I have just purchased a Pelikan M215 (M nib) and am very pleased with the purchase. Currently, it is filled with Diamine Emerald which has nice shading and really good flow.

However, I have a thing for purple inks (it's my thing so my secretary says!) and I have tried both Waterman Purple and Diamine Imperial Purple in the M215, with little success.

In this pen, both inks are too dark and don't flow well. I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences with these inks.

In addition to this, can anyone recommend another purple/violet... something that flows well, shades and has good colour! Or am I asking too much!

Private Reserve Tanzanite, Private Reserve Plum and Noodlers La Colour Royale

TNS

Sheaffer Skrip Purple (new stock).
In my experience, it's the best-behaved among itself, Waterman Purple and Lamy Violet, in pens and on (not in!) all kinds of paper.
Skrip Purple also lubricates, a bit less than Waterman Purple but much more than Lamy Violet (all three tried in a Lamy Safari EF that makes lubrication or lack thereof noticeable).
Ann Finley says Skrip Purple has almost the same color appearances (not writing behaviors) as J. Herbin Violette Pensee.
The new Skrip's price per ml and availability are hard to beat, too.

Diamine Imperial Purple and Waterman Purple.

I second TNS's suggestions -- I don't know PR Plum, but Tanzanite really FLOWS, and La Couleur Royale is a wonderful color (similar to Tanzanite).

If you want a REALLY BRIGHT purple (actually, to be more exact, a fuchsia), try Noodler's Saguaro Wine. It's a bold and beautiful color -- not for shrinking violets!

I'm not a purple user, but both my wife and daughter really like the Sheaffer Skrip Purple.

Bill

Wow. I've had good results with the Diamine Imperial Purple...and Pelikan Violet is very, very close in color so you probably want to avoid that if you thought the Diamine was too dark. I also second PR's Plum (more magenta on my pens though) and Noodler's Purple is great, too. It was my first ink. If you want to compare colors, try the Writing Desk color compare tool

http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/ink_cat/inkchooser.html

Edited for link

Thanks for all your suggestions, it looks like Skrip may be on my shopping list soon. Funny that nobody really suggested Pelikan's own violet ink (well just a mention) but recommended others.

In the meantime, I was at the Diamine factory yesterday buying some Royal Blue and I thought I would give their Violet a try... well the emerald runs well in the M215.

When I get some time to clean out the 215 and refill I will post a review!

Oh I would really love to see a review of the royal blue and violet. Those 2 colors are on my next list of diamine inks to purchase, but i've been shying away because there were no reviews yet.