Diamine - Teal

Diamine Teal - deep green teal with sheen!

This is Teal from Diamine’s standard line of inks. Diamine inks are consistent, and some of the most affordably priced inks on the market. Like all standard series inks from Diamine, it’s available in both the 30ml and 80ml bottles.

Diamine Teal - look at that cinnamon sheen!

The word teal describes a wide range of colors, and what any two people think of, when they think of teal can be very different. There are always some blend of green and blue, but teals normally favor one side over the other. There probably isn’t as much disagreement with this one. In Diamine Teal, we have a very dark teal that leans heavily towards its green foundations. It’s a cool teal, that borders on the edge between teal, and simply dark green. This is a moderate shading ink, and it’s in the lighter areas of shading where you finally see the blue influences that make this a teal. In the darker areas, dark forest greens are dominate. The splatter shows an unusual, and quite attractive, rusty cinnamon sheen, which develops into a subtle stroke halo on some papers.

Diamine Teal - ink swatch card and drying

As a writing ink, Diamine Teal performs very well. Strokes were sharp on all six papers tested, including office copy. There were no problems with feather, although there was slight bleed-through on office copy. This is a smooth-flowing ink. It’s wet, without really being very wet, and it writes comfortably. Shading was visible on all papers, but it was more prominent on coated papers. Despite the splatter sheen, darkened stroke edging was never significant, but it was most pronounced on coated papers. Drying was 15-20 seconds on all premium papers, and under 5 seconds on office copy. This is a consistent, reliable writing ink.

There’s no question, Diamine Teal is a nice ink. It performs well and is flexible across a range of papers. The deep green teal will really appeal to many. However, I think it would be much more interesting in writing, if it was a stronger shading ink. For me, that’s when it’s at its best. Without strong shading, it loses a lot of its personality. I recommend using coated premium papers, and broader nibs.