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I am admittedly ink-fussy. This one is too thick. This one is too dry. But is there one that's 'just right?' After complaining I was unable to tell one turquoise ink from another without a score card, I tested a few...well, all...of my turquoise inks. Although two of them, the Iroshizuku Ama-Iro and the Diamine Steel Blue, were mere sample vials. All the tests except those two were done with a glass dip pen. The Steel Blue was loaded in a Dollar Demonstrator. And even though I have MORE than enough Turquoise inks,the Ama-Iro has such wonderful flow properties when tested in a Metro Retro that I may spring for a bottle. The Pelikan swab looks much darker than it should because I took it from the cap, where it had partially dried, but it also displays the most sheen of any turquoise ink tested. Sparkle, even! The Souten seems bluest, the Steel Blue greenest. The Ku-Jaku is indescribable and undefinable. The paper was Rhodia Ice. Still can't decide on a favorite. Signed, Goldilocks

The harrowing adventures of ink journal scanning continue. This time, we find our intrepid (obsessive) character considering the chromatic characteristics of crimson, cardinal, claret, cherry and carmine. Previously: Black, and Blue/Teal What's all this on the page? Why are some pages a little different? Why are some of the pangrams not pangrammatic at all? My obsessive processes, detailed: I hope these are helpful to those of you looking for red inks. http://i.imgur.com/n1oFHBy.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/xpkIKYz.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/M0ULOQ6.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/e5Zrwhh.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/BRMR7RG.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/xrusJuV.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/Nulnxkw.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/qRrT7ik.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/Hve24l9.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/dJHi8vu.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/lIFyhPc.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/yaxe190.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/BySaZk8.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/ImtX3QQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/yxulJNS.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/DPPLlCL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/AEWl495.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7WZEVVo.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/RlwgFLL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/4aAbQT0.jpg

