Comparison of 73 Bottled Fountain Pen Inks

I don’t consider myself an ink person…I like ink but I like pens much more.   Boring old Waterman Serenity Blue (FKA Florida Blue) has been my go-to ink for vintage pens for a good while now but I have been finding that with dryer and finer nibbed pens it isn’t the best match.  I had to find a safe blue ink with good lubrication and Diamine (with all inks in a pH range of 6-8) was the brand that came to mind.

I ordered 14 Diamine samples from the Goulet Pen Company (no affiliation) and to narrow it down I put the samples on Maruman Mnemosyne Word Book cards as I had first seen on The Pen Addict (again no affiliation)…well one thing led to another and I decided put all of my bottled inks on the Word Book cards and here is the result:

Fountain Pen Ink Samples

The blues:

Blue Fountain Pen Ink Samples Blue Fountain Pen Ink Samples

Blue Fountain Pen Ink Samples

Blue Fountain Pen Ink Samples

The greens:

Green Fountain Pen Ink Samples

The purples:

Purple Fountain Pen Ink Samples

The grays and blacks:

Black and gray Fountain Pen Ink Samples

The browns and reds:

brown Fountain Pen Ink Samples

The orange and pinks:

Orange and red Fountain Pen Ink Samples

I haven’t picked a new blue yet but Diamine Majestic Blue and Diamine Asa blue are the ones catching my eye.

Fountain pen ink samples