Ink Review: Diamine Presidential Blue

[Chrissy]

I decided to review this ink sample as it isn't long before the new POTUS will be inaugurated. So this is Diamine Presidential Blue

This is a medium range blue, an everyday sort of blue that you could use at home or in the office. I expected it to be darker than it writes. Although it doesn't look like it leans either red or purple like many Royal Blue types, it's chroma test reveals a little violet dye as well as the blue dye. So there is some violet in there.

It exhibits plenty of shading, with no noticeable sheen, and feels slightly drier than some other inks I've used recently. I experienced no problems while I was using it, no skips or hard starts, and it didn't dry out on the nib while I was doing swab tests. So for me it's a well-behaved ink

It felt slightly wetter when I changed from the F nib to the M nib, and then the B nib. It seems to get darker when the nib is broader. The dry time on all of the papers I used was 10-12 secs. Once dry there was no smearing.

It isn't sold as water resistant, but after I soaked the patch then blotted off the water, there was still enough ink left to show the original diagram.

 

• This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but shows some water resistance.
• Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used Lamy F, M and B nibs this ink took 10-12 secs to dry using the M nib. No smear after dry.
• It exhibited quite good flow and I found it reasonably smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.
• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles
• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
• It's a reasonable price.

 

Ink blot on paper towel

 

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.

I liked the color of the sample of Presidential Blue okay when I tried it. And the shading is pretty amazing. But I found the ink to be dry dry dry.... And there are plenty of other Diamine blues I like better to skip getting a full bottle.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[visvamitra]

Rather generic but I guuess there must be some interest in such colors.

[dcwaites]

I think this will be on my next batch of inks from Diamine.

A dry, beautiful blue, what's not to love?

[Chrissy]

It's a nice blue, and if you need a dryer writing blue, that isn't overly saturated, and shades beautifully, then it fills that niche.

[lapis]

NIce review of a nice ink. But with or without a tick of violet -- and I see more a tick of green here-- there still seems to be something missing. As you wrote above, it doesn't smear. Majestic Blue does smear but both have about the same short drying time (3-5 s on normal HP copy paper). I any case, one can't complain that Diamine doesn't offer a huge range of blues....

 

Mike

[Chrissy]

NIce review of a nice ink. But with or without a tick of violet -- and I see more a tick of green here-- there still seems to be something missing. As you wrote above, it doesn't smear. Majestic Blue does smear but both have about the same short drying time (3-5 s on normal HP copy paper). I any case, one can't complain that Diamine doesn't offer a huge range of blues....

 

Mike

 

There is definitely no green dye in this ink, just the regular blue dye that shows up in so many blue inks, plus a tick of violet. I will add a picture of the chroma test when I get a decent day to take a photo of it.

 

Neither Majestic Blue nor Sargasso Sea smear in my notebooks or on my Xerox paper when I've written with them in my pens. On the review in my notebook I used a glass dip pen when I wrote with both inks, and despite it laying down quite a bit of ink, it still didn't smear either of them in that notebook on 95gsm paper. Maybe my paper is a higher grade than normal HP printer/copy paper, but I probably have some cheap copy paper that I could try. Not that I ever use cheap printer/copy paper for writing on though.

[lapis]

Okay, you asked for it ! Ahh, c'mon, jus' kiddn' ! First off using a glass dip pen on Rhodia 80 g/m². I chose to mention Magestic (M) here (in this thread) because it has more violet in it than P does. These scans show among other things that Presidential (P) is less concentrated and at the same time made up of a less soluble dye.

Secondly, however much violet there in fact is in P, P still has some green in it. That's all I was pointing at.

Last -- but least -- M may have more violet in it but that is also a different violet dye than in P, and that dye apparently overrides the appearance of green dye, even if it is less mobile.

 

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/Diamine%20P%20vs%20M.jpg

[chromantic]

Thanks, Chrissy. Not normally the type of blue that appeals to me but it comes across very nicely here, especially on the British notebook and the Rhodia (more so than the review form). I'll put this on my 'hmm' list.

[JulieParadise]

For the #50shadesofbluechallenge (link to the hashtag on Instagram), a challenge over at the German PenExchange forum for July & August 2020, I inked up all my pens with all the 50+ blue inks I have. The snapshots might also be of interest to some here.

Presidential Blue is ... well, blue. A nice blue, mid to dark, with a slightly greyish tint. And, please excuse the harsh verdict, a bit boring. Which could equate to: Serious, work-appropriate, taking the back seat to to convey your thoughts in writing without being flashy itself. Depends on what you use it for.

The ink itself does behave reliably, dries fast, does not smear, cleans out easily. Still, I am not impressed but cannot be sure to not do it injustice.