Courtesy of the Private Reserve folks and Sam Fiorella at Pendemonium, we have our multicolored little ink-stained fists on the new PR and Sheaffer ink colors to review for you this month. No thanks to the Sheaffer people, either -- it's harder to get anything out of them, even ordinary printed publicity materials, than teeth out of the proverbial chickens.
Most of these 10 ink colors would fall into the "odd" category -- i.e., something other than the more traditional colors of black, blue, red, green, purple, brown, and turquoise. Since they fell outside those lines, we decided to add to the mix some of the other "odd" colors we had sitting around, some from Levenger, some from Herbin, and one or two strays. Many of these colors would fall into what might be called a pastel category, even though they may be fairly intense colors. And the more "pastel" of them seem to run into the same kinds of problems (mostly opacity and legibility), so why not address all those things at once?
Right off the bat, I want to say that this is not an exhaustive list of unusual or pastel colors. Some of those we've discussed before in these electronic pages; others we don't have access to. Our intent is to give you a look at the colors and how they compare with one another, particularly those in the same color range, and some of the difficulties and pleasures we find with them. Purely personal preference and opinion, so your mileage may not only vary, it may be in a whole 'nother race track!
The paper we used turned out to be an ill-advised choice, because it was much "featherier" than we thought it would be. That's why the edges of some of the scanned colors look fuzzy -- sorry about that! The larger blocks were made with dipped Q-tips and better show the color intensity.
Also, though we took every precaution to ensure that
color reproduction is as true as we can get it, it's entirely possible
that the colors you see on your monitor may not match the actual color
of the ink because of monitor settings and other variables.
First we'll look at the Private Reserve colors: Shell Pink, Purple Haze,
Shoreline Gold, Foam Green, and Daphne Blue.
These colors definitely all fall into the "pastel" category -- they're pale and light, quite spring-like in their appeal and would look great on Easter eggs. The pink surprised me -- I expected a more delicate, pure pink, but it's a slightly orange or coral color and a bit more robust than I anticipated it would be. It would stand up fairly well on pale papers, but not on more intensely colored papers.
The palest of the PR colors were Purple Haze and Foam Green, particularly the latter. Foam Green is a really attractive color -- about the same shade as brand-new spring leaves while still in the bud stage, but less intense -- but it doesn't work well on paper unless it's in bigger blocks or done with a really bold pen. A friend and I tried it with F and M nibs respectively, and it was difficult to read even on white paper.
The Purple Haze fares a bit better, but still would be difficult with finer nibs on darker paper. But the Shoreline Gold (which is more orange than gold, to my eyes) and Daphne Blue (very much a turquoise) will, I think, hold their own pretty well. Like all oranges, the gold is fairly transparent and probably would be a step between the Daphne and Foam Green as far as opacity and coverage go.
Three of the new Sheaffer colors are quite a departure for this company, and departures that I, as a color freak, am happy to see. However, there are some differences between what might be expected and what actually comes out of the bottle.
For one thing, Sheaffer says it has reformulated its inks. It says it tried to be as true to the predecessor colors as possible -- among which are apparently a turquoise to replace the venerable and much-loved (in my house) Peacock Blue. Since Sheaffer hasn't put color names on the bottle (not anywhere that I can find) and seems to be relying on colored stamps to denote colors, I have to take guesses as to what's "replacement" color and what's "new."
(Also, the new boxes are stiff, clear plastic, which is nice for seeing what's inside, but not so easy on the hands. I cut myself twice on the sharp-edged plastic while trying to get the bottles out, so be careful.)
So here are my guesses: Sheaffer's new colors are yellow (replacement for King's Gold?), orange, hot pink, turquoise (replacement for Peacock), and … well, Sam and I had a difference of opinion on this one. I tend to think it's a replacement for Sheaffer's popular lavender; the shade is the same, though this version is more intense and opaque. Sam chuckles at me, saying, "Anna, that's not lavender, that's purple!" Ah, well, colors are subjective!
The yellow is a really transparent color and I can't imagine it being particularly useful by itself (though I'd certainly play with it in a color-mix-fest); it's far too transparent to replace the King's Gold and much too pure a yellow. The orange is probably the closest thing to a true orange I've seen in an ink, though it's just a tad on the reddish side of orange. It, too, might be a bit difficult to read in a F or M line, but it's a nice color.
The new pink is a hot, bright color that will wow the postperson if you address envelopes with it. Very cool color, and it and the yellow mix nicely for some neat mercurochrome and/or merthiolate shades (if you're old enough to remember that stuff, sit down and have a glass of Maalox).
