The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The future of online stores is jetpens and websites like it. Jetpens is useful because I trust their reviews.

They're a store, yes, but more importantly, they're a trustworthy source of information. Amazon reviews are no longer trusted by me, but all of the discussion / reviews from Jetpens has been 100% accurate in my experience. They've managed to build up this relationship with their customers (such as myself) where I will trust their reviews and prefer to buy from them.

Bonus points: a shop like Jetpens organizes their journals in A5, B5, A4, (etc. etc.) sizes. Amazon does not. Custom browsing experiences / categorizations is a big deal. Logically presenting Jetpen's catalog to the user makes me more likely to use their site and end up buying something.

Studio Ghibli pens. I mean, how can you not buy them?!

On a slightly more serious note - I agree with the Uniball Signo recommendations. They're good, reliable pens. I don't care for writing with Frixion pens, but they are the player in the erasable pen arena.

I really appreciate how they provide samples with metadata on how each pen/paper works. Even if you disagree with their "Best of" lists, they give you the data you need to make informed buying choices. Something all too absent for other online ordering.

And they have a better selection of really fine point pens than other sites.

A Lamy Safari's triangular shape makes it physically hard to hold the "wrong" way. It nudges me to write with my fingertips, not my wrist. The effect on my hand pain, and my ability to hand-write long bits of test, was immediate and huge.

I wouldn't have thought that simply switching pens would make such an enormous difference in my ability to put ink on paper. It sure did, though.

Well boy-howdy is the ECO not only leagues better than the GO, but I much prefer to all my other pens.

Folks recommend the really cheap platinum preppy pens, but be warned they are super scratchy. I would go a size up from what you normally prefer wrt to nib (if you are new, try M as F and EF are extremely scratchy IMHO).

The opposite is true about the TWISBI in my experience. Go a size down. Their F nibs write quite fat.

Then again, I mostly write on cheap paper so this advice def doesn't apply to e.g. Rhodia pads.

Finally, I don't love the metropolitan. Feels great in the hand but I always find myself reaching for the smooth writing I get from my Eco.

Why? Because I'm about to drop ~$40 on pens as a result of the post, and discussion here.

Echoing other people's sentiments here - love the site, love the density, love the niche'ness, love the information.

The Pilot Vanishing Point doesn't need a cap, the nib is exposed and protected in a manner akin to clicking a ball point in and out. Mine works perfectly.

The Lamy 2000 is sleek and modern looking with a sophisticated design. It looks like a fountain pen that one might see in a Star Trek movie, but this model has been around since the mid 1960's. After half a century, the design is still the favorite of my collection. It operates flawlessly.

I own the other, less expensive fountain pens mentioned as well; they would be good choices too. I started out with some of these and I still like them, but it is easy to get hooked on buying more fountain pens and fancy inks.

As a left-handed person who tends to smudge a lot of other inks, EnerGels write smoothly without smudging. They're also cheap enough to buy a whole pack and not worry about losing them.

It's the same feeling I had when I visited my first website.

It's that same feeling I got when we had software instead of web apps.

Tangible springs to mind.

and the conclusion is that the best ones are the normal ones you can get in every store, you don't need to custom order weird stuff from japan. you don't need to hack together something out of the parts of two different things. the best rollerball pen is the one i've got a dozen of in my cupboard, and i can buy more of at the office supply store down the street.

I've used a lot of random pens when signing my name at various places of business, and none of them seemed better to me than a BIC Cristal. In fact, many are so much worse that I usually bring my own BIC Cristal to places where I know I'll be filling out paperwork.

I have a bunch of Uni-ball Jetstream pens that I'm real happy about. I learned about those from this site in one of their previous articles.

I can't tell if they're saying the Jetstream is no longer as good as it was, or these other new pens are even better, or they're just kind of pushing something new.

I'm tempted to order some of the Pentel Energels, Pilot Multiball, etc.. I'm not a highlighter person so don't care about that one. I guess the other thing is knowing some other options to look for in a pinch. The Uni-ball Jetstream is not commonly found in stores near me. I generally have to order them. If the Pentel/Pilot options are more common I need to keep that in mind.

Their specific articles on left handedness explain a ton.. I never connected any of the effects (cramping, calluses, scraping the paper, etc..) other than smudging because I never really thought about how righties are pulling across the paper in left-to-right languages and lefties are pushing across the paper. It also explains why fountain pens are so brutal for lefties. They're so annoying maybe it explains why they used to try so hard to get left handed people to learn to switch for writing. I actually think I'd have been fine if forced to switch.

My silliest pen story was walking into a fancy pen store and the sales person was a total snob. He lost a sure fire sale instantly based on judging me on my clothes or something. None of the pens had prices and when I asked about one he said if I had to ask I couldn't afford it. I wanted to come back and say I could buy every pen in the store or maybe the whole store, which I might have very well been able to. They went out of business. (Part of this was they were renting space in the mall, they didn't own their premises)

Ended up landing on sharpie s-gel metal pen bodies (there's a blacked out variation that is appealing) with pentel energel refills.

I am really fond of the zebra G-750 (all metal gel pen, also blacked out) but I'm able to get a dozen of the above combo very, very cheap.

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Best-Pens-for-Writing-Check...

I'd love a source of reviews like this for the refills. This pen takes a Parker style refill (Cross is another common refill style), and the ones that come with the kit doesn't last long anyway. So a nice source of reviews for the inserts would be really valuable.

> It’s important to keep in mind that Pilot FriXion ink will “erase” with any heat, so we don’t recommend storing your notebooks on top of a radiator or in cars during the summer. Additionally, don’t use FriXion ink to take tests or write on important documents. If your writing disappears inadvertently, you may be able to get it to reappear by placing the paper in a freezer that reaches below 14°F, or -10°C.

