PenBBS - 399 Noon

PenBBS - 399 Noon - Ink drop

Today’s ink, Noon is No. 399 in the extensive PenBBS catalogue. I generally like yellow inks, but I tend to go for warm mustards, creamy orange-yellows, and golden brown-yellows. Noon is none of those. It is, however, possibly among the yellowest of yellows. I imagine the name comes from the purest light of the sun, when it reaches its zenith in the middle of the day.

PenBBS - 399 Noon - Light and dark shades

Visually, people call this yellow a canary yellow, or a lemon yellow, but it’s more potent than that here. Noon is almost the essence of yellow. At first glance, It’s very similar to the yellow of a neon highlighter. That sounds jarring, and in truth, it is, but it’s not as blinding as you may imagine. There’s a bit of shading, and an edge-clarifying halo on some papers. This ink favors wet, broader nibs, which show the color at its darkest.

PenBBS - 399 Noon - Ink swatch card

As a writing ink, Noon technically performs very well. Strokes were crisp and clean on all papers tested. There’s no sheen, but the dark edging in the splatter carries over as an edge halo in writing on premium papers. Shading was really only interesting on coated papers. In terms of performance and aesthetics, I liked it best on Kokuyo and Apica papers. Drying was slightly slow at 20-25 seconds on premiums, and 10 seconds on office copy.

If you’re looking for a potent canary yellow, it would be difficult to find a better example. Technically, this ink is a good writer, but I can’t recommend it for writing purposes. For me, yellows need additional color influences, browns, oranges, or something else to temper it, and to make it pleasant in large doses. This ink is best suited for artistic creations, but beyond that, Noon is not for me. That doesn’t mean it can’t be for you, however!