Twenty Six Brown Inks

[visvamitra]

It's old comparison I've made and I'm not really happy with it. I've made few mistakes, lost some colors - they're all together just on the first photo.

 

But then I do believe some of you'll find this useful.

 

I love brown inks and brown color is my favourite one (well my favourites are tea-browns, something like Itzamna and Inti by L'Artisan Pastellier, awesome inks).

 

The problem I have with brown inks is they're difficult to scan. If only there's some red to them they tend to turn purplish on scans. I guess I could borrow IT8 and calibrate my scanner, yet I've found no one willing to share it with me

 

Anyway take a look at this scan and bare in mind it's more of an attempt than actual comparison I would be satisfied with.

 

1. SWABS on Mondi paper (90 g)

http://imageshack.com/a/img34/3661/w4l1.jpg

2. Text written in OXFORD notebook with Pilot 78G with Broad nib:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img69/8771/jmgm.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img824/751/5ou5.jpg

 

3. Text written in cheap Lyreco notebook with Pilot 78G with Broad nib:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img819/97/4tft.jpg

3. Text written in high quality notebook with Pilot 78G with Broad nib:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img829/5512/j5qk.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img42/4733/604p.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img401/4766/1ul8.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img823/1117/m627.jpg

SUMMARY

I love browns, but not all of them. My favourites from these comparison are: Ancient Copper, Boron, Encre Havane, Hazelnut Brown, Itzamna, Lie de The, Tsukushi.

 

Inks I don't like are: TERRE DE FEU (ugliest brown that I know),Foggy Bottom Sepia (color is quite nice but it caused clogging every single nib I'd tried), Brąz kawowy

 

 

[h.farmawi]

Wow, thats a really great comparison thanks a lot

i think the BORON, the Toffee Brown and the Hazelnut Brown are pretty nice i will add these Browns to the list, also the Brilliant Brown looks nice and will pick a bottle if i could.

 

PS : couldnt find the Sheaffer's Brown here have you tried it before ?

Edited May 13, 2014 by h.farmawi

[visvamitra]

Hi - no I haven't tried it. After trying Sheaffer Green I've decided these inks are waste of time

[Mesu]

Another great comparison.

 

No splashes like the red ink comparison?

[visvamitra]

It's old comparison. At the time I haven't started to make ink splashes yet

 

One day I'll make another attempt to compare browns.

[Ink Blotto]

Thank you for this comparison test. I like brown ink and I'm sure I'll refer to this in the future. I have been planning on picking up a bottle of Waterman Havana Brown (or whatever it is called now) for my next ink, but now I may have a tougher choice. I didn't think I would like the Ancient Copper until I saw it compared to so many others. The Lie de The looks very nice also.

 

Paul

[tinta]

Thank you for this comparison.

I have just received some Waterman international long carts in Havana Brown, but I haven't had the chance yet of trying them out.

Now I see that Havana Brown is much darker than my Iroshi Tsukushi (a favourite brown) & seems to have more red in it.

Edited May 14, 2014 by tinta

[visvamitra]

It definitely has more red to it than Tsukushi.

[william2001]

Cool!

[madden11]

I LOVE this! I basically use only brown inks and have my own comp chart, but it's nothing like this. Gonna hafta bring mine up to speed. As a matter of fact I don't even know how many I have...

[Bo Bo Olson]

A good comparison. I only have some 5-6 browns.

There were some there I'd not buy....a some I'd buy. So it's a very good shopper's list.

[amberleadavis]

This is awesome! Thank you! If you ever want to see if they fade, send them to me for a torture test. Again, thank you for this great comparison.

[highlander1307]

Thank you. Great job.

[vikramguliya]

The comparison you have done is really awesome and you really need lots of patients.

[Algester]

wait Terre de Feu is brown?... I know Lie de The is but isnt Terre de Feu more into the reds territory it's near burgundy

[visvamitra]

Well, Terre de Feu is the ink I don't really like, but it behaves in a funny way. When you compare text written withTerre de Feu on different papers and with different nibs you wouldn't say it's the same inkl. But I agree with you that in most cases it tries to be burgundy.