The turquoise is very, very similar to the beloved Peacock, but again a bit more opaque and intense, the way the lavender/purple is compared to the old lavender. It's also very similar to the PR Daphne, which is almost exactly the same shade but falls between the Peacock and turquoise in intensity and opacity.
To this mix I added the Levenger colors that include Pinkly, Fireball, Smokey, Blue Bahamas, Always Greener, and Skies of Blue. All are more intense than the PR colors and thus will cover paper better and make a finer, easier-to-read line. The Pinkly is so close to the Sheaffer pink as to be almost indistinguishable, except it's a tad more intense. Also a really hot color if you like bright, in-your-face shades.
My favorite among the Levenger colors is Fireball. I call it an intense red-orange, but most people will probably call it a red. This is much more what a functional orange ink should look like, I think: rich, saturated, opaque, robust, with good, strong coverage. Lovely.
The Smokey is a solid gray, also a strong enough color to stand up to light papers, as will the Always Greener, which is a light, springy green that's a bit yellower and quite a bit more opaque than the PR foam green. It's a crisp, clean color that will hold its own most of the time.
The Blue Bahamas seems to be Levenger's entry in the Turquoise Wars, and matches the new Sheaffer turquoise quite well. Skies of Blue is, sadly, a rather blah and ordinary blue -- I was expecting a cerulean or azure -- but blue-ink lovers will likely appreciate it. It does have body and will be useful in any situation requiring a good blue.
Speaking of azure, I had some Herbin Azure sitting around, along with Rose Cyclamen, Orange Indien (not, as most folk spell it, Indian), Fuchsia, Grise Nuage (gray), and Vert Olive (olive green). Herbin is a trusted firm that's been making ink for a long time, and one of the first to branch out into unusual colors. Its azure is a very soft color, about the same intensity and opacity as the PR Foam Green -- lovely, but not too practical for writing with fine or EF nibs.
The Rose Cyclamen is one of my favorites, falling somewhere between the two hot pinks and the old Sheaffer lavender, but with more emphasis on the pink end of that spectrum. It's an eye-catcher, hearty yet delicate, and pleasing to the eye. The fuchsia probably would fall next in that continuum, holding much more red than the rose. My bottle, which is pretty old, turns almost a purply red when dry; if I recall correctly, it dried a lighter, slightly purplier color when it was new, more the color of a, well, fuchsia blossom.
Herbin's Grise Nuage -- cloud gray, roughly like a thunderstorm in high gear -- will stand up to light-colored and possibly even medium-colored paper, as long as the medium-colored is pure and the mid-toned gray doesn't get lost. It's a slightly bluer gray than the Smokey. The Vert Olive is a rich olive with no drab to it at all; it's a distinctive color that nobody else has. Even PR, with all its green shades, doesn't match this one.
The Orange Indien was the first orange ink I tried and I recall being somewhat disappointed with it, partly because of its transparency and partly because of its lack of sprightliness. A bit grayer than the Sheaffer orange and a whole lot less ferocious than the Fireball, it's also a bit grayer and yellower than the PR gold. And next to it stands the stray, the Conway Stewart orange, which is the palest, most transparent of all the oranges I have. It resembles nothing so much as an orange Popsicle. Lovely color, but unlikely to stand alone on a light-colored paper, much like the Sheaffer yellow. Next to these oranges and the PR Shoreline Gold, the old Sheaffer King's Gold looks brown and washed out -- although if you hunted up a gold on a process-color chart, it would be very similar to this!
In addition, Sheaffer has changed the shape of its bottles along with its new formulation. I liked the little inkwell molded into the old Sheaffer bottles, but did not like the tendency of the lids to corrode against the glass, causing sprained fingers when you tried to o pen them. These new bottles are mostly conical in shape and lack the inkwell, but the lids are plastic and won't corrode. However, every one of them was on so tight I had to pull out the heavy equipment to get the lids off! I guess that's good or obnoxious, depending on your risk tolerance!
One other thing -- Sheaffer says its new inks still carry the fungicide and things that prevent mold, fungus, and slime growth in the inks. I, for one, appreciate this. Only once did I see an actual slime mold -- in a bottle of OMAS gray -- and it was ug-ly. Not long ago, I saw my first example of the "gunk" that many PR aficionados complain about. I don't know what to call it; it was too thick and gummy to be the slime mold that was in the OMAS bottle, but it wasn't what I'd expect of a chemical precipitate, either. I don't know what it could be, but I do hope that PR attends to the issue soon, and explains to people both what it is and what it's done to eliminate the problem. I love many of the PR colors, and the brand is developing a reputation for developing goo that is not beneficial and needs to be addressed.
Whew! That was a long trip 'round the rainbow, but we
made it back safely. I hope you enjoy comparing the ink colors and even
more fun playing with the inks you decide to try out.