EFNIR: Jinhao Bluish Violet

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Jinhao Bluish Violet

This is review #320 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This is a fairly middle-of-the-road purple - most of my other purples were either redder or bluer, often darker or brighter, sometimes more muted...  Monteverde Amethyst was the only one close.  The microscope slide was boring.  Cleaning was quick and easy.

Zoomed in photo (Pretty close.)

Screenshot (Text is too dark.)

Scan of Completed Review (Too red on one monitor, also the text is a little too pale.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Pretty close.)

Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 360µm, with twelve divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 337µm. With 320 inks measured, the average line width is 297µm.)

Previous Review: Nemosine Black.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[yazeh]

Thank you @LizEFfor sacrificing your storytelling talents for such an insipid colour.  It serves the "high With-ard" right if Essri and Makhabesh were to prank him with a bottle of this ink 

Poor Quin to serve and save and to be ruled by such an incompetent fool. 

 

Thanks for bringing zest and zaniness to this grey and dull day 🙏🙏🙏

 

[LizEF]

39 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thank you @LizEFfor sacrificing your storytelling talents for such an insipid colour.  

Thanks!  Sadly, we still have two more Jinhao cartridge inks before we're done with those and can go back to samples and bottles!  (Well, technically, I'm done with them, but you guys still have two more to see...)

 

39 minutes ago, yazeh said:

It serves the "high With-ard" right if Essri and Makhabesh were to prank him with a bottle of this ink 

 

40 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Poor Quin to serve and save and to be ruled by such an incompetent fool. 

<must not say more>

 

40 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing zest and zaniness to this grey and dull day 🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Whoa.  Those are some feathers worthy of a Sphinx's wings.

 

You may have guessed by now that I am not a huge fan of poiple ink, but this Jinhao version seems very springlike and pretty, and on a cold windy day when I'm grumbling 'Die, winter, die,' it's most welcome.  

 

Is this ink an Unobtainium?  And is that why there are groans?  I may have to settle for the Waterman…

 

I like Heilari's imperious sweep.  But poor beleagured Quin.  Good thing he has his Snek, Vika and Makhabesh along!  

 

@LizEF, you make Tuesdays magical and fun... I always look forward to the review and story and I'm wondering what's next.  Thank you!

[LizEF]

22 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Whoa.  Those are some feathers worthy of a Sphinx's wings.

 

22 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

You may have guessed by now that I am not a huge fan of poiple ink, but this Jinhao version seems very springlike and pretty, and on a cold windy day when I'm grumbling 'Die, winter, die,' it's most welcome.  

Yes, context matters.  When the skies are cold and grey, any bright color looks more appealing.

 

23 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Is this ink an Unobtainium?  And is that why there are groans?  I may have to settle for the Waterman…

No, you can get the cartridges on Amazon (that's where I got them).  I think the bottles might be available from places like AliExpress and eBay...  Groans are from the folks who have to put up with the High Wizard on the daily.   The Waterman will surely behave better...

 

25 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I like Heilari's imperious sweep.  But poor beleagured Quin.  Good thing he has his Snek, Vika and Makhabesh along!  

She's a formidable force.  Friends make life bearable.

 

26 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, you make Tuesdays magical and fun... I always look forward to the review and story and I'm wondering what's next.  Thank you!

Thanks!   You're most welcome!

[USG]

+1   there really should be a like button.... 😀

Nice review... 👍

[inkstainedruth]

@LizEF Hmmm -- Pretty color and seems like a fast dry time (and I agree with Sailor Kenshin about the springlike feel to it -- especially when it's super cold where I am at the moment (and it's snowing and I'm NOT looking forward to driving to choir rehearsal and back tonight -- especially having to go up and down a steep hill with speed humps on it to get there and back).  But the feathering on less than good paper might make this a fairly hard pass....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, USG said:

+1   there really should be a like button.... 😀

Nice review... 👍

Thank you!

[LizEF]

35 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

seems like a fast dry time

Yes, nearly all the Jinhao inks I've reviewed had a fast dry time.

 

36 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

(and it's snowing and I'm NOT looking forward to driving to choir rehearsal and back tonight -- especially having to go up and down a steep hill with speed humps on it to get there and back)

Drive carefully!  Stay safe!  Happy singing!

 

36 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

But the feathering on less than good paper might make this a fairly hard pass....

Yeah.  I wonder if the Chinese have inexpensive good paper, or if they just don't care, or...?  Anyway, there are other options.

[Baggins]

22 hours ago, LizEF said:

Yeah.  I wonder if the Chinese have inexpensive good paper, or if they just don't care, or...?  Anyway, there are other options

Hi everyone 🙂

You certainly have good FP friendly paper in China. I bought a few Zara notebooks, 100gsm paper, quite nice at 2.5€ A4 that originally cost 25€. Took a chance. Went the next day to get more, they had disappeared 🥺.

They were all made in “mainland China”. 

[LizEF]

4 minutes ago, Baggins said:

Hi everyone 🙂

You certainly have good FP friendly paper in China. I bought a few Zara notebooks, 100gsm paper, quite nice at 2.5€ A4 that originally cost 25€. Took a chance. Went the next day to get more, they had disappeared 🥺.

