Purple is the colour of royalty, introspection, and artistic ambition. It's also, in fountain pen inks, one of the most varied and beautiful colour families — ranging from pale lavender through violet and royal purple through deep plum and near-black. Purple inks attract strong opinions: people who love purple inks tend to love them deeply. This guide covers the best, from practical everyday purples to show-stopping special occasions.
The spectrum of purple
Purple fountain pen inks span from pale lilac and lavender through blue-leaning violets and neutral purples through red-leaning plum and magenta. Some are so dark they read as black in fine nibs; others are so pale they require a broad nib for legibility. Most are somewhere in the satisfying middle — saturated enough to read clearly, distinctive enough to be recognisably purple.
Best all-around purple: Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu
Murasaki-shikibu is named for the 11th-century Japanese writer who composed The Tale of Genji — considered one of the world's first novels. The ink is a majestic royal purple that shifts between red-leaning and blue-leaning depending on the light: seen head-on it reads as a rich neutral purple; in certain angles it glows blue-violet; in strong light it warms toward magenta. It shades well, behaves reliably in all pens, and is easy to clean. One of the finest purples available at any price.
Best for students and everyday notes: Diamine Imperial Purple
For students who want a bold, legible purple without the Iroshizuku investment: Diamine Imperial Purple is a beautiful, richly saturated royal purple that reads clearly in all nib sizes, has moderate water resistance, and exceptional highlighter resistance. It's available in large bottles (80ml) and in cartridges — making it one of the most practical purple inks available. Consistently recommended for colour-coded note-taking because it's vivid enough to distinguish from other inks at a glance.
Best sophisticated everyday purple: Sailor Shikiori Nioi-Sumire
Nioi-Sumire (Fragrant Violet) is a warm blue-violet from Sailor's Shikiori seasonal collection. It sits between blue and purple in tone — professional enough for correspondence, personal enough for journaling. A matching double-sided brush pen is available, making it an attractive choice for those who use the Shikiori inks across multiple pen and brush formats.
Best dark purple for formal writing
For a purple so deep it approaches black while remaining clearly purple in broad nibs: the Platinum Classic Lavender Black is a modern iron gall ink that writes as a red-purple when fresh and darkens over time toward a very deep, near-black purple. Water resistant once cured. For official correspondence or documents where purple is preferred but brightness would be inappropriate, this is the correct choice.
Best light purple / lavender
Very light purples are challenging — pale enough to be beautiful but sometimes too light for easy reading. The best approach is a pale purple ink in a medium or broad nib on quality paper, where the saturation is sufficient for comfortable reading.
Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu in a fine nib on white paper approaches the lavender end of the spectrum. For a purer, cooler lavender, Diamine Lavender is accessible and cheerful — best in medium nibs where the lighter tone remains legible.
Best magenta (the purple-red border)
Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo (covered in the Red & Pink guide) sits at the magenta border — a deep vivid magenta with gold sheen that reads as neither red nor purple but something dramatically its own. For writers who love purple but want something more vivid and less expected, Yama-budo is the natural next ink after a standard purple.
Best dual-shading purple: Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi
One of the most unusual inks in the Sailor range: Nekoyanagi shifts between pastel purple, blue, and pink as the ink pools — dual shading that produces two or three distinct colour tones within a single stroke on smooth paper with a wet pen. With a blue-green sheen visible where ink pools thickest, it's one of the most complex and expressive purples available. Requires Tomoe River or similar low-absorbency paper to show its full character. Not an everyday ink — very much a special-occasion, fountain-pen-on-good-paper choice.
Best shimmer purple: J. Herbin Améthyste de l'Oural
Named for the amethysts of the Ural Mountains, this is a rich velvety plum with silver shimmer that catches the light beautifully on the page. One of the most flattering shimmer inks — the silver shimmer suits the cool plum base better than gold would. Follow the standard shimmer ink care: roll (don't shake) the bottle, store filled pens horizontally, clean more frequently than standard inks.
Choosing your first purple
Start with either Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu if you want the finest all-around purple regardless of budget, or Diamine Imperial Purple if you want a practical, bold purple at an accessible price. Both are excellent starting points and will give you a reliable reference point for exploring the wider purple spectrum.
Browse all purple fountain pen inks at The Journal Shop, including Pilot Iroshizuku, Diamine, Sailor Shikiori, and J. Herbin.
Where to start: browse our fountain pen inks and fountain pens at The Journal Shop.
