PenShop at MANDARIN MAISON: How to choose a pen

PenShop at MANDARIN MAISON is all about how to get pleasure of the art of putting pen to paper. The world’s premier brands are presented at PenShop corner at MANDARIN MAISON space:  S.T. Dupont, CERUTTI, Parker, Montegrappa, Hugo Boss, Porsche Design, Waterman, Nina Ricci, Caran d’Ache, Fisher Space Pen, Lexon. 

Nowadays pen is not just the office supplies necessary for writing, but also an indispensable accessory of every successful person. Words that take shape in your mind are brought to life on the page, gracefully, smoothly with the reassuring weight of a handcrafted writing instrument, as expressive as you are. This attribute has become no less prestigious than a tie or a nice watch, so it is important to know how to choose a pen correctly.

When selecting a pen, you may wonder what is the difference between the inks each pen uses and which pen is right for you. There are so many different types of pens and the inks they use it can be tough deciding how to choose a pen. This article will cover the various types of pens as well as the inks they use. 

Types of pens 

All pens with ink are divided into three types – a ballpoint pen, a rollerball pen and a fountain pen.

Ballpoint pen

One of the most common and well known pen inks types is a ballpoint pen.

The ink used in ballpoint pens is oil based and was originally designed as a cleaner more reliable alternative to fountain pens. Ballpoint pens are great for everyday use as well as for artists and industrial designers because the pens allow for a wide range of shading.

Ballpoint pens come in various tip sizes. The most common ballpoint tips are a medium tip that is about 1.0 mm or a fine tip with is about 0.7 mm.

Rollerball pen

Rollerball ink is a liquid ink and is usually water based. The ink flows fast and smooth and creates a nice dark line.

Rollerball pens use a ballpoint style writing mechanism with a water-based ink. Typical tip sizes for rollerball pens are between 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm. Because the ink flows faster and saturates the paper more than ballpoint pen ink, rollerball pens use finer tips with a smaller ball to reduce the size of the line they write.

Fountain pen

Fountain pens use a nib to write and come with either a built in reservoir or use cartridges or a converter to hold the ink. 

The pen pulls ink from this reservoir or cartridge through a feed system with the use of gravity and capillary action. The reservoir can be filled with a pipette or syringe or with an internal piston style filling mechanism. Fountain pens that use a cartridge/converter filling system accept a pre-filled ink cartridge or draw ink into a converter like an internal reservoir system.

Fountain pen nibs allow for a wider selection of tip sizes as well as varied line width over ballpoint style pens.

Each type of writing instrument has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. Which pen is right for you? That all depends on your own writing style and what you are using the pen to do.