Pilot iroshizuku shin-kai vs tsuki-yo | Ink Comparison

I like blue-black ink a lot more than standard blue (which reminds me too much of ballpoint pen ink) and plain black. As a result, my ink cabinet (and yours too probably) has more blue-black inks than any other color.

As I have decided to mostly concentrate on just using Pilot iroshizuku inks (along with the odd bottle of Waterman or Diamine) for use in my pens, I decided to do a few comparisons on the various color options of iroshizuku that I have in my collection.

What I like about blue-black (or dark blue) is that it works well with finer fountain pen nibs - which I prefer. I find that lighter shades of ink do not "pop"
off the page as much as darker shades. I am also not much into shading/shimmer/sheen in inks so plainer, well-behaved inks are mostly used in rotation.

To be honest, you can't go wrong with any of the blue-black options from Pilot. If you ask me for a favorite - it would probably be shin-kai - as I like that tinge of grey that it provides. It also isn't too dark to as to look too black.

The paper used was from the Herlitz x.book A5 notepad.

Incidentally Tsuki-yo was one of the first Iroshizuku inks introduced in November 2007 and Shin-kai was one of the last in November 2