Diamine - Elf

Diamine Elf - ink drop

Diamine Elf was originally released in their Inkvent calendar for 2019. These days, it’s available as part of their Blue Edition inks, in the beautiful, legged bottles. These are 50ml bottles, and their priced very reasonably.

Diamine Elf - color palette and sheen

Visually, I suppose this ink is just about exactly the kind of green that you’d expect for an ink called Elf! It’s a beautiful, faded forest green. It has a powdery, textured appearance, and gives a mild, yet trustworthy impression. The splatter shows an aggressive, dark edging, with pinkish-silver sheen. There’s no sheen in writing, but a nice stroke halo appears on premium papers. There’s enough shading to give passages movement and variation, but the shading never dominates your attention.

Diamine Elf - ink swatch card with drying

As a writing ink, Elf performs consistently well. I wouldn’t call it either wet or dry, but flow was very smooth. Strokes were clean and sharp, particularly on premium papers, where the stroke halo adds profile definition. Of the six papers that I tested, I preferred results on Kokuyo (coated) and Apica (uncoated), as both shading and halo were slightly more prominent. Drying was quite nice, at 10-15 seconds on premium papers, and 5 seconds on office copy.

Like most Diamine inks, Elf is a nice writing ink, and it’s very comfortable to use. It’s an attractive green, not too deep in the forest, but not very emerald, either. I’m not sure that this is the kind of color or style that generates strong passion, either for, or against, but it’s clean and pure. If you like the looks of Diamine Elf, don’t hesitate. It’s a nice ink.