Dominant Industry Citrus Yellow
Ink Review #36
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color:
Dominant Industry Citrus is a vibrant yellow. The color shades with a light gradient where the ink pools and at times can appear to have hints of orange. The darker tones will often overpower the lighter tones, however, and in some cases (especially on Leuchtturm), you can barely notice any shading at all.
Ink Splat
The droplet that never dried
Performance on paper:
Citrus Yellow had mixed performance on paper. I didn’t experience bleed-through or feathering on any of the test pages, but the dry times were far below average. Not only did the larger nibs fail to dry within the 30-second mark, but in some cases they failed to dry completely well over an hour after I finished the writing tests. This problem was the most prominent in the Midori notebook. I even had to postpone this review because the ink droplets actually failed to dry overnight. They never actually dried. after a full 24 hours, I had one droplet that was still a thick, wet, inky paste.
The water resistance wasn’t much better. It technically didn’t wash away entirely, but the leftovers are so light and faded that it would be incredibly difficult to make out anything that was written.
Almost 2 hours later the ink still wasn’t dry
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
The performance in the pen was great. The ink had a medium-dry flow, but it felt well-lubricated and consistent through all of the test nibs. I didn’t experience any hard starts or stops and the ink generally felt very pleasant to write with. The cleaning experience wasn’t terrible by any means, but it did take noticeably longer to run clear than most inks, which was surprising for such a yellow ink.
Value/cost per ml:
As of writing, the price of Dominant Industry Citrus Yellow is $17 for a 25ml bottle from US retailers, placing it at $0.68 cents per ml.
The bottle/packaging:
Citrus Yellow comes in a standard Dominant Industry bottle, packed in a kraft paper box and tied in a drawstring dust bag. The design is simple but has an elegant appearance, and overall the bottle and packaging feel well-made.
The usability is unfortunately where this bottle fails. The bottle is more stable than you’d initially expect because of the pear shape making it more bottom-heavy, but the opening is small and makes filling the pen a somewhat uncomfortable experience. Dominant Industry does supply you with a pipette, but it’s small and inconsequential unless you’re filling an eyedropper.
Score: 52.5/70
Price per ml: 4.5/10
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 7.5/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 3/10
Dry time: 2/10
Water resistance: 1/10
Ease of cleaning: 7/10
Bottle form: 5/5
Bottle function: 2.5/5
*Only 70 of the 100 available points are required for an outstanding score.My personal thoughts…
I’ll start with the good: Dominant Industry Citrus Yellow is a great yellow. I often find that yellow inks are the hardest to get right because they tend to contrast so poorly with paper, making them awfully difficult to read. Citrus yellow has everything it needs to be readable: the color is rich and doesn’t shade a lot making for a very solid and pronounced line. I just didn’t find readability to be an issue. I probably wouldn’t recommend going full needlepoint, but extra fine and up? Sure, why not? That all makes sense though because the very thing that makes this ink so readable is what makes it mildly troublesome: Citrus Yellow is a very saturated ink.
The dry times really suffered for it. Honestly, I barely even want to call them dry times. I had to wait almost two hours for the ink to dry in the Midori notebook. It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but it’s far from acceptable. It also makes for a yellow ink that takes a lot longer to clean out even though it feels like it shouldn’t.
I want to recommend this ink, but then it’s weird to have to recommend an ink under the condition that you don’t have to close your notebook for two hours. If you do want to enjoy this one though, my recommendation is this: stay away from broader nibs and wetter pens (unless you really don’t need to close your notebook for two hours).
Written in a Takumi Spirits of Artisan notebook with a (14k) medium Montblanc Noblesse
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook