Inky T O D - What Ink Is True Blue? Or Do You Prefer, Purplish Blues Or Green Blues?

[amberleadavis]

All blue ink conversations must include BSB - so here it is:

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Colors/Blue/slides/2014-Ink_127-BSB.jpg

 

And for me, BSB is true blue. Recently, I've been doing reviews of KWZI inks and I was getting ready to argue - "that's not blue" - when I realized, oh, yes, that is blue, but not a "true blue". On a color wheel, it becomes clear that BLUES are a great range of colors.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Y1ScBXBxA1w/TDni-oFrDKI/AAAAAAAABaE/h6Eoj1-leac/s1600/light-color-spectrum.jpg

 

 

 

For me, only the purplish blues are "blue" and the others are teal or turquoise or blue-green, but not "BLUE". Okay, I get it, my perception is my own and others disagree.

 

So, what colors for you are BLUE, the entire range or the greenish end or the purplish end or those few in the middle?

[Bookman]

Somewhere along the blue part of the spectrum I presume there to be a dividing line where the blue is neither leaning toward turquoise and teal nor toward purple. I take it on faith that those with a good eye for color can distinguish this no-man's land from what's on either side of it That's where I would say true blue lay. My eyes place the new-formula Omas Blue in the true-blue spot, at least as it comes out of my pens that have used it. Now having said all that, I prefer blues that lean toward purple—Visconti Blue, Waterman Florida/Serenity Blue (for about six seconds), Aurora Blue, BSB, and Diamine Imperial Blue are all in my wheelhouse. But I like Omas Blue very much.

 

Edit: The more I look at my Omas Blue writings the more purple shading I see. No wonder I like it so much. But Omas Blue is probably the closest to my definition of true blue that I have in my drawer.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Bookman

[inkstainedruth]

I don't think of "true" blue as leaning either towards the green/teal side or the purple side. I like BSB, and think of it as "blue". Just not "true' blue".

I would say that of all the inks I have (and I have a LOT in the blue family -- I probably have more blue and blue-black ink, plus a few in the cyan/teal family, than anything else), if push came to shove I would set PR American Blue as the standard "true" blue.

Not that I don't like others: my *favorite* blue ink is Noodler's Manhattan Blue, which *slightly* edges out Noodler's Liberty's Elysium and Sailor Jentle Sky High.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[napalm]

on your circular scale, i can tolerate 2 notches towards purple and 1 notch toward teal as still being "blue". this being said, according to your scan i would classify bsb as being 1 notch teal. the only true blue is in my avatar lol.

[The Blue Knight]

Considering I prefer blue and find it a lot easier to read then most other colors I appreciate all shades of blue. I do like Bleu Nuit for it's shading however I also like Waterman blue as it's a very neutral color.

[pajaro]

T O D?

 

BSB. I have to admit it is not sickly looking as are most lighter blues. I might have to get some.

[Bookman]

on your circular scale, i can tolerate 2 notches towards purple and 1 notch toward teal as still being "blue". this being said, according to your scan i would classify bsb as being 1 notch teal. the only true blue is in my avatar lol.

 

Last week I received a sample of BSB from Goulet Pens, and my test-writing on every paper has looked purplish to me. Did I get a bad batch? Because if I did, I need to call the Goulets and have them set the bad stuff aside for me. What I have is great.

[napalm]

don't worry i was talking about Amber's scan not the real color. if you look closer even the dots on the paper (rhodia?) are looking teal while they are probably gray in real life.

[Bookman]

don't worry i was talking about Amber's scan not the real color. if you look closer even the dots on the paper (rhodia?) are looking teal while they are probably gray in real life.

 

Well, wherever it belongs on the color wheel, I was only half-serious about wanting more of it. I love the color. But when I tested BSB on all my papers, the only one that didn't suffer severe show-through or partial bleed-through was Tomoe River. Even Clairefontaine and Rhodia didn't escape scot-free.

[inkstainedruth]

 

Last week I received a sample of BSB from Goulet Pens, and my test-writing on every paper has looked purplish to me. Did I get a bad batch? Because if I did, I need to call the Goulets and have them set the bad stuff aside for me. What I have is great.

No, it's not a bad batch. BSB does lean slightly purple (not as much as some of the "royal" blues.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bookman]

No, it's not a bad batch. BSB does lean slightly purple (not as much as some of the "royal" blues.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I didn't look at the reviews before I ordered my sample. I ordered on impulse: I had to at least try BSB. I don't know why but I expected it to be a dead-center true blue, and I was taken aback by the purplish tint. BSB has its high beams on all the time, and maybe that helps make the purple stand out, especially on white paper. Or maybe I'm still taken aback by it.

[amberleadavis]

don't worry i was talking about Amber's scan not the real color. if you look closer even the dots on the paper (rhodia?) are looking teal while they are probably gray in real life.

