I met Titanium, the maker behind Penultimate Inks at the Dallas Pen Show and felt like kindred spirits. I was so excited to see the selection of unique ink colors all named after D&D characters like Paladin, Barbarian, and Cleric. Are these the perfect ink to use for your gaming journal, Gamify planning or just for everyday.
My first experience with Penultimate inks was at the Ink Crawl following the Pelikan Hub. There were nine colors at the Ink Crawl and they were all amazing. A lot of the inks included shimmer but some were extreme sheen. I fell in love with Paladin immediately which was a purply grey with shimmer and made it to the top of my “must buy” list. all of the colors were beautiful and surprisingly Rogue, the most black-ish ink seemed to be super smooth and dense. When was the last time I wanted to buy a black ink? Its good.
In the end I bought five colors: Cleric (a sale version of the ink due to some color inconsistencies), Paladin, Sorcerer, Rouge and Barbarian. I wanted to get Warlock, Fighter and maybe Ranger but they were sold out by the time I was able to get to the Penultimate Inks.
Three of colors were shimmer, from left to right Cleric, Sorcerer and Paladin. The shimmer in Sorcerer is holographic and looks so cool. The shimmer in Paladin and Cleric is a silvery color.
The version of Cleric I received is much brighter than the version on the Penultimate Inks site. Its pretty but it was an oopsy bottle so be prepared if you buy your own. The color is a little more grey and desaturated. I think I’ll actually prefer the more subtle version but I do like this bright, happy version.
Barbarian is a bright red with tons of sheen. Rogue is a purple-based black ink with minimal shading but with a hint of sheen. It might be my new favorite non-permanent black.
Other ink colors available:
Warlock is a deep purple sheener with a shimmer. Yum! Must order soon!
Wizard is a deep blue with a lot of sheen and gold shimmer. So magical!
Above is Bard, a surprisingly usable golden yellow shimmer ink. Kind of cool, right?
Ink Comparison:
So, despite the fact that Cleric is a mistake color, it is a great shimmer alternative to Inspired Blue, if that’s how you roll. None of the inks I compared with Cleric are not shimmer inks but are a close match to the base color.
Paladin is a multichromatic that reminds me of the Sailor multichromatic inks like Kyokkou and Ink Institute Cat at Dusk but the hues are slightly different AND Paladin adds shimmer into the inky magic.
While Rogue is pretty similar to a lot of other black inks, the smooth “wet” quality of the ink is quite pleasant to use. Kaweco Pearl Black is the closest in terms of density of color and base hue.
I was shocked that I had other bright pinks in the range of Sorcerer. None of them are shimmery inks but close in color, particularly Rose Quarz and Rose Pink. Australian Opal Pink is less saturated but a similar hue.
Finally, Barbarian is not at all similar to the inks I thought it would be. I thought Sailor Irori would be close but its a lot lighter red-to-red-orangey. Krishna Brown Pink is a similar sheen but darker and Diamine Ancient Copper is much more orangey-brown. So, Barbarian is filling a gap in my collection I didn’t know I had.
Penulitmate Inks is a new, small maker creating fun, unique inks and I want to support businesses like these. If you want to support other nerds with mad ink skills, let me know if you place an order! I like it when I can enable other folks to support small businesses too!
I bought these inks with my own money. Opinions are my own.
