NIJIMI
Nijimi · palette review

Three directions for the ink sets

Where this landed. None of these three shipped as a set. Pairs of a dark and an accent gave way to any colors meeting and mixing on the paper, and the palettes in the app are four sets of a few paints, with their washes beside them.

Every set is a pair, a dark and an accent, and the whole range of that set is the path between them. The ramp on each row is that path, mixed as pigment rather than as light, so blue over yellow arrives at green.

Closest pair is the smallest ΔE between any two inks in the palette; under about 25 they read as the same choice on a phone screen. Travel is the ΔE across a set's own ramp, meaning how far that set can reach. Hue bands counts twelve 30° sectors of the color wheel with at least one saturated ink in them; greys don't count toward covering a hue.

Complementary

Each set pairs an ink with its opposite, so the path between them crosses the whole wheel and passes through real neutrals. The widest range per set; the most dramatic mixes.

Sets
8
Inks
16
Closest pair
35
Hue bands
10/12
SetInksMixing ramp, dark to accentDilutionTravel
墨 Ink
88.9ΔE
藍 Indigo
128.4ΔE
緑青 Verdigris
74.5ΔE
紫 Plum
137.9ΔE
紅 Safflower
101.8ΔE
浅葱 Pale Blue
77.7ΔE
土 Earth
40.6ΔE
灰 Ash
29.7ΔE

Traditional

Pairs taken from combinations that actually occur in Japanese painting, kept nearer each other in hue and lower in chroma. Ramps stay inside a family rather than crossing to grey. They are quieter, and closer to how sumi-e holds itself back.

Sets
8
Inks
16
Closest pair
12.8
Hue bands
9/12
SetInksMixing ramp, dark to accentDilutionTravel
墨 Ink
50.4ΔE
藍 Indigo
28.2ΔE
苔 Moss
29.9ΔE
紫 Plum
28.3ΔE
紅 Safflower
36.6ΔE
空 Sky
32.1ΔE
土 Earth
31.6ΔE
灰 Ash
34.4ΔE

Wide gamut

Ten sets instead of eight, chosen to leave no gap on the hue wheel. Some pairs are less opposed as a result, but every region of color is reachable. It is the closest to the range of a full pan set.

Sets
10
Inks
20
Closest pair
13.3
Hue bands
10/12
SetInksMixing ramp, dark to accentDilutionTravel
墨 Ink
88.9ΔE
藍 Indigo
138.1ΔE
群青 Ultramarine
125.5ΔE
緑青 Verdigris
88.6ΔE
苔 Moss
102ΔE
紫 Plum
144.9ΔE
紅 Safflower
104.1ΔE
臙脂 Rose
103ΔE
土 Earth
40.6ΔE
灰 Ash
29.7ΔE