Well, I promised a review of sorts when I got round to using this ink so here are my comments.

Wow, what a colour it is a deep purple, very much like Pelikan Violet but perhaps a shade deeper and the tiniest bit bluer. Lovely, deep and intensely opaque.

Flows like silk - as do the other Diamine inks I've tried - from my pen (MB 145 Chopin - medium nib) and dries quickly enough not to be a problem with my being left-handed.

I left it to dry and gave a vigorous rub with a dry fingertip - nothing. Good.
Next, leave the page under a running tap and lots of ink washes off, but good, dark and clearly legible writing remained.

No feathering, soakthrough or bleeding on decent photocopier paper (80g).

I like this, as I liked Prussian Blue.
If you like purple/violet colours, I can only say give this a try. I can see this being one of my everyday inks now. And it comes in a great big lovely shaped bottle for a good price.

Chris

Great review, Chris ! I've been "hearing" lots of good things about Diamine ink here: easy flow, fast drying, no dry-smudging, many interesting colors and a reasonable price per milliliter.

Now we know that this color remains legible after some water runs over it .

Chris, and any other Diamine Imperial Purple ink users, when you have a moment:
Is this color comfortable to read for a whole page, or is it better for shorter notes and markup?
Also, how well does it perform on "bad" (loose-fiber) paper?

Chris, it's funny that you brought this up! A good friend just asked me to make a sample of Waterman Violet for him to see, and for comparison I used Diamine Imperial Purple and Lamy Purple. I can post the scan if you don't mind?


Marina.

I don't know how accurate this is to everyone else.. I tried to adjust it so it was accurate to what I see in person. Diamine Imperial Purple is the reddest of my purple inks. Not to say it is very red at all, but Waterman and Lamy are more blue. I hope this comes across right!

I second Chris on what he said about the properties - great flow, and good drying.

As to how the Diamine Imperial Purple does on cheap paper, the answer is favorable. It does pretty well, with just a little bit of bleed-through. The paper I tested it on is thin, cheap Mead tablet paper.

I found it to be among the darker purples that I've tried.

Best, Ann

Thanks, Ann! That's a great paper for "bad paper" testing. By "bleed-through," do you mean that ink spots end up on the next sheet of paper?

Looking at the small sheet of Mead tablet paper in my index card file, it looks as though it barely came through and may not have gone through to another sheet of paper, but you wouldn't want to write on the reverse side of that sheet.

I can't retest it because I sold it. The Sheaffer Slovenian & Herbin purples that I mentioned in your Sheaffer Purple review are more to my liking!

HTH, Ann

Marina, your scan of Imperial Purple looks pretty accurate on my monitor. I find Imperial Purple to be fairly red, and if left in the pen for a long while to dehydrate it will go almost brown. Its behaviour is similar to most Diamine inks, free-flowing and untemperamental, but I think it is a little 'dryer' than their Prussian Blue or Royal Blue.

Marina,

Thanks for the scans. they just go to show what others have said, which is that the behaviour and colour of any ink depends on the pen and paper. You and others see it as redder than Pelikan and that shows clearly on the scan yet on my paper - and under my office lights, which undoubtedly have amajor effect - it seems bluer.

I wrote several pages for an article last night using Imperial Purple. It seems a little vibrant this morning , but my secretary seems to be coping with it OK, though she did say she liked Sunday's ink better. That was Prussina Blue - more restful on the eyes :ph34r:

Whatever, I can only say go a buy some if you like purples and you are unlikely to be disappointed.

What to try next

Chris

I LOVE Diamine Purple, from what I've seen.

It looks pretty close on my monitor. Diamine Imperial Purple is one of my favorite purple inks. It does not stain like Waterman Violet or Noodlers and it works very well in vintage pens as it does in modern ones too!!!

Diamine really has vintage ink qualities and I tend to use Parker and Waterman inks in my vintage pens due to the fact that they flow very nicely inn them. I usually have flow issues with the modern more saturated inks in my vintage pens.

I didnt know Lamy made Purple ink. Nice color on the paper!!!

TNS

Diamine Imperial Purple and Diamine Violet are two of my favorite inks. As mentioned they have great color, great flow, reasonable drying time and little feathering.

I too have had good experience with them in vintage pens. They have the right flow characteristics for wet-writing flex-nib pens, where sometimes Noodlers is too wet or (in the case of Noodlers waterproof inks) doesn't flow well.

I had mixed results on water permanence, but these colors did better than most. Unlike Waterman or Pelikan violets that wash compeletely off the page, these did leave a bit of trace image that could be read after a good soak. Generally, I find water-permanence better on cheaper paper (where the ink more thoroughly penetrates the fibers of the paper) than on good paper (where more ink dries on the surface).

When I am trying out a new pen, I usually turn to one of these two colors.

Now if only I could get ahold of some Prussian Blue. . .

John

Saintsimon asked a question about the availability of Lamy Purple/Violet in bottles, an interesting question in its own right, so I split the topic and started saintsimon's in "Inky Thoughts" under Lamy Purple/Violet in cartridges or bottles?.

I promise not to split topics very often; it is rather heavy-handed :ph34r: . I am just interested in the answer to this one myself. I thought I knew it until I thought again about how Marina might have made her delightful sample page for this thread.

