I have a quest - finding a substitute for Parker Penman Sapphire.
In the process of acquiring inks that I can mix to make a substitute, I have acquired a nice selection of Blues.
This micro-review is about some of those blues.

I recently acquired some Diamine Aqua, and was impressed with its smoothness, vibrance of colour and shading. I just wasn’t enamoured with the colour.
I also bought some Noodler’s Ottoman Azure. Again, it is a nice ink, with good depth of colour and shading, but was a bit too dark for my tastes.
Looking at each, I decided to mix 2 parts Ottoman Azure with 1 part Diamine Aqua to get what I call Ottoman Aqua, a pleasant bluey-green with lots of character and shading. This is now my main ink.

Impressed with the Diamine Aqua I ordered four mini-bottles of Diamine Blues - Royal Blue, Mediterranean Blue, Imperial Blue and Sapphire Blue.

Three other inks I have bought are PR American Blue, Visconti Blue and Sailor Jentle Blue.

From the PR American Blue and the Diamine Mediterranean Blue I made my Faux Penman Sapphire #4 from one part Mediterranean Blue and 4 parts PR American Blue. This is a little bit lighter in colour than the real Penman Sapphire, so my next mix will have a little blue-black in it.

These are all shown in the image. I tried to scan this, but my ancient scanner makes all blues the same shade of blue. I then photographed it and adjusted the levels in Photoshop until the image on MY screen looked like the original piece of paper, within some limits.

Most of the samples were, as the lines say, written with my Jinhao X-450 nib, dipped in the ink. This way I eliminated as much as possible the variation due to the nib. The paper is Clairefontaine DCP 100 gsm.

What you can’t quite see in the image —
1) The Sapphire blue is more blue and less purple than the Imperial Blue.
2) The real Parker Penman Sapphire is more blue and the Faux Penman Sapphire is darker blue.
3) The American Blue is slightly lighter blue, but not much
4) the Sailor Jentle blue has a touch of grey, making it more of a Blue-Black.



Inks, in order are --
Diamine Royal Blue
Diamine Aqua
Diamine Mediterranean Blue
Diamine Imperial Blue
Diamine Sapphire Blue
Noodler's Ottoman Azure
Parker Penman Sapphire
Faux Penman Sapphire #4
Noodler's Ottoman Azure again, with a different pen.
My Ottoman Aqua
Private Reserve American Blue
Visconti Blue
Sailor Jentle Blue

What a pleasure to comapre them! Thanks!

You have confirmed my need for a bottle of Ottoman Azure.

Ottoman Azure Blue is one of my favorite blue inks. It's rich, but not too dark, not too light. Fantastic ink.

Nice comparisons.

You might want to look at PR DCSS Blue. It is slightly darker than American Blue. I think it is a little closer to Penman Sapphire.

I haven't been able to find any PR DCSS Blue in Sydney. I am going to have to get some from OS.

Thank you so much for this!

I'm a varied ink kinda guy, but deep down I'm blue-ink all the way.