Although I’m not sure how Tono & Lims decided on the name E=mc2, there is a lot to like in this ink. It’s part of the Star Light series. Inks in the series are fluorescent under ultraviolet (UV) light. This is an interesting quality that doesn’t negatively affect writing performance (or the health of your pen).

E=mc2 is a sophisticated medium to dark green. It’s the green of a dense jungle floor or a lush forest canopy. This is a green that’s suitable for any writing environment and could be used in professional settings (without ultraviolet light, you’d never know that it glows wildly!)

As the swatch images show, there’s color variation based on the paper you use. On most, there are strong yellow undertones that add some warmth and strengthen the jungle feel. However, on some, there’s little or no yellow visible. Here it is much cooler and has the feel of a winter forest.

On both coated and uncoated papers, I found variation along each stroke. On coated papers, the shading is much more dramatic and defined. There’s also a nice, dark stroke edge, which makes it very clean and crisp in profile. On uncoated papers, the variation is more gradual. There’s no edge darkening, either.

Writing performance was very good. It’s fairly wet in flow with an average feel on the page, overall. There was some minor spreading on cheap copy paper, but it didn’t feather on any papers. Show through is moderate at the worst, and drying was around average or better. The chromatography suggests some water resistance, too.

Personally, I haven’t found a use for UV glow in an ink, but it does nothing to detract from all the good qualities in E=mc2. I like the range of greens in this ink, and it performs very nicely. I always love the creativity that we get from Tono & Lims, too!