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 colours 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 colour 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
Ink
88.9ΔE
Indigo
128.4ΔE
緑青 Verdigris
74.5ΔE
Plum
137.9ΔE
Safflower
101.8ΔE
浅葱 Pale Blue
77.7ΔE
Earth
40.6ΔE
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
Ink
50.4ΔE
Indigo
28.2ΔE
Moss
29.9ΔE
Plum
28.3ΔE
Safflower
36.6ΔE
Sky
32.1ΔE
Earth
31.6ΔE
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 colour 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
Ink
88.9ΔE
Indigo
138.1ΔE
群青 Ultramarine
125.5ΔE
緑青 Verdigris
88.6ΔE
Moss
102ΔE
Plum
144.9ΔE
Safflower
104.1ΔE
臙脂 Rose
103ΔE
Earth
40.6ΔE
Ash
29.7ΔE