Diamine
Blues
Blue ink is one of the staples of many fountain pen users, and with almost 20 different blues I am sure that one of these colours will be the just the right colour.
Aqua Blue is very similar to Turquoise but with a little more blue tones.
I have found this colour looks good in some business and all personal notes.
There is a brightness about this blue and when I look a entire page of notes with this colour, you have to like a bright bue to like the look.
The performance is fairly standard with the Diamine line, reasonable drying time, and depending on the pressure with which you write, the ink was dry within five seconds. I only found some smearing within a five second time frame where I had made heavy strokes and at the end of the stroke, where the pen rested on the paper there was additional ink on the paper. There is overall good colour tones.
Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site.
Blue Black
I really enjoy this colour.
I found that business writing looks very strong and easy to read because of the depth of colour. It is dark and photocopies very clearly - always a good consideration for letters etc that you are signing at work.
The deep blue-black colour has an interesting undertone of grey-blue and this gives the ink a very interesting tone or shading.
Good flow, and a rich dark saturation. The ink is made for business writing
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Color swatch from the Diamine web site.
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China Blue - the colour swatch on the Diamine web site shows this colour of ink to be a very light blue. But, when when I loaded up one of my pens with this ink, it had far more punch than the colour swatch.
I liked the crisp blue look and the ink has enough colour saturation for my liking. Now over time, this is one of the inks that I come back to.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Florida Blue - is what I would call a good middle range blue. It is not one that I have used a lot as I tend to lean towards bolder more saturated colours.
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Havasu Turquoise
This is a very appealing colour, a rich blue with some green to go it a turquoise tone. The blue in this gives it a richer colour than the Turquoise colour that Diamine produces. There is a distinctive look to this ink. The color swatch on this Diamine site is not a good representation of this ink.
I like the colour of this ink, but must put out a note about staining. This colour has left ink stains on the outer body of one of my celluloid pens so I have stopped using it in that type of pen.
I was surprised at how quickly the ink stained the celluloid. Simply ink, after a fill-up, was in the cap section, when I posted the cap section on the body of the pen, where, an hour or so later was the staining.
The colour is good and I am limiting its use to my all metal pens.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site has much more blue than the ink holds.
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WES Imperial Blue
If you looked at the colour swatch from Diamine web site you would think of this as a blue ink.
When you look at the ink, and write with it, it has a very definite purple/violet colour tone.
But, despite the variance between the colour of the ink and the web site colour swatch, it is a very bold, bright, solid ink. When I go back and look at notes I took at meetings it the colour looks fine.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Indigo Blue has a flat colour appearance, however, fairly good colour density.
Even from the scans, there is less punch to this ink than some of the other blues available from Diamine.
I would almost describe Indigo Blue as a light blue-black colour of ink because of the light black tones throughout.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Majestic Blue
I call this a blue-black ink because of the very dark tone of the ink. It has quickly become one of my most used inks.
It has reasonable time it takes for ink to dry. I use a variety of nibs, most being broad or stub, and within five seconds the ink is drying. Some times if the nib is large it can take up to 10 seconds. From what I see in many reviews, up to 10 seconds is considered reasonable.
This ink is wetter than some of the other colours, that means great flow, but a fair amount of ink hits the paper.
This is the colour that would replace by Parker Penman Sapphire Blue!
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Mediterranean Blue
This is an interesting colour, a light, soft tone but with a bit of character.
It looks very good on personal notes or cards.
Good performance, nothing to stand out from the other colours in the Diamine line.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
Marine Blue
This is part of the turquoise group of blue inks. It is a little lighter in tone that the Havasu Turquoise but the ink has what I call an "easy on the eye" look to it. I have used it in both business and personal note purposes.
The colour swatch on the Diamine web site is fairly representative of the colour of ink in use.
I found the Havasu Turquoise, which was issued in 2009 to have the punch that I look for in my ink colour selections.
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Midnight Blue
This is another colour that I have really taken to. It came out in 2009 and it is one of the most used colours in my collection. A very dark, rich blue, black. Leaves a great dark solid line of ink on the page.
Not a lot of shading, despite the width of the nib that is being used.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Presidential Blue has a darker tone than say Royal Blue or Washable blue, and a nice solid look to it.
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Prussian Blue is close to a lighter blue-black colour. When I gave this ink a full day's test at the office I concluded it was really a grey ink. In fact one day I held asked for feedback from a co-worker and it was a resounding: grey not blue black.
When I have scanned ink samples there are hints of blue that come on on the scan, but not so in actual writing. I think this is more of a personal stationary ink. In the office, I noticed that because of the grey tone, for letters I signed with this ink, the signature did not photocopy very well.
The ink has good performance, it dries very quickly, a little quicker than some of the other colours.
Despite the various pens I have used, the ink just never looks as dark as the colour swatch on the Diamine web site. I have written with a Pelikan M1000 with a Broad Nib, now that is a pen that really drops a fair amount of ink on the page. Still, no where near the color swatch.
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Royal Blue is an easy-on-the-eye blue with good colour although a very light blue. Looks great on a card, but I have found that where I have written pages of meeting notes with this ink, that I would lean towards a darker, stronger colour.
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Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Sapphire Blue
Sapphire Blue - (New Century Line) this is a good colour if you like bold colours as the ink stands out on the page. As the ink dries on the paper a bit more of the blue tone comes out, but when you start to write with it, purple is the colour that hits you.
 Colour swatch from Diamine Web Site:
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Steel Blue was one of the initial colours I ordered from Diamine. The colour is not what was expected but it has certainly grown on me and I have enjoyed using it at work and for personal notes.
My experience with this ink is a bit more green comes across than the colour sample on Diamine's web site.
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Turquoise is slightly darker than the Aqua Blue ink.
Overall, good tone, and enough depth of colour that it will "hold a message" as soon brands have a turquoise that seems to fade away.
I have really enjoyed this ink and it will be one of the colours for my next order from Diamine.
The ink does not look like the colour swatch on the Diamine web site:
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Washable Blue
This ink has a flat soft look. It is easy on the eye, although for my preference, I prefer a blue with a little more punch.
For many this could be a good mid-tone blue.
I not sure what the Washable really stands for. All the Diamine inks are water based so none or water resistant. Some, I have noticed from getting ink on my fingers need a bit more of a scrub to get off.
So I took my finger, dipped it in water, and then immediately ran it across the Words: Washable Blue. I was expecting the ink to just lift off and paper and float away. Not so as the example to the left shows.
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Dipping my finger in water and immediately wiping my finger across the words Washable Blue, the ink did not just wash off the paper. Pretty good staying power.
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WES Kensington Blue
Diamine made this ink for London's Writing Equipment Society (WES).
This is an interesting blue, although you do no see the tone on the colour swatch on the Diamine web site, when you write with the ink, there is a turquoise tone.
The ink performs well, although in terms of drying, this colour I found dries quicket than some of the other colours.
The colour swatch on the Duimine site is not a good representation of the colour of the ink.
Information and reviews of other colour groups are found by the following links:
Information about Diamine Ink is available on their web site: www.diamineinks.co.uk/
