What good quality pen do you recommend ?
1. Pentel Energel needlepoints 0.5 (BLN75 or the BLN105); refills fit a Lamy Tipo. It's a great everyday pen.
2. Zebra Sarasa 0.5 - lots of variations of this pen with lots of pretty ink colors and cute body styles. I would use it more, if it were available in local shops. I don't order stationery.
I tried the often lauded Pilot G2, but wasn't a fan. It often would smear.
I like how quick drying gel pens are, but I haven’t been able to write with them consistently. If that happens to you with other rollerballs, I’ll give that Pentel Energel a try.
The Energels and Sarasas are the best pens I've found: affordable, nice to use, reliable, and refills fit a variety of pen bodies. If there's skipping, wiping off the tip of the pen to remove any grime resolves it.
In case it's helpful: I place my hand under the text I'm writing, aka "underwriting" and use light to medium pressure.
1. A budget. 2. Writing preferences and handedness. 3. Preferred writing surface/media. 4. Body type
For 2, that would include:
a) tip type - rollerball, ballpoint, fountain, or 'marker'.
b) tip size/diameter (essentially contact surface area) e.g. 0.17mm-1.0+mm
c) 'ink' type - gel etc.
Handedness matters mostly because left handers typically want the fastest drying ink.
Writing surface (paper) is important because it can drastically change how a pen writes (especially for fountain pens).
The body type might include approx. thickness (compared to an average pencil maybe), body material (metal, plastic, wood), contoured grip (yes/no, material?), and retractability.
If you don't know any of those, I would say just try to define what quality would mean to you.
As someone who always carries a pen in my pocket when I leave the house, I've come to find this one surprisingly important. Retractable pens have a habit of accidentally engaging and scribbling over the pocket fabric. I exclusively use capped pens for my daily carries now.
> left handers typically want the fastest drying ink.
Heck yes!
I've been using these for maybe 14 years? And I've got three dozen more in my desk cause you never know when something you like is gonna get discontinued.
I haven't quite settled down on paper though. Rhodia wire-bound dotted A5 has the best quality paper, but I sorely miss the flexibility of free leaf notes. Latest discovery - Muji's A5 binder. It's a Japanese 20-holes-per-A5 spacing, so fairly rare in the EU. Also, the Muji's default paper isn't great for some wetter fountain pens... but hopefully I'll figure some way to make it work.