What Types of Pens are Currently Popular and What are the Key Differences
Ballpoint pen
The ballpoint pen relies on an oil based ink supply.
The ink is dispensed through the pen’s tip when in use through the rolling action of the tip of the pen, which these days is mostly manufactured using tungsten carbide. Upon contact with paper, the ink will dry almost immediately.
Ballpoint pens are reliable, inexpensive, and also maintenance free. In the mid-20th century, it almost entirely replaced the fountain pen, and thus became the most popular everyday writing tool from then onwards.
Modern ballpoint pens include the Rexgrip, BPS-GP, BPS, Super Grip, Biro, Lungsal, and BP-145.
Rollerball pens
The rollerball pen is based on similar principles as the ballpoint pen, with one key exception being that either a gel or water based liquid ink is used.
It was originally designed as a way to combine both the convenience that comes with the use of the ballpoint pen, together with the smoothness of the “wet ink” that is produced by a fountain pen.
The beauty of this type of less viscous ink provides the rollerball pen with a particularly distinctive writing quality (i.e. the ink becomes more widely and also deeply saturated into the surface of the parchment).
Modern day rollerball pens include both the V Ball and V Ball Grip.
Hi-Tecpoint pens
The hi-tecpoint pen arrives with a unique stainless steel tip that utilizes either three or four dimples for which to provide support for the ball. Various other formats of this pen rely on a ball being seated by way of a hallowing out of the stainless steel tip.
There is a clear advantage to supporting the ball using the dimple concept – there is a beneficial reduction on the surface of the parchment given that the ball provides a smoother rotation than any of its counterparts.
Nevertheless, the true hi-tecpoint pen does not rely on a ball tip, but rather a needle point tip.
Examples of well-known hi-tecpoint pens include the Pilot V5 and V7, and the Pilot G2.
Gel ink pens
The gel ink pen relies on utilizing an ink in which there is a suspended pigment which is encapsulated in a water-based gel. Given that the ink is opaque and thick, it is thoroughly appropriate for use on parchment surfaces that are darker in nature.
Gel ink affords no blobbing, and offers the user a smooth and effortless writing experience whereby the colors appear more vivid than they do with alternative modern counterparts.
Gel ink has the added benefits that it is archival safe and acid free.
Some popular gel ink pens include the G1 Grip, the G2, and the G2-ex.
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