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Ink Review: Diamine Imperial Purple

Chrissy

By Chrissy
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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Imperial Purple ink
Imperial Purple is a true purple that leans more towards the blue side of the colour spectrum. It’s an ink from the standard Diamine ink range.
It’s a saturated ink that can show a little shading with finer nibs. I found it flowed well with all of the pens I tried it in, felt neither wet nor dry, and it’s lubrication was nice and smooth across the page.
My review was written on cheap printer paper, that is quite absorbent, and I saw no spread or show-through. The lines were crisp and it dried quickly.
On Field Notes paper it didn’t spread or feather, and only showed through a little. Writing on the reverse side of all of the papers I used would be acceptable as show-through doesn't look as bad on paper than when it is scanned and shown on screen.
It's not sold as a waterproof ink but showed good water resistance. I used running water on the right half of the water test square.
Purple inks are quite difficult to represent accurately on screen, I've done my best to get this to match the colour that it is on the paper.

  • Flow Rate: Good - neither particularly wet nor dry
  • Lubrication: Good - felt smooth across the page
  • Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
  • Start-up: Immediate.
  • Saturation: Saturated
  • Shading Potential: Some shading seen with F nib.
  • Sheen: None noticed.
  • Show-Through:
    • CiaK by InTempo
    • Oxford paper
    • Silvine Notebook
    • Rhodia Graph
    • Field Notes
    • Hobonichi Techo paper.
    • Tomoe River 52gsm paper (not very much)
  • Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used, even Field Notes
  • Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen
  • Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up
  • Staining (hands): Easy clean-up off of skin with bar soap.
  • Clogging: Not seen.
  • Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows good water resistance.
  • Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

fpn_1519769176__diamine_imperial_purple_
fpn_1519769241__diamine_imperial_purple.

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Wow

what a review!

 

This has recently become my favorite purple.

 

You're welcome. :) I looked in the Ink Review list in the Ink Review forum, and Imperial Purple seems to have escaped getting any recent reviews, so I thought I would put that right. :)

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TSherbs Donor Pen

TSherbs

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For sure, and thanks for the time and effort. I have used your reviews many times in my ink purchase decisions, and Diamine continues to impress me with reliable consistency, quality, and wow factor.

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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For sure, and thanks for the time and effort. I have used your reviews many times in my ink purchase decisions, and Diamine continues to impress me with reliable consistency, quality, and wow factor.

 

Thank you. :) I'm pleased to hear that you have found something useful from an ink review. :) That's what they are there for. ;)

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alexander_k Vintage

alexander_k

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Thanks for the thorough review, Chrissy. I've used this one in the past and I remember it exactly as you describe it. If I ever need a purple ink again, it's the one to go to.

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gryphon1911 Extremely Rare

gryphon1911

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Interesting purple. A little darker than I usually prefer...my favorite purple being J. Herbin Eclat d'Saphir...the Waterman Purple looks awfully nice, though, too.

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AidenMark Rare

AidenMark

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Nice review. I'm comparing it to a favourite: Diamine Grape which is less saturated and a good notch or two further in the red-purple direction.

Less is More - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Less is a Bore - Robert Venturi

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Pravda Collectors Item

Pravda

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Thank you for the review. I have recently been quite fond of Diamine inks as an alternative to Montblancs and Iroshizuku. Nice to see them in action to help decide future buys.

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Thanks for the thorough review, Chrissy. I've used this one in the past and I remember it exactly as you describe it. If I ever need a purple ink again, it's the one to go to.

 

You're welcome. :) It seems to be a "go to" purple for many users. :)

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Interesting purple. A little darker than I usually prefer...my favorite purple being J. Herbin Eclat d'Saphir...the Waterman Purple looks awfully nice, though, too.

I actually swabbed J.Herbin Eclat de Saphir when I was looking for comparison inks of a similar colour. You are right, EdS was quite a bit lighter.

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Nice review. I'm comparing it to a favourite: Diamine Grape which is less saturated and a good notch or two further in the red-purple direction.

You're welcome. :) I picked out Diamine Grape as a potential comparison ink, but you're right, it's more red than Imperial Purple. Some would probably say it's a drier ink too.

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Thank you for the review. I have recently been quite fond of Diamine inks as an alternative to Montblancs and Iroshizuku. Nice to see them in action to help decide future buys.

You're welcome. :) I find them less expensive and easier to get here in the UK than Iroshizuku and many Montblanc inks. ;)

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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

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I may need to investigate this ink further (oh great, another purple ink... :headsmack:). Especially since it appears to have a reasonable amount of water resistance. and a good dry time.

Thanks for the review. And not....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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I may need to investigate this ink further (oh great, another purple ink... :headsmack:). Especially since it appears to have a reasonable amount of water resistance. and a good dry time.

Thanks for the review. And not....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

You're welcome. :) Purple inks usually seem to have good water resistance in my experience. ;)

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fuddmain Rare

fuddmain

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Another excellent review. It's my favorite purple. I've neglected it lately, but with Orlando City SC set to kick-off another MLS campaign that is about to change.

 

Cheers.

~Brian

 

"Mostly I just kill time, and it dies hard." - Raymond Chandler (The Long Goodbye)

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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Another excellent review. It's my favorite purple. I've neglected it lately, but with Orlando City SC set to kick-off another MLS campaign that is about to change.

 

Cheers.

 

You're welcome. :)

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RoyalBlueNotebooks Collectors Item

RoyalBlueNotebooks

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A nice dark purple with gold sheen. It bleeds through lesser notebooks, but I love how it looks on Rhodia.

fpn_1502425191__letter-mini.png

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Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

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A nice dark purple with gold sheen. It bleeds through lesser notebooks, but I love how it looks on Rhodia.

 

I didn't notice the sheen. Maybe it was just me. -_-

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RoyalBlueNotebooks Collectors Item

RoyalBlueNotebooks

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I didn't notice the sheen. Maybe it was just me. -_-

It's very subtle. Here i angled the paper towards the windows.

fpn_1519990984__diamine_088_imperial_pur

fpn_1502425191__letter-mini.png

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