 

Nope, they are cyan.

[dcwaites]

The 'truest' True Blue in my collection is probably PR Lake Placid Blue.

The problem with evaluating colours by eye is that pretty well everyone's colour balance is a little different, and almost nobody has a fully 'correct' sense of colour.

Those of us who have a mild purple colour shift will lean towards teal blues as True Blue, and those have a mild green shift will lean toward indigo/purple blues.

Add to that, if you use a particular blue ink for more than half an hour, your colour perception will lean towards that colour as true blue, and affect your seeing of other colours.

 

When I find it too confusing, I just go back to using a pencil for an hour or so...

[recluse]

If we place, say, Noodler's Blue at the turquoise side of the spectrum and Waterman Florida blue at the purple side, then Namiki Blue will be somewhere in the middle. I'd prefer it to be slightly more saturated but it grows on me.

[Bookman]

If we place, say, Noodler's Blue at the turquoise side of the spectrum and Waterman Florida blue at the purple side, then Namiki Blue will be somewhere in the middle. I'd prefer it to be slightly more saturated but it grows on me.

 

I agree with everything you said. Except it isn't growing on me. I ran out of it and didn't replace it. Its color was too dead-center for my taste. And it gushed through most of my nibs. And more saturation would have helped its case.

[casualmerlinconstant]

I've always thought organic studios nitrogen looked smack bang between purply blue and turquoisy blue. Never seen in real life though. Only scans.

[tonybelding]

I do have some opinions on this subject...

 

I've taken the online color acuity test a couple of times, and got a perfect score both times, so I think I'm better than average when it comes to picking out subtle shades.

Baystate Blue is most definitely a purple-tinted blue. However... Scanners do not pick up the purple element, and I suspect that some people actually cannot see it! If the BSB scans look accurate to you, then my guess would be that your eyes are not seeing everything that is there.

 

Noodler's Blue is just about my idea of a perfect, pure, straight-down-the middle blue. And yet, some people insist that they see some sort of turquoise in there? Not sure where they get that from.

 

 

[ac12]

This is an interesting topic.

I recently sampled some Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue, and by comparing my ink samples, I realized that my other so called blue inks had a fair amount of purple in them. These other inks are Waterman Florida/Serenity blue and Cross/Pelikan blue. I think I realize why, a plain blue does not have enough color punch, and the purple gives some of this punch.

[Bookman]

I do have some opinions on this subject...

 

I've taken the online color acuity test a couple of times, and got a perfect score both times, so I think I'm better than average when it comes to picking out subtle shades.

Baystate Blue is most definitely a purple-tinted blue. However... Scanners do not pick up the purple element, and I suspect that some people actually cannot see it! If the BSB scans look accurate to you, then my guess would be that your eyes are not seeing everything that is there.

 

Noodler's Blue is just about my idea of a perfect, pure, straight-down-the middle blue. And yet, some people insist that they see some sort of turquoise in there? Not sure where they get that from.

 

 

 

I haven't taken any color acuity tests, but I think my eye for color is better than most. And yet I sometimes have difficulty placing a shade of blue in its proper place on the spectrum if it's extremely close to true blue. The closer it is, the tougher it is to classify. In which case I have to rely on other, somewhat similar ink exemplars. For instance, when I use Platinum Pigment Blue by itself on the page it looks like a medium-light true blue. But with writing in Pilot Blue right next to it or underneath it or on top of it, an unmistakable hint of purple is exposed. Even now, when I know the purple shading is there somewhere, I won't see it in Platinum Pigment Blue if it's standing alone.

[ac12]

 

 

I haven't taken any color acuity tests, but I think my eye for color is better than most. And yet I sometimes have difficulty placing a shade of blue in its proper place on the spectrum if it's extremely close to true blue. The closer it is, the tougher it is to classify. In which case I have to rely on other, somewhat similar ink exemplars. For instance, when I use Platinum Pigment Blue by itself on the page it looks like a medium-light true blue. But with writing in Pilot Blue right next to it or underneath it or on top of it, an unmistakable hint of purple is exposed. Even now, when I know the purple shading is there somewhere, I won't see it in Platinum Pigment Blue if it's standing alone.

 

You may be running into the converter called the brain.

The brain adjusts the vision so colors generally look OK.

You can see this when you take a photo indoors with your digital camera set to DAYLIGHT white setting. Under incandecent light, your photo will look orange and under a flourescent light the photo will look green (depending on which flourescent tube is used). But under both incandescent and flourescent lights, most colors look OK to your eye. The brain is doing the "auto white balance" that your digital camera can do. This is why side-by-side color testing is better, than looking at individual colors. The brain has to make one adjustment and your eye can then see the difference between the 2. With individual color, the brain can make different adjustments for each color, and you won't notice it.