Dominant Industry Standard 103 Leaf Green – 25ml Fountain Pen Ink

Not every good ink needs shimmer or sheen to earn a place on your desk. Leaf Green is proof of that — a straightforward, well-built green that leans on colour and shading alone, and does it well enough that one long-time reviewer called it "very close to perfect" among the greens she'd tried.

Dominant Industry Standard 103 Leaf Green is a 25ml fountain pen ink from the Standard Series, made in small batches at Dominant Industry's studio in Paju, South Korea. Unlike the brand's shimmer and dip-pen-only calligraphy lines, Standard Series inks are built for everyday fountain pen use — no special handling required, safe for both fountain pens and dip pens.

Available at Shosai (shosai.ca) in Gatineau / Ottawa — with in-store pickup (J9J 0K6) and Canada-wide shipping.

The Colour

Base Tone

Leaf Green is a dark grass green, sometimes described as kelly green or jade-leaf, sitting comfortably between too-pale-and-yellow and too-punchy-and-grassy. It's the kind of green that reads as genuinely green rather than leaning olive or khaki, which is rarer among green inks than you'd think.

Shading

This is where Leaf Green stands out. It shows rich, medium-to-high shading, moving from a deep grass green through to a lighter, brighter tone with a hint of olive at the edges. The shading is consistently praised across independent reviews as one of the ink's best qualities, particularly on premium, low-absorbency papers where the tonal range has room to develop.

Shimmer & Sheen

Leaf Green has no shimmer and no sheen. Every bit of its character comes from colour and shading — deliberately understated, which is exactly the point of the Standard Series.

Ink Properties at a Glance

Flow & Dry Time

Average flow, with dry time landing around 30 to 40 seconds on a medium nib on Rhodia paper. A small number of users note the ink can start slightly dry when first filled into a pen, settling into a smoother flow shortly after.

Water Resistance

Leaf Green has low water resistance and is not suited to documents requiring permanence.

Paper Performance

On premium papers such as Tomoe River, Rhodia, and Leuchtturm, Leaf Green performs cleanly with no meaningful feathering or bleed-through. On lower-quality copy paper, expect a small amount of feathering and occasional light bleeding.

Formula & Safety

A dye-based ink built using Dominant Industry's reflective and transparent pigment techniques, pH-neutral and safe for resin and celluloid fountain pens.

Recommended Uses

• Daily journaling and everyday writing — a genuine, well-balanced green suited to long writing sessions
• Nature and outdoor-themed correspondence — an obvious fit for anything referencing leaves, forests, or the outdoors
• Swatching and shading demonstrations — one of the more consistently praised shading greens on the market, rewarding medium and broader nibs

About the Standard Series

The Standard Series is Dominant Industry's core lineup of everyday fountain pen inks — no shimmer, no colour-changing effects, just richly developed colour and shading built for daily use. It sits alongside the brand's more specialised Pearl (shimmer) and Alchemist (dip-pen calligraphy) lines as the most versatile, pen-friendly option in their catalogue.

About Dominant Industry

Dominant Industry is a South Korean ink studio based in Paju, dedicated to small-batch production and colours drawn from natural light and landscape. Rather than working from a flat colour chart, the brand develops each ink around a specific visual idea, aiming for what they describe as "bottled light" — colour that can be felt as much as seen.

Product Specifications

Available at Shosai — Ottawa–Gatineau

Shosai (shosai.ca) is a fine stationery boutique serving the Ottawa–Gatineau National Capital Region. We carry a curated selection of premium fountain pen inks, papers, and writing instruments from the world's most respected stationery brands.

• 📍 In-store pickup: Gatineau, QC — J9J 0K6
• 🛵 Local delivery: Available in the Ottawa–Gatineau area
• 🚚 Canada-wide shipping
• 🇨🇦 Bilingual service — English and French

Whether you are new to fountain pens or a seasoned collector, Shosai is your local destination for inks that go beyond the ordinary.