.
Thanks for your comments Kathie. I agree that if one of the company’s concerns is the impact of packaging waste on the environment (and it appears that it is given the following statement found on their website, “…we hope though…that you will continue to refill your markers to minimize waste and use of plastics”) it seems counterintuitive to switch to a smaller refill bottle size.
Due to the change in size, it no longer makes the markers cost-effective. I don’t believe those bottles will refill the markers the number of times it states. In the long run, it may just be cheaper to purchase other alcohol markers at a lower price point and buy new ones as needed.
Hi Suzie, I’m very disappointed with the new Copic Refill size bottle. The old bottle held 25mls and the new bottle holds 12 mils. They say they are trying to minimize plastic in our landfills. According to my maths, I would be doubling up on waste. I was also shocked to see that they were the same price as the old bottle. I would be better off just replacing a marker than buying refills. Isn’t that also bad for the environment and our landfills with even more plastic wastage? I’m very disappointed in Copic after using them for many years. I feel that this has been a bad move on their marketing department. Why didn’t the consult their users first, the everyday person using their product? I had my rant and rave. Thanks for reading.
Kind Regards
Kathie
That’s exactly the problem! I don’t see the new refills solving any problem it is less than half the amount of in, for twice the price. Making them twice as many in the landfills. Another thing no one is talking about is colorless blender. We had the large bottle that could be used to clean an fill your blender. Now that they are not in the large bottle, I’m looking at several more little bottles in the landfill. So, I will use the fluid specifically for colorless blending. I will not be using it to clean my surface, or my hands. I have come to discover hand sanitized works better anyway. It makes me sad that I invested in 2 sketch sets and a Classic set. I am thankful that I hat the forethought to pick up a complete set of refills. When those run out, I have a feeling I may be migrating to a digital platform with everyone else. I know you need to make money Copic, but at what cost?
Thanks for your input Suzie.
Just under half the amount they used to hold at almost the same price, this is not a smart move.
I’m definitely curious to see people’s reactions to the new refills. While I think the bottle design is an improvement, is it enough to offset the smaller size?
I’ve refilled 4 colors with the new bottles and the only positive thing I can say is the longer nozzle definitely keeps things less messy. But — hurts my hand to squeeze as hard as I feel I need to in order to fill the markers… used WAY more ink than I did previously with the older refills? not sure why? and 2 of the 4 don’t even seen to have refilled! it’s bizarre? I seriously squeezed like half of the bottle into it and I kid you not, nothing is showing up on the paper lol… looking online to see if anyone else had similar thoughts and this is really the only place I saw anything.
Thanks for your comment Caroline. I definitely think the longer nozzle is an improvement and I didn’t experience any trouble squeezing the new refill bottles. If anything, I thought the ink was flowing out a little too freely as I was taking the ink splotch photos for this post. 😄