They were all made in “mainland China”. 

Thanks!  Perhaps if their paper is generally good enough, they don't need to worry about whether ink behaves badly on poor paper...

[Baggins]

30 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Thanks!  Perhaps if their paper is generally good enough, they don't need to worry about whether ink behaves badly on poor paper...

I have tried to buy from Temu, Alibaba and all those papers suck. Theyare good as blotting paper now 😡

[LizEF]

23 minutes ago, Baggins said:

I have tried to buy from Temu, Alibaba and all those papers suck. Theyare good as blotting paper now 😡

Huh.  Well, then it's just like the rest of us - match your ink to your paper.

[InesF]

The right question: Do you like to acquire one more purple ink?

The wrong question: Do you like to acquire one more black ink?

 

So far, I always answered the first with: "no, thanks, I have already 24 purple inks!" 🤗

So far, I always answered the second with: "no thanks, I have already one black ink!" 🫢

 

Does Ursula K. le Guin (I love her books!) want me to buy more black inks? 🤫 But, if even a "yes" would be wrong ... ah!, I love Ursula even more!   

 

And I love your ink reviews and story parts a lot!  Thank you, @LizEF, for relentlessly freeing the world from pre-filled ink cartridges!  

 

To the ink: yes, this is a charming colour. And no, I have already 24 purple inks ... most of them tamed for office use! 

[LizEF]

4 hours ago, InesF said:

The right question: Do you like to acquire one more purple ink?

The wrong question: Do you like to acquire one more black ink?

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

So far, I always answered the first with: "no, thanks, I have already 24 purple inks!" 🤗

So far, I always answered the second with: "no thanks, I have already one black ink!" 🫢

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

Does Ursula K. le Guin (I love her books!) want me to buy more black inks? 🤫 But, if even a "yes" would be wrong ... ah!, I love Ursula even more!   

Her books are the first fiction books I've read where I stopped reading to copy down a quote.  Serious wisdom in some of them!

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

And I love your ink reviews and story parts a lot!  

  Thank you!

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @LizEF, for relentlessly freeing the world from pre-filled ink cartridges!  

You're most welcome!

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

To the ink: yes, this is a charming colour. And no, I have already 24 purple inks ... most of them tamed for office use! 

I wonder what it is about purple that it needs a little taming.

[inkstainedruth]

14 hours ago, InesF said:

The right question: Do you like to acquire one more purple ink?

The wrong question: Do you like to acquire one more black ink?

 

So far, I always answered the first with: "no, thanks, I have already 24 purple inks!" 🤗

So far, I always answered the second with: "no thanks, I have already one black ink!" 🫢

 

Well, I *do* actually have more than one black ink but I don't use black all that much just in general (even with ballpoints, growing up, I preferred blue ink).  And in fact have some black inks I've never even tried even after probably a decade -- some were samples for a project that never made it past the first attempt (what inks did well on crummy printer paper in less than stellar conditions in southwestern PA in August) for doing drawings where you were inking over pencil drawings and then erasing the pencil marks (oh and I was using the inks in Preppies set up as rollerballs).  The drawing would then be photocopied for coloring (but NOT on the original artwork, of course).

I wasn't actually using them on the actual artwork -- but I was doing tests on the same paper, including checking the dry times and how easy it was to use whiteout over it to fix mistakes in the inking, and then fix the line work as needed over the whiteout....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Paul-in-SF]

Well, it's not cold here (San Francisco, about 5 degrees above normal) and I find the color bilious. Someone said insipid, but that's not sour enough for me, I go for bilious. Sorry. I usually like violet and purple, there's just something about this one. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for it. 

[LizEF]

26 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Well, it's not cold here (San Francisco, about 5 degrees above normal) and I find the color bilious. Someone said insipid, but that's not sour enough for me, I go for bilious. Sorry. I usually like violet and purple, there's just something about this one. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for it. 

  All good, Paul - there are plenty of other inks to pick.

[InesF]

On 1/17/2025 at 2:20 AM, inkstainedruth said:

Well, I *do* actually have more than one black ink but I don't use black all that much just in general (even with ballpoints, growing up, I preferred blue ink).  And in fact have some black inks I've never even tried even after probably a decade -- some were samples for a project that never made it past the first attempt (what inks did well on crummy printer paper in less than stellar conditions in southwestern PA in August) for doing drawings where you were inking over pencil drawings and then erasing the pencil marks (oh and I was using the inks in Preppies set up as rollerballs).  The drawing would then be photocopied for coloring (but NOT on the original artwork, of course).

I wasn't actually using them on the actual artwork -- but I was doing tests on the same paper, including checking the dry times and how easy it was to use whiteout over it to fix mistakes in the inking, and then fix the line work as needed over the whiteout....

Oh, that's a quite interesting procedure! I never considered saving the original drawing and experimenting with different versions of washes.

Thank you for sharing your experience! 👍  

[chromantic]

This is the type of Violet I enjoy; if I didn't already have Stipula Purple, I would consider this. I have to say, though, that the name seems somewhat misleading as I don't see much blue in it.