Diamine Prussian Blue

[KCat]

The more I look at it though it does seem to be growing on me and I will keep and use it but I'll have to keep looking for the right blue, maybe Sailor blue or someone can suggest a darker blue easily obtainable in the UK.

I have often described it as a slate blue. But still blue. I do think my image on-line is a little bluer than it appears IRL - on my image editing PC it looks on-target. I have yet to properly adjust the gamut on this monitor and since I'm hoping to accidently drop it soon and replace with an LCD, I probably won't.

 

I think I have said this here before and it may even be in my little picture review - some days I wonder if it is "just blue" other days I adore the color and think I've never seen a slate blue quite like it.

 

Btb - this ink on an ivory or ecru paper - gorgeous and much darker (makes sense of course) than on white paper. though, as with Umber and Sepia, to me it looks good on just about any paper I can use.

 

wish I could help on dark blue in the UK.

 

Over the years I've found that colors I initially loved have faded in appeal and colors I shrugged at and thought "weak" or "too subtle" have become my preferred colors. I imagine this is normal and that at some point I'll shift back to saturated shades.

 

maybe.

[RichardS]

Prussian Blue was the first Diamine ink I bought and I still find it excellent, but it has to be said I mostly use it now for vintage, usually semiflex, pens. The vintage look of the ink and its shading characteristics with wet but flexy nibs make it a perfect match. For a 'straight' blue I just keep on coming back to Diamine Royal Blue - though this won't suit anyone who wants a dark, Oxford-like blue rather than a Cambridge Blue.

 

Aurora Blue is pretty dark, especially if it's been left in the pen for a week or two and some water evaporation has occurred. And if you don't like the purple overtone, Visconti Blue is a pretty good alternative.

 

Lee, I hope you won't expect the Diamine Dark Brown to actually be dark brown It's a limpid, watery mid-brown that I think is very subtle and attractive, but a non-starter for anyone who wants that near-rollerball saturated look.

[Ray]

wish I could help on dark blue in the UK.

You can get PR and Noodler's here without too much difficulty. PR Midnight Blues is very dark and Noodler's Blue-Black is very, very dark indeed.

 

Ray

[rosey]

Is Noodler's Blue-Black the same thing as Noodler's Midnight Blue? If so, then I second your recommendation, Ray! I love this nice dark blue color of ink. One of my favorite inks. It reminds me of my favorite color of crayon from my childhood named the same.

[Sidney]

Noodler's Midnight Blue is more blue than Noodler's Blue-Black, which out of some nibs will look almost black.

[Lee UK]

I'm now thinking that the type of paper used has a significant effect on how this ink looks. I've just written a dentist appointment in a wall calendar, glossy paper, and the ink looks much darker than before. It looks like I would expect a blue-black to look (not the turquoisey [sp] Parker blue-black cartridges) I think some experimenting may be in order.

 

Lee

[Lee UK]

Prussian Blue was the first Diamine ink I bought and I still find it excellent, but it has to be said I mostly use it now for vintage, usually semiflex, pens. The vintage look of the ink and its shading characteristics with wet but flexy nibs make it a perfect match. For a 'straight' blue I just keep on coming back to Diamine Royal Blue - though this won't suit anyone who wants a dark, Oxford-like blue rather than a Cambridge Blue.

 

Aurora Blue is pretty dark, especially if it's been left in the pen for a week or two and some water evaporation has occurred. And if you don't like the purple overtone, Visconti Blue is a pretty good alternative.

 

Lee, I hope you won't expect the Diamine Dark Brown to actually be dark brown  It's a limpid, watery mid-brown that I think is very subtle and attractive, but a non-starter for anyone who wants that near-rollerball saturated look.

Hi Richard, no I don't expect the Dark Brown to actually be dark, I guess that would be too normal for Diamine I checked in the ink review section so I have some idea of what to expect.

 

I'll bare the Aurora Blue in mind but I think I will probably try the Sailor Blue first. It has been described as dark and stately, I like the sound of that. The PR/Noodlers Midnight Blue looks a bit flat to me, is this correct?. I would like a bit of shading.

 

 

Lee

[The Legend]

By coincidence I've ordered the Diamine Prussian Blue two times the last half year.

Tested them yesterday, together with a Diamine Blue-Black.

 

Both Prussian blues are the same (no batch differences here).

 

I was also triggered by a description at Pendemonium which stated:

"Prussian Blue - Similar to Pelikan Royal Blue, but a little more intense"

http://www.pendemonium.com/ink_facts.htm

 

That is definitely not the case in my opinion.

 

The Diamine Prussian blue comes close to the Diamine Blue-black.

It has very slightly a more blue-ish view.

Therefore, I regard it as a blue-black and not as a dark blue. Also because of its vintage look.

 

My best vintage looking ink is the more greyish Diamine Indigo.

Very distinctive in comparison with many other inks.

 

The Legend

[Chris]

I do think the comparison chart that is available at the Writing Desk website - if used carefully and note taken of colours you know to check whether your monitor etc is giving accurate colours - is pretty good at showing the colour of colours, if you see what I mean.

 

In the case of Prussian Blue, the blue and the grey are both visible as is the even intensity. Compare that with others on the blue page and you get a feel for the spectrum of blues on offer and how they relate to each other.

 

Thank you all at TWD.

 

Ah, but we can all do with more ink. If you don't need it, you can't be writing enough

 

Chris

[The Legend]

Again a word about colour comparison.

 

As I have two bottles of Prussian Blue, I have put these ink in two Pelikans.

 

At closer inspection it seemed that one colour was darker than the other.

But soaking the ink from the bottles in a tissue delivers exactly the same result.

 

The real reason for colour difference is that I used PR ultra black (bad ink for your FP) in one of te Pelikans, and even though I cleaned the pen three times, there were still enough traces of black in it, to give a darker tone to one of the Prussian blues.

 

So beware! If you change the ink in your pen from black to non-black, you won't get the true colour (at first).

 

The Legend

[Viseguy]

. . . PR ultra black (bad ink for your FP) . . .

I'm curious, why do you say that?

[JimStrutton]

. . . PR ultra black (bad ink for your FP) . . .

I'm curious, why do you say that?

I think what this is about is the habit of some of the highly saturated inks to outstay their welcome. If you have had a really dark saturated ink, be it PR or Noodlers in a pen then even after a good flush, it won't all come out. To prove this point, flush out a pen and then load it with something like Parker Quink Washable Blue, which I use as my cleaning ink. As you write with the pen, over a few days is best leaving it to 'brew' for a while, you will find that the hue changes as it takes on whatever colur was there before.

 

The olny real way is to have a pen that comes apart easily like a Sonnet and stick it through a US cleaner. You still get ink out even after a good flushing and it can take a couple of goes with the cleaner to shift it.

 

Jim

[AndrewW]

Does anyone have a side-by-side comparison of the Prussian Blue versus Indigo versus Blue-Black? (Written, not swabbed.)