The above photo was taken in direct sunlight. Ink is swatched on Clairefontaine 90gsm paper, using a glass dip pen.
Specs
Name: Document Red Grey
Maker: De Atramentis
Color Family: Red
Properties: Shading, Waterproof, Permanent
Purchased at: Vanness
What’s in a name?
De Atramentis Document inks are named so because they’re waterproof and permanent, making them ideal for use on important documents (like signatures on legal docs). The rest of the name is descriptive of the color, which is a dark red with grey undertone (kind of brown to my eyes).
Swatches
A large swatch of ink showcases the darkest this ink gets, as well as the maximum properties it has (when held at the right angle to show any shimmer or sheen). But what about when you’re writing a letter or notes with it?
The above was written on San Lorenzo Italian paper, using a Jinhao Sharkie fountain pen with a Fine nib.
Of course, for maximum effect you want to see it in light and in motion. The following video shows the ink swatched on Skylab Letterpress 160gsm cards.
Thoughts
I put this ink in a Fine nib pen for this review and swatch post deliberately, because on my swatch card it looked brown to me and I wanted the true red tone to come out. If you look at the difference between the writing sample above and the swatch at the top of this post, you’ll see the difference in hue that you can expect between a Fine nib and something very wet, like a Flex nib.
It’s subtle, for sure. In a Fine nib, this ink still looks brown to me, but I can see the grey undercurrent in it. I assume it’s a mix of a red ink and a grey ink, hence the name, but that’s what happens when you mix a warm tone and a cool tone, most often: you get brown. So why not call this Document Brown? Hrm.
The ink has a wet flow and dries insanely quickly, which makes sense given its intended purpose. It even survived a Leilani nose smudge in my journal, so I can safely say the waterproof properties are not exagerated.
*All pics and vid were taken using a Samsung Galaxy S22 and color-adjusted to best reflect the hue of that ink.
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