The etymology given for today's word, "nankeen," seems to refer to the porcelain, which comes from Nanjing. Did the yellow or buff colored fabric also come from there?

WELCOME JUNEBH

No doubt, just Google Nanjing porcelain/ images and you'll see .

And, if anyone's interested, it's Portuguese for what we call India Ink.

But

would that colour be a deep black then Anna?

Nankeen is Portuguese for India ink? That makes my head spin.
The ink is black. This here is part of the Nankeen porcelaine tower. All the nankeen shades together. How did the Portuguese come into the story?

I don't know its etymology, but intend to find out. Here's a dictionary page: tinta de nankin

Yes, it's there. Printed and true.
So far I found that on googling 'nankin ink' it shows small bottles of ink of many standard colors. It looks just like what we call 'ecoline' (not from ecology but from école-school), a transparant but intensely colored ink. Still not clear how it showed up in Portuguese.

And why is calling it India ink any better? It came originally from china., the capital of which at the time the Portuguese came was in Nanjing. Think of it like Peking duck. Not the color, but where it's from. I saw from the Portuguese Wikipedia that it's called tinta da china in European and tinta nanquim in Brazilian Portuguese. In Chinese, nan means 'south' and jing means 'capital (city)'. Bei means north, so Beijing means 'north capital (city)'.

Thanks, Nuncle. I didn't say either was "better," just noted the meaning in Portuguese. Wonder why we call it India Ink, then? Maybe because all of The East was one mysterious place?

Yeah, prolly like why we have Indians in North America.
Good to see your fonts here!