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Toucan Crimson

10/20/14

This is the first Toucan ink that I've had the pleasure of using. I first heard of this Aussie brand when I missed a group-buy over on the FPN. They came in these really neat plastic pouches, and I wanted them pretty bad. Anderson Pens is the only dealer of these inks in the US, and they've still got the pouches. I see on Toucan's website that they're not going to be in those bags anymore, and that's too bad. Maybe they were inconvenient for filling pens (I can certainly imagine that they would be), but they were a bit of character that set them apart.

Any-whozzle, this crimson ink is a little too light to be crimson in my book. The ink behaves just fine, but I could stand for it to be a bit more saturated. One of the neat things about these inks is that you can mix them all together. Well, not all of them at the same time, but any of them you'd like. For that reason, a lightly saturated ink is going to be better at mixing with other colors.

It's a well-behaved ink that works well. It's a light red more than it is a crimson, but it's not a pink. Interesting color.


Close-Ups!









 Chromatography!
The chromatography for this ink is really interesting. As a mixable ink, I'm not surprised that it's all sort of one hue. That hue is a peachy pink. 

 Copy Paper Test!
 The white-balance for this copy paper shot is a bit off. I didn't bother to correct it since the color isn't the point of these two shots. Not any bleed to speak of, though you can see a couple of spots


Ink Comparisons!

Video Review and Water Drop Test









This low-cost, imported, mixable red is just a little lighter than I think would be ideal, but it's going to have fans out there. If you're looking for a well-behaved light-red ink, then this is the ticket. You can find bags and samples over at Anderson Pens. A 60ml bag goes for $10.


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The ink for this review was provided free of charge by Anderson Pens. The review was all mine, however.
Post Comment
Jamerelbe said...

Hi Michael, I think I was the first reviewer of Toucan Crimson on FPN - and was pleased to see them find a distributor in the US. Crimson was for a time my favourite colour, except for its lack of saturation (which can be partially overcome if you use a wetter pen), and the fact that it generally just seemed a little drier than some of the other inks in the range. For mine, magenta and violet are altogether too pale - whereas some of the other colours are much more intense. I have all 15 colours, but only use a few of them regularly: orange, bright green and bright blue (though I also really like aqua, my 13 y.o. daughter has a pen permanently inked with turquoise, and my son uses the black).

Appreciate your review of this ink - I think you've described it pretty well! I'll be interested to see what you think of Scarlet - when I bought the whole range in a single purchase, Scarlet wasn't included, so I had to buy it separately (in a 30ml bottle) a few months later. It's not a "true red", but is more saturated and, I think, flows a little better in my pens.

Brian Anderson said...

I believe the bags are coming back, the manufacturer has been working on a better and more appealing packaging and while they are doing that, bags are not available. We have plenty here, however. :)