I'm writing my way through 250 ml of Pelikan Royal Blue. As most writers know, the ink tends to be a little light; sometimes nearly transparent depending on pen and paper. Occasionally, writing will not be recognized by a scanner due to the light shade.

I'd like to buy an ink of a different color and, settling on a recipe, darken the Royal Blue. The final look I hope for may be one of the following, in order of priority: 1) darker / richer blue, 2) blue-black, 3) bluish-violet (for use at work, it would need to be a conservative bluish-violet).

I know that many of you have proven recipes. Please share them if you can.

Thanks!

The simplest is to just add black. One drop at a time - black ink blackens any other ink very quickly.

Or add a darker blue?

I have used Private Reserve American Blue to darken various blues and it works great. Just a little bit goes a long way. However, I haven't specifically tried it with Pelikan inks.

Adding black will, of course, make it a blue-black which may or may not be what you want. As Kissing said, a little black goes a long way in a mix.

Ron

Add in some Waterman Purple - I followed Richard Binder's recipe for Burple (that's what my sixth formers call it). 50% Florida Blue and 50% Purple.

It's quite purple still, so a 1/3, 2/3 mix in yours might look more conservative. Perhaps just add purple a bit at a time until you get want you want from a swab of the new colour.

"Burple" - the way forward!

Or you could add some Diamine Prussian Blue, a blueish blue/black, but just a drop at a time.

Jim

You are not alone. I dislike Pelikan's Royal Blue, either, because of its lightness. And I dislike Pelikan's Blue-Black, because it is more grey than blue-black. However, mixing these two inks is great! I take a full bottle of Royal Blue and one of Blue-Black to get a really nice Blue-Black.

Best wishes,
diogenes

Adding black to an under-saturated blue produces black or an off-colour gray. I'd add a highly saturated blue, and then a little black if I wanted blue-black. The obvious blue to add would be one of the PR's - Supershow or American. Half and half Pel and Supershow should be very legible. You can then cautiously add a little black - how much depends a lot on the saturation of the black as well as the result you want.

If you weren't going to add black, then you could get away with less Supershow. I've seen it completely change the vibrancy and saturation of another blue in quite small quantities when it doesn't have to fight the dulling effect of black. Combined with a less saturated blue it sometimes gives subtle and very pleasant shading.

I dislike Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, too. I have thought that Private Reserve Midnight Blues might be good inks for darkening all washed-out blue inks. But I haven't tried it myself, though. It is probably the darkest true blue but some people see purple tones in it. Well, it does not hurt, if you try it yourself.

Pelikan inks don't mix well with other brands. Well, at least with Parker's Quink. They tend to feather very badly. At first, I disliked Pelikan Royal Blue for it's lightness, but now I love it for the same reason. Stop using it for a while, and when you load it into a pen, I think you will enjoy the change from darker and more saturated inks... The Pelikan's blue black is my favorite blueblack shade...


Nenad