Modern Pen Types

There are three basis forms of the pen today used for writing. The descriptions below are very basic and are by no means comprehensive.

The ballpoint pens uses oil-based ink. The ink is dispensed by rolling a small hard sphere, normally 0.7mm to 1.2mm in diameter usually made of bass, steel or tungsten carbide. The ink dries almost immedately on contact with the paper. It is the most popular tool for everyday writing. This type of pen is generally inexpensive and reliable. Mass produced ballpoints are available for a few cents. Custom designed ballpoints can venture into hundreds of dollar.

The rollerball pen is very similar to a ballpoint. The primary difference is that a rollerball uses a water-based ink or gel ink. Since the ink is less-viscous that the oil-based ink of ballpoints it is more easily absorbed by the paper and the tip of the pen moves more smoothly accross the writing surface. The design of a rollerball provides the convenience of a ballpoint pen with the smooth "wet-ink" of a fountain pen. Inks are available in a wide variety of colors including metallics and glitter inks. Rollerball pens generally need to be capped to keep the ink from drying out in the pen. Like ballpoint pens, mass produced rollerball and gel pens can be inexpensive. Custom rollerball pens are more expensive.

The fountain pen delivers water-based ink through a nib. The ink is held in a reservoir in the pen and flows through a feed to the nib. The pen uses a capillary action and gravity to deliver the ink to the paper. The nib has no moving parts. There is a think slit that delivers the ink the paper. The quality of the nib has a lot to do with the writing quality of the pen. The reservoir can be refillable from a bottle of ink, or it may use disposable cartridges. Refillable reservoirs use some kind of mechanism such as a piston to draw ink from a bottle to the reservoir. A different technique is used when writing with fountain pens. They require less pressure when writing. Fountain pens have been around for a long time and older pens are the desire of may collectors. Fountain pens are not produced in the quantities of ballpoints and rollerballs and are thuse a little more costly. You can however find inexpensive pens for several dollars. Collector pens (old and modern) can run into the thousands of dollars.