This is the first in a line of fluorescent inks from Ban Mi: Bright Orange. It is, as the name states, very bright, very orange, and fluorescent. It teeters along the edge of legible, however, at least in visible light.
The packaging on these inks was not clear if they are safe for fountain pens, but I have used them in Jinhao 82 pens and had no trouble using the ink or cleaning it after. I have not tested its water-resistance, but it does look similar to pigment inks in other ways, so take care with their use.
Scans
My scanner, like many others, does not do well with fluorescent colors, so these are mostly for consistency and to show how badly it handles them.
The ink is bright orange but no matter what I did, it scanned is extremely faint pink.
Photos
Thankfully, my phone camera had no trouble picking up the color. Under visible light it is hard to read unless you really strain your eyes.
Add some UV light and it really pops! Under a mix of visible and UV light it glows orange on all three papers and was much easier to read. Under full UV, the glow of col-o-ring paper drowed out the ink, it started glowing yellow on Iroful, but on MD it’s even brighter orange.
Microscope
Under magnification it’s still very faint, but also very shiny. I’ve seen that before with pigment inks where it has a gloss over everything.
It gets darker around the edges, but there isn’t any sheen other than the gloss that covers everything.
Microscope UV
With UV under magnification it’s about the same as the photos. MD has the best contrast by far.
Chromatography
As with the swatches, the scan of the chromatography strip doesn’t show much.
A photo of the strip shows mostly a faint light orange line and a little bit spread from there. Also similar to behaviors I’ve seen from pigment inks.
Adding UV, the orange area glows very brightly, and there is a faint blue halo way beyond that area.
Verdict
It’s hard to read in visible light, but it would probably work OK as a highlighter/accent ink. Under UV, it’s great, though.
I mentioned earlier I haven’t had any trouble with it in a fountain pen, but treat it like a pigment ink to be safe.
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