Cross - Violet

Cross Violet - Beautiful ink drop!

This is Violet from Cross. In general, Cross inks don’t see the spotlight very often in the fountain pen ink world. If there’s one exception, it’s Cross Violet. From time to time, I’ll hear it mentioned as someone’s favorite purple. I love purple inks, and knew it was an ink that I wanted to try.

Cross Violet - intense contrast and sheen!

Visually, this is a very attractive ink, and I can clearly see why it gets attention. The color is rich and pure, and there’s almost a slight glow that’s entrancing. It’s quite pleasant. Oddly, for an ink named Violet, this isn’t really a violet at all. Alone on a page, it solidly comes across as a purple, without a hint of the blue influence that makes violet different from purple. It isn’t the reddest purple, but red definitely dominates blue here. Only when you put it side-by-side with other purples and violets can you see that it lands somewhere in between.

This isn’t a strong shading ink, but it does show subtle shading accents on premium papers. The splatter reveals a nice green sheen edging, and traces of this can be seen in writing on some premiums. There aren’t a lot of tricks here, but it’s an honest, immediately attractive ink.

Cross Violet - Swatch card with super fast drying!

As a writer, Cross Violet has a lovely, wet flow, and it’s very smooth on the page. From pen to paper, the writing experience is a real joy! Overall, strokes were sharp on all six test papers. However, occasionally I did notice slight micro-feathering on some papers. I also found a heavier than expected bleed-through on Rhodia and office copy. (These problems might be avoided in finer nibs than the wet, medium pen I use for testing.) Drying was quick at 10-15 seconds on premium papers, and under 5 seconds on office copy. With the right pen and paper combination, this is a good writing ink.

This is a very attractive purple, and I can see why people really like it, but I wish there was a little more in terms of variation. The writing experience was great, but it’s a little picky in terms of paper, and performance lets it down in these cases. If you’re willing to meet its demands, it rewards you, but I recommend you try finer, rather than broader nibs.