So, some of you expressed interest in scans of my ink journal. It took me a bit longer than I thought, but I finally found a scanner and put the whole thing through. I'm gonna start with the blacks, as Tas expressed a specific interest in them. My whole process is a bit...obsessive, so here's a description what you're looking at with each scan. I can usually do the whole page with about .25ml of ink with this method. First, I pull a small amount of ink from the vial with a blunt syringe. And then I saturate the feed of my Lamy Vista (a la this Goulet video). I have some laid-pattern, 90gsm, slightly-creme white (92 brightness) paper from work that I use for all my samples. The laid pattern means it has a bit of tooth to it, and it has a fairly good balance of being quick drying but also feather resistant and showing some sheen/shade. I write out the ink name, the source of the sample, the nib in the Vista (invariably an M), and a few 'quick brown fox's. I write each pangram at a different speed, just to see how the ink keeps up, and to give me an idea of what kind of shading I'm likely to see depending on how I'm writing. When I first started, Ylvis' fox song had just gone viral, and it was playing in the background the first time I journaled. So...some of the pangrams aren't actually pangrams I write a few words with different styles (shading, feathering, sheen) to further emphasize ink shading and feathering. Then I do a timed smear test, and a few scribbles/semi-random patterns on the page to further check the flow. I dip a Q-tip into the sample vial, do a swab on each bottom corner (the left corner with the freshly dipped q-tip to show off shading, and the right corner without redipping to spread more even color), a 3-pass test to see how it layers, and then some random lines with the q-tip just to show off the color. I also put a paper hole reinforcer on top of the sample vial, and use the q-tip to swab the reinforcer for quick reference in my vial holders. Lastly, I use a straight-edge to draw a grid with what's left in the Lamy, which I use to test the waterproof properties of the ink. 4 drops of tap water: top right is immediately wiped off, top left is immediately blotted, bottom right sits for a few seconds (~45s) before I wipe it, and bottom left I let dry overnight on the page. Each drop is supposed to represent how I (or someone else) might react to getting a letter or envelope wet, rather than any kind of "total durability/bulletproofness" test. Then, I flush the Lamy feed with a full bulb syringe twice, and do the next sample. The whole process takes me about 8-10 minutes per page. Once the waterproofness test dries (overnight), I put it into a 3-ring-binder, organized by color (ROY G BIV, brown, grey, black, then fancy (Blue Ghost, Stormy Gray). The only exceptions to this whole obsessive ritual are the few times I've bought empty inky bottles (mostly Caran d'Ache, as I think they're the nicest ink bottles outside of Akkerman). As there's rarely enough ink to saturate a feed, I just swab the inside of the bottle with a q-tip, and do the corner swabs and some "painting" with the q-tip until it dries up. Anyway, with that ridiculous intro, here's the swabs. In case they don't upload correctly, here's an imgur mirror: http://imgur.com/a/lJIy3 http://i.imgur.com/Gw0bxL8.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/QjcUuKZ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fplz6jv.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/FFzXKGZ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/yb7oqQ5.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/4lAmZe0.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/xCM8E1y.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/JWeACpq.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/uQUEFoU.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/xJqXweE.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/XzIJ3XJ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/ERUYbIs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/HOsbuww.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/kVEMGwb.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/W20c8KV.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/uFqSnLh.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/tAsv8D2.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/5TZ25bB.jpg I did all of these pages (except the Stormy grey and the Caran Cosmic Black) in one weekend, looking for the perfect black. The primary criteria I was looking for with a black ink was that there be absolutely NO shading from the Lamy M nib when dry. Waterproofness was my next goal, but it wasn't a necessity. Feathering and flow were next and last in importance, respectively. The absolute blackest on the page were unquestionably the two pigmented inks: Platinum Carbon Black and Sailor Kiwa Guro. They are literally indistinguishable from each other on the page, either in writing or in swab, though the Sailor was slightly drier in the pen. Either one would likely be my top choice if they weren't so difficult to clean out. I left them in a semi-regularly used Lamy Vista for a week and then cleaned them out. The Vista's clear section shows what residue has to be scrubbed at with a q-tip. Both of them required probably 10 minutes of cleaning, with some good scrubbing (with just water, no ammonia or bleach). For the most part (the exceptions being the non-true-blacks like Diamine Eclipse, Noodler's Zhivago and ACBB), the actual writing samples of each of them were very, very similar to one another. The swabs at the corners highlight differences in color-tone and shading that disappeared when words were written. Even holding the checkered test patterns right next to each other under pretty good lighting, the differences between them are quite subtle. The biggest differences were in the amount of feathering. X-feather obviously got top marks in that category, but Aurora Black was a very, very close second. HoD and Borealis both looked "blacker" to my eye, but they both feathered quite a bit, and I wonder how much that plays into their "blackness." Anyway, I hope my obsessiveness is somewhat helpful, and my long-ass write-up not too tedious. If I've missed something, please let me know.

In the 16th century the angular Chancery hand which developed in Italy (often referred to today under the generic name of Italic) was, in Spain, made more rounded (under the influence of the Redondilla mercantile hand?) and so a new b=astard hand: the Spanish, was begotten. This hand continued to be used into the 20th century (I believe) alongside Inglesa/English Roundhand. I have scanned this set of plates, printed from steel engravings, of D. Juan Folguera y Plandolit's calligraphy, which I think accompanied a book written by him. They were published in 1853, according to the wrapper they came in. In plate 1, the slant is 60 or 61 degrees and the angle of the nib 35 degrees. The height of the minuscules is approx. 8mm and the caps. 16mm. When writing this hand, the paper is tilted to the left so that it is parallel with your arm as you may see below. This hand was written with a straight cut broad edged nib and today you could use a Wm. Mitchell Round-Hand pen, for example. Hi-res Scans are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21860485@N06/sets/ These are long out of copyright, so they are to free to use for whatever you want. They are copyright free. Some smaller images: http://i.imgur.com/JEdemXwh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4EZx6UUh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/UPC78EIh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RSu1Ak0h.jpg Here is an original example of this style of writing, written by the Spanish calligrapher Vicente Valliciergo http://i.imgur.com/chwyEVs.jpg That example is from this useful and interesting blog which has much on calligraphy and Spanish calligraphy: http://bibliotypes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/la-caligrafia-espanola-en-el-siglo-xix.html From the same blog, these images from other Spanish calligraphy books show posture and how to hold the pen for writing this hand (the hold on the left in the case of the 2nd image, the one on the right being for English Roundhand). http://i.imgur.com/b3Jpoqv.jpg http://i.imgur.com/iKVKc1R.jpg