Attached below is an image of a writing sample with Noodler's Navy, and below that, the review proper. Regarding the image, "lorem ipsum" is a nonsense language used by printers to showcase a font/color (ie: it takes focus away from content and puts it on aesthetics). The water test was performed by submerging and agitating a sample swatch of the given ink in reverse osmosis water for thirty seconds, then letting it drip dry.

A key has been added, written on Clairefontaine paper, with a number of different inks for reference.

Standard Disclaimer: Image provided only to give a general sense of the color. The vibrance and nuance are typically lost when an ink is digitized.



Review

When I write a review, I first focus on color, and award an ink 0 to 100 based upon that alone, separate from other considerations. I then deduct points from the color score for defects (ie: lack of flow, creep, etc), to arrive at an overall score.

Color

I've just spent a lot of time looking over a number of inks, and out of them all, I like Noodler's Navy the best, by a good margin. This may sound cliché, but the color is electric on the page. It jumps out at you. The shading and nuance are fantastic. Plus, there is no reason why this ink couldn't be used everyday, for all standard purposes, as it's not a fluorescent green or red-black, but decidedly blue.

All of the above considered, I like to be conservative in my reviews. With the holy grail of inks being 100, Noodler's Navy is a solid 94.

Color Score = 94

Deductions

Noodler's Navy is messy, and it creeps. The creep isn't terrible, and the mess bearable, but these shortcomings will keep me looking for that perfect ink.
-5

Overall Score = 89 out of 100

Thanks for the review. I may need to try that.

Interesting comparison of various "dark blue" inks in the lower left corner of the scan. All of the inks shown, with the exception of Aurora and Sailor, have strong greenish elements. The green is less noticeable in the Sheaffer than in the others.

One of three things appears to be true:
1. Ink manufacturers have a bias toward greenish blues.
2. Ink manufacturers think that fountain pen owners prefer greenish blues.
3. The basic chemistry of blue inks tilts towards greenish blues.

One problem is due to anti-aliasing. The pen strokes are only a pixel or 2 wide and it uses partial color to approximate a line that passes between pixels. Zoom in to see pixels as blocks and you'll see what I mean. My experiments indicate that increasing the resolution to around 180 dpi makes a critical difference. The scans I've been posting are at 200 dpi. (So I write a narrower column to scan).

When you zoom in, you want to see at least one solid color pixel with a partial color pixel on either side, everywhere on a line; and 2 solid pixels most of the time.

You will also lose less "vibrance" if you use colorimetrically-correct calculations when resampling down to a lower resolution. Most programs (at least by default) simply average the RGB values being manipulated and this is incorrect when the color space is sRGB or other gamma-corrected space. It tends to wash out the color.

—John

I do an optical scan at 600 dpi, then scale the resolution by approx. half to 1200 by 927. Either way, I don't think there's much one can do to compensate for all the variance in monitors out there.

When I was referring to the loss of vibrance/nuance, I was mainly citing the inability of the monitor to reproduce varying light levels/qualities/temperatures that inks inevitable reflect "in the flesh." A monitor, by its very nature, will always illuminate the subject evenly, with the same color, and from behind (backlight), as opposed to light hitting the page and reflecting to the user's eye.

All that said, I think you're doing a fantastic job with the calibrated scans.

Navy is now my favourite "blue" ink.

Previously it was Waterman Blue-Black, but Navy's improved water resistance, quicker drying and more vibrant colour win out.

Currently have my Lamy 1.1 Italic inked with it.

Totally agree, and thank you for the review. I love the way you describe your grading scale.

Noodler's Navy is by far my favorite "straight from the bottle" ink.

Appreciate the sample work. I prefer blues of all kinds and it's a pleasure to see them side by side.

Thanks.



Based on what I've learned recently, and looking close-up at your scan, I can offer this specific advice: Write in a slightly narrower column and/or allow the image to be a bit wider, so that your scaling is another 20-50% higher DPI from what it is now. You are getting one core pixel in a pen stroke, most of the time, with the anti-aliasing being 3 to 4 times that width. Second, when you resize, specify colorimetrically-correct resampling as opposed to given RGB value sampling. It might be marked "Gamma=1", "flat", or something like that. I know where it is in Photoshop CS.

BTW, I like your use of "comparisons" to different inks. That will help people place it relative to others they have. I take it it's all scanned at once, so you don't have to worry about matching exposures etc.

--John

Thanks for the review. What do you mean by "messy"?

I never see any of JJBlanche's scans. No place holder just text. reason?
PMS

This is somewhat hard to describe, but well behaved inks will flow off the nib and into the feed after you dip them for filling, and don't require much cleanup after the fact. They are generally thinner, and are not as "greasy" (for lack of a better word) when compared to inks like Navy.

Navy is fantastic from a number of standpoints, but I'm still searching for my "grail" ink (ie: one that combines all the positives of Navy, while drying faster).

Not sure on that one. It's either a browser setting, or the images are too large for your allotted bandwidth (ie: they might give dialup or fire walled intra-nets some issues).

Ah, I see. Thanks. I've been reading so many ink reviews and looking at other places online for an ink that suits me (fast drying, permanent, nice dark color) and this seemed to be my closest lead, but the messiness worries me. Alas.

Sailor Blue-Black might be worth investigating. I need to return to that ink and see how it flows/looks in my M605.