De Atramentis Shanghai

[visvamitra]

De Atramentis fountain pen inks are hand made in Germany by Dr. Franz-Josef Jansen, and come in a 35ml glass bottle. The company has been producing inks for about 30 years so there is a proven track record here. These inks are said to be hand made – the entire production process is done manually in the manufacturing center. The thing that influence their quality and, sadly, price is the fact that Dr. jansen uses only dyes from well established german companies like BASF.

De Atramentis inks are sold in 35 ml glass bottles. I enjoy the way this bottle look and I find them practical. Some of DA inks come in black glass that’s supposed to protect the ink from light.

I enjoy trying products of smaller companies, especially the ones that creators put a lot of heart and energy in developing their business and products. I believe Dr. Jansen is such a person. He’s developed literally hundreds of inks indifferent categories. I’ve tried just a small quantity of his inks. I’ve enjoyed some and disliked some. It’s normal. I'm still eager to get to know most of DA inks.

De Atramentis inks are grouped into categories like Standard inks, Document inks, Black Edition inks. Also on De ATramentis website you can find a lot of topic related inks (places, signs of zodiac, history, business, music, literature etc.). Most of them are renamed standard inks.

Shanghai is a fairly regular blue/black. It behaves nicely and I can't say a bad word about it. Well, except for the fact it's boring.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Tomoe River, Kaweco Sport, BB

Copy paper, Kaweco Classic Sport, BB

Water resistance

[lgsoltek]

I think it looks quite attractive in the splash and on Tomoe River, but indeed a bit dull on copy paper... Thanks for the review Vis!

[Tas]

Boring

Poor ink. 🤭

 

Thanks for sharing it.

[DrDebG]

Great review! Although I must say that I would never have associated a dark blue ink with Shanghai. Gray probably, but definately not blue.

[inkstainedruth]

I don't think it looks boring at all. It seems to have a bit of that edge crispness that some people call haloing -- even on the poor quality paper. And appears to have some sheen on Tomoe River.

This would be interesting to see in a side by side with Akkerman Dutch Masters Ceruleum Blauw, because it appears to be a similar shade of blue.

Is this a standard D'A ink? Something new (I'm not finding it on the D'A English language website). Or is there some sort of "cities" line (the way there is for famous people)?

Ruth Morrisson aka instainedruth

[bass1193]

I expected a red when opening the thread. What a shock to see a Lamy blue black impersonator, but with only a hint of the red sheen that makes that one less of a snoozefest

[jmccarty3]

I don't find this ink on the de Atramentis web site. Is the standard color dark blue or night blue?

[amberleadavis]

Thanks for another great review.