Pens and Pensils
With more pressure day by day to conform to a paperless environment and the advent of smaller and smaller ways of storing data between computers the pen is still a very popular piece of office equipment. Rather than being left behind in the technological stakes, as time goes by development into the pen by leading manufacturers such as Bic, Staedtler and Berol is stronger than ever.
When it comes to the pen, besides the popular biro there are many different types of ink pen to use in the office. The most popular of course is the ball pen made famous with the Biro that uses an oil based ink which can resist extreme temperatures and write on most surfaces. Ball pens can last to between 1500-3000 meters making it a very popular mainstream option when putting pen to paper.
Next is the rollerball pen which uses either ink store or liquid ink and uses a similar technology with gravity to allow ink to roll under the ball at the tip of the pen onto the paper. Rollerball pens are becoming a popular contender to the standard ball pen.
A newer technology in the pen market is gel ink pens which uses an ink that not only offer smooth and vibrant colours but as the ink lubricates the ball at the tip of the pen it also allows for a greater amount of ink to be delivered onto the page by the pen.
Fibre tip pens have been around for a while and use nylon fibres rather than a ball. The ink is soaked through the fibres and offers the advantage of being able to write in a consistent line.
Older technology comes in the form of the fountain pen. Whilst fountain pens are not used nearly as much as the disposable ball pen models they are still a very popular choice for executives and upper management for adding a level of sophistication to their office work that a budget ball pen doesn't provide. Fountain pens are an expensive option compared to ball pens and often use ink cartridges or a refill ink system so that the pen is refilled rather than thrown away.
Highlighter pens don't perform in exactly the same way as a normal biro in that they are not made to write a document but to add ink over existing words to highlight them and provide a stronger emphasis than the words around it. As the highlighter pen works in a very specific way the ink it uses is made to be non-smudging and not damage the words it is being used to highlight.
Marker pens are similar in size and feel to a highlighter pen but are designed for either whiteboard or flipchart work rather than creating documents. Marker pens unlike standard biros have a very thick nib and cover a larger surface area when used making it hard to complete words unless written in large point. The reason marker pens are used for whiteboard and flipchart work is that this medium is often used in presentations or meetings where the flipchart is a visual aid to the presentation rather a direct reference source.
Before pens, biros, highlighters and rollerballs we had pencils which are made nowadays from a mixture of graphite and clay into a strong fused stick. The most common grading and widely popular type of pencil is the HB meaning HARD and BLACK with the grading for pencils ranging across Hardness and Darkest. Although used more rarely in the office workplace, pencils are still popular for performing temporary notes to a document and the phrase pencilling something in often refers to adding something to a diary until you can confirm a commitment and go over the pencil words with pen.
There are still popular applications for pencil work in design and art so the technology still exists to make workplace pencils cutting edge and an often popular pencil is the mechanical pencil which uses a pen model but instead of the inside chamber containing ink it instead has a solid graphite core that can be lengthened and refilled very easily.
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