Ink Review: Pennonia Vizlang (Vízláng)

Before Matt from Pennonia reached out to send me some inks, this ink was the one that first caught my attention – a pretty blue with shiny red sheen; why wouldn’t it? When the package arrived from Pennonia this ink and Pokoltűz were the inks I was most excited for! Both are permanent inks with strong water resistance and pretty shimmer. I reviewed Pokoltűz back in August 2019.

Vízláng is an archival neutral blue ink that changes colour somewhat depending on the paper it is on and translates to ‘Waterflame’. This is how the Pennonia website describes the ink:

“The name of this ink is quite descriptive as it’s a blue ink which has red sheen, just as if you were writing with water that starts to burn as the ink dries. It’s also great if you want your writing “burned” into your pages for eternity.”

The ink can range from a somewhat vibrant neutral blue, leaning more green if anything, to a desaturated neutral blue that leans slightly grey. The amount of contrast in the shading of the ink differs quite a lot as well.

Shading is decent on Rhodia and not too bad either on Tomoe River. It isn’t the strongest contrast but there’s a decent amount. It’s a fairly smooth shading.

Sheen – 52gsm Ivory (White) Tomoe River

The sheen on Tomoe River is a pleasant soft pink glow rather than a sharp bright glare. There isn’t a whole heap of it but it’s present on most written lines.

Sheen – 80gsm White Rhodia

On 80gsm Rhodia there is some sheen with the wetter nibs but it’s somewhat subtle. Even with the Parallel pen there isn’t a whole heap of sheen. What sheen there is is still a soft pink, however.

The sheen presents fairly consistently on various papers (when it presents at all). There’s some sheen on the decent copy paper but not in the written line.

Vízláng’s chromatography is unsurprisingly boring for a water resistant ink. It’s simply blue. The dry time is slightly slow on both Rhodia and Tomoe River but it’s still reasonable. The water resistance is superb with the slightest hint of wash only. Impressively, and just like Pokoltűz, the sheen is also water resistant.

When put under a tap the sheen stays more or less the same, Maybe it loses some brilliance and shine but it’s still very much present and colourful!

On Rhodia the ink is a little lacking in saturation and looks a little more purple leaning compared with Tomoe River. There is, a little surprisingly, a small amount of smearing.

• Private Reserve American Blue: is darker, and more saturated but a comparable hue;

• Diamine Presidential Blue: is slightly more saturated and slightly less purple leaning but otherwise fairly comparable;

• Pilot Blue Black: is less saturated and much darker but a similar hue;

• Pilot Blue: is slightly darker and flatter but a similar colour;

• Rohrer & Klingner Blau Permanent: is much more teal leaning, too saturated and too dark;

• Kobe #02 Pier Blue: is very similar but darker and slightly more saturated; and

• KWZ Azure #3: is more teal, dark and saturated.

For me, on Rhodia, Kobe #02 Pier Blue is the closest ink here with Presidential Blue and Pilot Blue coming up as runners up.

The only ink with a similar coloured sheen is Pilot Blue but it presents on the edge of pooled ink rather than covering the whole line.

On Rhodia the ink is more teal leaning and noticeably more saturated compared to on Rhodia. There is some smearing again.

• Private Reserve American Blue: is darker and more saturated but a comparable blue;

• Diamine Presidential Blue: is noticeably more teal and darker;

• Pilot Blue Black: is darker and more purple leaning;

• Pilot Blue: is more saturated but otherwise similar;

• Rohrer & Klingner Blau Permanent: is is lighter, more teal and less saturated this time;

• Kobe #02 Pier Blue: is more purple but a similar saturation and brightness;

• KWZ Azure #3: is slightly more saturated, darker and more teal; and

• Noodler’s Civilization’s Blue: is more saturated, and more teal.

This time, on Tomoe River, I’d pick Pilot Blue as the closest alternative with Kobe #02 Pier Blue as the runner up (and Diamine Presidential Blue eliminated).

The sheen of Kobe #02 Pier Blue is a strong sheen so it looks like it sheens similarly but it is still a sheen that forms on the edge of where the ink pools. It’s also too copper looking. Similarly, Pilot Blue’s sheen is more copper leaning this time. None of the inks really display a soft pink sheen of Pennonia Vízláng; KWZ Azure #3, Rohrer & Klingner Blau Permanent, and Noodler’s Civilization’s Blue all have a pink sheen but it’s rather desaturated and somewhat silver looking. KWZ Azure #3 and Noodler’s Civilization’s Blue present their sheen in a similar way covering the whole line rather than on the edge of a pool.

Between Vízláng and Pokoltűz I’d choose Pokoltűz because I find the colour more complicated. But this is absolutely a lovely blue, especially on Tomoe River. The sheen is lovely and somewhat subtle and soft. The ink is lovely to write with and has some nice shading. It also plays well enough on all papers. And of course the water resistance (and water resistance of the sheen!) is a notable characteristic. I don’t need water resistance and permanence with my own use of inks but many do and having a well behaved and pretty permanent ink is great.

The ink is €10 (US$11, AU$16) for the 50ml bottle (before shipping). Usually the archival inks are pricier than their non-archival brethren but that isn’t the case here. I don’t think you can go wrong with this ink on the price of the ink itself! International shipping out of Europe is still, unfortunately, pricy but it has improved a lot recently!

Thanks again for Matt from Pennonia for sending the ink for review!

As usual, below as the ink on various papers.

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I received this ink free of charge for the purpose of giving an honest review. I was not otherwise compensated and everything here is my own honest opinion. There are no affiliate links.