J. Herbin Éclat De Saphir

[mhphoto]

Here's my review of the lovely (on good paper) Éclat de Saphir, sponsored by FPN member Jared, who kindly sent me a batch of ink samples to review. Thanks Jared!

 

A word about the color of this ink. All of the samples I'd seen of this ink showed a jewelishly jubilant lightish blue. So imagine my surprise when I began writing the review of this ink and it turned out to be distinctly violet-leaning. Now, I do have a calibrated monitor, but that certainly doesn't mean it's perfectly representative of the true color. But the color on the screen matches the color of the review in front of me with about 95% confidence. I'm not sure how your monitor will represent the true color, so if it seems way too purple, it might be the monitor. But let it be know that this ink is definitely verging on purple, though I'd still say it's a blue.

 

On to the review!

 

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/gunsandlights/JHerbinclatdeSaphirMedium.jpg

 

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/gunsandlights/JHerbinclatdeSaphirPensUsed.jpg

 

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/gunsandlights/JHerbinclatdeSaphirDipNib.jpg

 

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/gunsandlights/JHerbinclatdeSaphirObservations.jpg

 

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/gunsandlights/JHerbinclatdeSaphirComparisons.jpg

 

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/gunsandlights/JHerbinclatdeSaphirShading.jpg

[WOBentley]

A great review of one of my favorite inks!

Thanks

[mhosea]

I'm not sure how your monitor will represent the true color, so if it seems way too purple, it might be the monitor. But let it be know that this ink is definitely verging on purple, though I'd still say it's a blue.

 

Inks in this color range do often look purplish, but it's partly an artifact of lighting type and intensity, I think. When I examine, say, Montblanc Royal Blue under magnification, I see a bright royal blue, but under a lot of circumstances it seems almost purple. What kind of ambient lighting are you using during your manual color matching step?

[terminal]

ANother great review as always. I've got to say, you're a high point of FPN for me!

 

So, I gather there's no sheen at all to this ink? It looks very matte in the pictures. Sounds weird but I expect my long dry time inks to have a darned sheen

[DanF]

This looks much more purple on my monitor than it is in real life. Even the white paper has a purple tinge, though that might be an illusion from the red violet grid. . To me this ink goes on with a blue violet tone, but loses some of the violet as it dries.

 

Dan

Edited November 10, 2012 by DanF

[mhphoto]

I think I'll take a sunlight shot of this one to get a more accurate representation.

[mhphoto]

ANother great review as always. I've got to say, you're a high point of FPN for me!

 

So, I gather there's no sheen at all to this ink? It looks very matte in the pictures. Sounds weird but I expect my long dry time inks to have a darned sheen

 

Nope, no sheen at all!

[Jared]

Thanks for the great review. I agree that it looks violet in the scan, but the comparison inks help to put the color in perspective.

[jolyon]

An interesting but rather annoying feature of Herbin Eclat de Saphir is that it is a different colour when seen under the artificial light from an energy-saving light bulb. It becomes violet rather than blue. Whereas the same writing in daylight is bright blue with no violet. I imagine the light tube in a scanner might have a similar light frequency range to the energy-saving fluorescent bulb so perhaps that explains the purple colour. The ink is distinctly blue in daylight.

[XiaoMG]

An interesting but rather annoying feature of Herbin Eclat de Saphir is that it is a different colour when seen under the artificial light from an energy-saving light bulb. It becomes violet rather than blue. Whereas the same writing in daylight is bright blue with no violet. I imagine the light tube in a scanner might have a similar light frequency range to the energy-saving fluorescent bulb so perhaps that explains the purple colour. The ink is distinctly blue in daylight.

Many blues are like that. When I first got samples of Baystate Blue and PR Tanzanite, I thought they accidentally mislabeled them because BSB came out looking very purple. In sunlight or even daylight fluorescents, however, I saw it was actually quite blue.

[TSherbs]

This ink outperforms my Noodler's Blue, but the purple element is strong. Awesome evenness and very little feathering and fairly quick to dry. Very nice!

[The Good Captain]

According to Goulet's Swab Shop, this is what I see compared with the three inks (apart from E de S) that I actually own.

 

http://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-H130-16.jpghttp://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-D7034.jpghttp://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-AU125B.jpghttp://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-D7068.jpg

 

[lapis]

According to Goulet's Swab Shop, this is what I see compared with the three inks (apart from E de S) that I actually own.

 

http://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-H130-16.jpghttp://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-D7034.jpghttp://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-AU125B.jpghttp://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/swabshop/codes/IS-D7068.jpg

 

Much to my chagrin, all of the above -- which our captain just said -- is completely true (IMO). My monitor is okay (I think) but your ink on my screen is definitly too purple or violet.

But, a nice review nonetheless.

 

Mike

 

 

[mhphoto]

Okay, I looked at this review on my wife's computer and it was incredibly purple—like, PR Tanzanite-purple.

 

I do have a calibrated monitor, and since there are many variables between monitors, I really don't know a solution. This ink is way more violet-tinged that the Goulet swab, or at least my sample is. What I see on both of my computers—both have calibrated monitors—is almost entirely accurate. And I've used these computers for editing portraits for my business and scanning various things and have never had any problems with the results, printed or otherwise.

 

Tomorrow the only thing on my list to do is take sunlight pictures of this and several other reviews. The natural light pictures capture the intricacies of the colors way better than the scans.