Incidentally - an outstanding hand, M4R1N4! You are an example to us all.

John

Got 3 Diamine inks - Prussian Blue, Presidential Blue, and, you guessed it, Imperial Purple. As a lefty, I second (or third or whatever number we're down to now) the comments of the other lefties about being quick drying and non-smearing. Colors are great. Flow is nice. Lubricity is ok also.

Perhaps the formulation has changed since this review was written, but I find the Imperial Purple to be very purple, and not really a reddish purple at all like was shown in this handwritten example.

I'm loving this ink. Loving it I say! This is the first Purple that I have found that does not bleed in my Moleskine. Yay! The level of saturation seems to vary by pen. I've got it in my Fine Safari now, and it is writing very, very wet and wide. I liked it better in my EF Safari. Nice and dark with great flow.

Steph, I meant to post this earlier on your Violette Pensee thread - but I guess my observations just add to the question of different formulas, because I just got some Imperial Purple and it is definitely redder than either Violette Pensee or Skrip Violet, my only other purples. It looks very different from Violette Pensee in my paper and pens and I did mean to post a comparison sample.

I admit I'm still trying to decide if I like it. It seems to have a bit of magenta to it, which makes me realize I prefer bluer purples. But it has the virtue, as you pointed out, of behaving incredibly well in my otherwise bleedy Moleskine, by far the best of any other ink I've ever tried. In a medium nib, even! For that alone, I might keep using it.

I just wanted a purple, any purple that would behave in my Mole. I've been using it here at work to take notes on a super white steno pad from Staples and it's definitely a purpley purple. No signs of magenta in mine. I just ordered from Pear Tree Pens and I wonder what hue will show up.

Of note - it only seems to be "super wet" in the Moleskine. Regular wet elsewhere.

I had bought a sample of Noodler's Red-Black form them and later a bottle. The bottle is much "blacker" than the sample. I know that Red-Black (like most inks) needs to be shaken first, and I'm wondering if they make sure to shake when they pull the samples.

This ink should come with a warning though.
Crystal clear ink sacs are stained severely by a single fill of this ink. I have a new Hero 616 which had the ink in for one day, and the sac is irredeemably stained. The other pens I've used it in already had stained sacs, but the staining is noticably darker after using the ink.

I just mention is to make someone think twice about putting it in a really valuable, pristine pen. The ink itself is a dream. I adore the colour and can highly recommend it.

Regards

Richard.

After having used this ink for a few months now, I want to reiterate that it does NOT bleed in my Moleskines, but it DOES feather. This ink is also very wet - causing every pen I put it in to write a full size wider.

And yes, it can stain. i was using it in my Yellow Safari which wasn't the smartest move....

I've always understood that Violet is a mix of red and blue, with the emphasis on red, whereas Purple is the same mix with the emphasis on blue. Having read this topic and seen the examples, I'm beginning to wonder if this is correct??

caliken

Here is a colour wheel that I rely on heavily with watercolours.

http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/colormap.html

Generic purple is closer to the reds, while violet moves here closer to the blues.

Thanks for the clarification - I couldn't have been more wrong!!

Hi,

I have a bottle of this and it is a very nice shade and smoothflowing, like Richard I am wary of which pens I use it is, certainly wouldn't risk it with a Vac (unless all clarity already gone, or any demo pen). I tend to use it it C/C filler pens writes well in modern Duofolds and if the converter stains not really a problem as I bought a job lot from JML.

A good ink to use to refill cartridges where staining isn't really an issue.

Andy

Has anyone had a chance to try Diamine's Damson? I like the grey/purple color and would like to know how this ink performs before I buy some.

Hello Caliken,

here's some info about violet and purple, and a few links

First the CIE Color Diagram You'll want to have it open while reading this post.

The outside curve of this diagram with numbers represent the pure color light i.e. one for which a single wavelength yield that color. For Violet it is around 380 nm

Purple is not a pure color, there is actually no wavelength that can produce it, you need to mix light of at least 2 wavelength to enter "purple" territory. Again if you look on the CIE diagram you'll see that lower right there is a straith line that close the diagram. That line and anything inside the curve can be reached by mixing many wavelength of color. If you check that line it is drawned between violet (380) and red (700). So the purple laying on that line can be obtained by mixing violet and red. If you look at purple that lay inside instead that on the line then you are using a wavelength closer to blue to mix with red. This is why there is one violet but so many purple

For more details here's a good explanation on violet and purple.
Violet definition
Purple definition

Personally I have had no trouble with staining However I have not had it in avintage pen, only a new pen with a convertor, but love the colour, a real bold manly colour, almost gives you a feeling of power,
Bob

Spectacular colour. This is on my to-buy list now. But thanks for the staining warning - I forget I have to be careful with these brighter colours. I really love Diamine. One of the best inks, I find, almost without exception.

Nathan Hondros

One of my favorite all-purpose inks.
It has stained my Waterman converter, but WTH, it's only an internal 'bit' ....I probably wouldn't put it in a very pale-coloured pen...if I had one!

It's not nearly as 'red' as it appears on my monitor from, I think, Marina's scan, so maybe we had a different batch??