I have pens and pads that were gifts from luxury companies like Montblanc, and Hermés but nothing quite compares to those pencils and pads above.

I have been using these for years now and they are the most comfortable for me to write with.

I greatly prefer chisel tips/nibs but I like the convenience of felt tip pens as well as waterproof ink that dries quickly and doesn't smear.

The closest thing I've found is a fine tip calligraphy marker, but they don't seem to last very long.

Alternately something like a Flair pen but with a chisel tip and waterproof ink.

I haven't tried the Pilot Parallel, but the finest nib is 1.5mm which seems too bold, and it's basically a fountain pen so is likely to have the same issues of messiness and running out of ink.

edit: the Staedtler Pigment Liner Marker has a 2mm chisel tip but I'd like something smaller.

As for the Muji, loving this thing. It's so great for math, it's saving my linear algebra grade.

Pilot no longer seems to offer the original model, which I insist on, but I was able to acquire large quantities from several Amazon stores.

Any B5 notebook with squares, blank pages or dots will do (Leuchtturm ones are nice), as long as the pages are numbered. I have laptops and paper notebooks everywhere, so I do not use one linearly until it is filled, but hop between them. Each entry is dated, though, so this does not cause a problem.

I searched for the brand and the first hit on ddg was jetpens. Never knew of the site till now

Definitely invest in a good notebook if you get a nice pen. The pelikan is a pain to write with on regular paper.

It's a pressurized pen for less than $2 in the ten packs!!

It's not the most luxurious feeling to write with, but that doesn't matter when you just need a few quick sentences and checkboxes now and again. Pressurized pens are ideal for the modern use case of occasionally filling out something, usually in a hurry, with a pen you haven't touched in a week.

I really like the Mitsubishi Uni-ball Protech pen UB-155. I can't find them here in the states. If anyone knows where to get them, please let me know!

Here is a blog post about them: https://penvibe.com/uni-ball-ub-155-micro-deluxe-review/

Does anyone know why fountain pens are just so expensive? I figure its a low volume niche but a piston filling pen really I'd think would cost a few cents to make. You can get good smartphones for $50.

http://penisland.net

They've been absolutely fantastic and are a darling of /r/fountainpens over at reddit.

https://www.gouletpens.com/

I need to keep myself from browsing too much for fear of parting with $$$

I purchased my daily writer, a Lamy, was also from jetpens.

I agree with their recommendations, especially the TWSBI ECO Fountain Pen - would recommend that over the Pilot Metropolitan, but both are great.

Are there any other pens that have a bit of weight to it? Any Recommendations?

Jetpens: Sure! Here’s 10,000 words on why it’s the best pen

1. Pentel Kerry. There are slightly more convenient mechanical pencils around for writing, with an autoadvance clicker and rotation. But the Kerry has a cap that posts nicely, and is made to last forever, so now I have three in different colors. Pair with a lead of your preference(I like Nanodia 4H because the harder lead won't smudge and erases well). I will also use regular wood pencils, because they're lighter, but mechanical is good for getting the same line every time.

2. Uni-Pin brush. This is a slightly softer style of felt tip than the Tombow Fudenosuke recommended in the article(which are also good and easy to learn with). It's excellent for learning brush techniques - more forgiving than real bristles but still springy and expressive, and it writes dry enough that most paper will withstand it. It also comes in various shades of grey/sepia. The values on those are pretty dark so they aren't really suitable for highlighting, but they can add some character to a brush drawing.

3. Tombow Mono Stick Eraser - among the plastic erasers, I looked up comparison videos and Tombow probably has the strongest formulation - it immediately grabs graphite and makes it really disappear. In some niche cases you don't actually want that and would rather have a Pink Pearl to fade something with gradually, but the Mono is excellent at cleaning up a page without much effort - and the stick form is good for precision.

3. Papermate Inkjoy Quattro. This is something I picked up because it was the only kind of multipen offered in Office Depot. And it's fine. The Inkjoy refills are decent, and when you want one pen for all your notetaking, a multi is the right thing to keep in your pocket.

4. Uni-ball Signo 207 Plus+. The Plus+ has a new formulation of ink that I find is one of the most consistent gel pens I have - it's smooth enough, handles well, flow is consistent, it doesn't get slippery.

5. Uni-ball One F. This is a much more scratchy and skippy pen than the 207+, but it has the benefit of being the darkest gel I have ever used, and capable of dialing in some super fine lines in the 0.38 version. That makes it a good drawing pen. The F(Feel) body is weighted at the tip which makes it a little less plasticy, but I also use the original One bodies still. All gel refills tend to flow better after having some rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer applied to their tip, so I recommend always doing that with these.

5. "Aen Arts" gel set - this is one of those whitelabel things you can find on Alibaba, but also shows up on Amazon under various seller names. For under $30 you get an array of Gelly Roll knockoffs. And they are pretty good!

6. Ohuhu water-based dual brush marker set. Like with the gel set, this appears to be a whitelabel of Tombow Dual Brush knockoffs. Again, cheap, pretty good for coloring and highlighting, though the tips definitely aren't all that durable.

7. Pilot Kakuno. Like the Metropolitan featured in the article, it's just a well made fountain at an intro price. The ink feed is a relatively difficult thing to QC, and Pilot is one of the best at just making it work out of the box.

8. Uni-ball Vision Needle. Of the different Uni rollers, this is the one I tend to pick up the most. The needle tip design gives extra visibility, and the refill is smooth enough, though if you want to try one that is buttery smooth and gushes ink, get a Schneider One Business. Also worth a mention here is the Uni-Ball Air, which makes more expressive, inky lines. The downside of going for smooth rollers is that you can lose control more easily.