hiiii stationery question, but please don't feel pressured to answer if you don't have the energy etc, i'll be fine
i've been using pilot frixion pens for many years now (0.7 because it's what's most easily available here though i would prefer a slightly thinner line i think), because they're way nicer than regular ballpoint pens while also being erasable (which i used to want for clean note-taking while i was still in school)
however. chronic illness happens, hands become ouchy from writing with my trusty frixion pens, and i figured i should probably do something about it? i'm okay with giving up the erasability for a pen that's easier to write with
what are some good beginner pens that don't require much pressure to write with and have a thickness of maybe 0.5 ish? i don't know anything about pens really, except occasionally reading some of your stationery posts (would the pilot kakuno be a good fit for me? i remember you saying good things about it before)
i don't really have the energy to experiment with different paper, i would prefer a pen that just consistently works okay with mostly any paper so that i don't have to worry about it
thank you! (and, i like seeing someone talk about things they're passionate about, so i absolutely won't mind if your answer is long and detailed 😁 but equally if you don't have time or energy for it then i'll be more than happy if you just tell me the names of a couple different pens and leave it at that, or anything in between!)
hey there fellow pilot frixion enthusiast! I hear you.
you want a one-and-done, tried-and-true, all-rounder pen that writes thinner than an erasable frixion gel pen in 0.7mm. something ergonomic you can use for a long time every day but also shove in a drawer or bag, ready and waiting for all of life's adventures. something trustworthy that writes on everything, without having to worry about pen maintenance, bottled ink, or buying new types of paper. It Just Works™.
thanks for the question! because this one is really easy!
you want the uni jetstream lite touch! (<- jetpens link. not sponsored but they have a LOT of really helpful information. )
the uni jetstream also comes in normal/original/non-"lite touch" version but you absolutely absolutely want the lite touch edition specifically, since it is miles more ergonomic. the lite touch is definitely not an erasable pen. but honestly after I started using better pens I was able to use fewer and fewer pencils and frixion pens despite my erasable-loving habits because the ergonomics are just so damn good. it feels really good not to have an aching wrist. less aching wrist means less mistakes for me
the uni jetstream lite touch has a lot of body colors and is compatible with even more, but only has a few ink colors available now. this one, despite having a really good body Color™, uses black ink.
the uni jetstream lite touch is a hybrid ballpoint pen. this means the ink is alcohol-based. most promotional pens, cheap pens, and office pens are ballpoint. often with that kind of off-black, blue-black ink that can take a lot of force to write with. bad for wrists, but often good for shading because the color can vary so much by pressure. if your wrists can handle it.
ballpoint, gel, and rollerball pen all dispense ink the same way: the ball. when that ball moves, it makes a line. the more difficulty the ball has moving in that ink, the worse it is on joints and hands, because you always have to write with a downward pressure instead of just side to side.
for the same reason, using a writing board/shitajiki can also be a huge ergonomic boost, because instead of trying to get that ball to move on bouncy paper, you get a sturdier surface underneath your paper. depending on what texture you get, it can more easily snag the ball while preventing it from marking the next sheet of paper. some people find that smooth pens are harder to control and therefore cause more wrist pain, so getting a textured writing board can let someone use a smooth and lighter touch pen like the jetstream lite touch while still maintaining good control of the line. some paper is too smooth to write with some types of ballpoint pens, some writing boards have a rough texture rather than a smooth one, but writing boards are usually dirt cheap and awesome to have around. also they often come in anime style
fountain pens are considered some of the most ergonomic writing utensils because the ink is right at the tip of the nib instead of needing friction to move. ballpoint ink is more of a sludge. imagine rolling a big heavy ball vs gently running a stick along the mud. the stick is going to win but, oh no! the big heavy ball is getting really mad!
a hybrid ballpoint is a ‼️brand new‼️ type of ball-tipped pen ink that also has lubricants added to make the ink easier to move in. low-viscosity. hybrid ballpoint pens also typically have way more vibrant ink than traditional ballpoints. ye olde ballpoint might claim to have black ink while looking more like a cloudy day, while a good hybrid ballpoint with black ink has black ink. better for hands, better for eyes, better for balls.
I have used and informally tested a lot of pens over the years, and the ball-tipped pen with the lowest force to get that ball moving and the pen writing, that I have used at least, is the uni jetstream lite touch. the lite touch actually writes with less force than a lot of my fountain pens. the original uni jetstream is definitely a good pen, but I would often recommend gel pens like the pilot juice up, uni ball signo (RT1 for ultra-smooth), uni ball one, uni ball zento, zebra sarasa dry (great gel pen for lefties), pilot kakuno fountain pen (absolutely the best starter fountain pen) alongside it because it still takes some downward pressure to dispense ink. also gel and fountain pen inks come in more colors.
gel pens use water-based ink with pigment and a gel thickener. rollerballs use thin water-based ink with dye, and is fairly close to fountain pen ink. some rollerballs actually take fountain pen ink to varying degrees of success. traditional ballpoint ink is more of a sludge, and hybrid ballpoint ink is thinner and better. low-viscosity.
when measuring how well a pen and paper partnership gets along, you really want to see crisp, clear lines without anything fuzzy, that stays on one side of the sheet without marking the other side or another sheet.
there is no weight, appearance, texture, or feel to a paper that guarantees it writes well with different types of ink. some people brag about how they rub paper in stores to see what works with fountain pens or rollerball or gel. all of them are wrong and also permanently damaging the fucking paper for whoever winds up buying it. skin oils create invisible oil slicks that can permanently stop some kinds of ink from writing there, ever. different types of paper and inks are more prone to it, but this is a plea from me to everyone: stop rubbing paper in stores, there is no way to tell how it works with ink by feel. just google "[model of paper] [writing utensil] ink test"
some of the best ink performance comes from dirt cheap, tissue-thin, ± scratchy paper while some of the most dogshit ink performance comes from paper that is thick, smooth, and expensive.
finding paper that actually works well with fountain pens, rollerball, gel pens in that order of difficulty can require some internet browsing. stationery communities are always posting pictures of how their pens work on their paper for this reason. I wish the world would stop rubbing paper where an ink test picture would be much more informative without ruining something for someone else...
ballpoint ink, in all its sludgy glory, can write on toilet paper. it also can be left in a car in the cold without worrying about it freezing and exploding so much as other types of pens. hybrid ballpoint ink is thinner than traditional ballpoint ink and therefore a little bit less tank-y, but a hybrid ballpoint is still more likely to work on any old kind of paper than rollerball, gel, and fountain pen ink. the main limitation is color choice.
the uni jetstream lite touch specifically is the beautiful partnership between some of the best characteristics of ballpoint, gel, rollerball, and fountain pens. water-resistant, fadeproof, quick-drying, writes on almost anything, and barely takes any pressure to write with at all. it might, however, be a little more sensitive to temperature and pressure changes than a sludgy traditional ballpoint pen due to being a thinner ink. but since you typically use frixion gel pens, anything the frixion can handle, the uni jetstream lite touch can almost definitely handle better. other than erasing.
another awesome thing is that the uni jetstream lite touch uses a type of pen refill that is compatible with a fuckload of other pen bodies.
somewhat similarly to mechanical pencils, ball-tipped pens are made up of the body and the refill. a good chunk of ball-tipped pens are refillable, and you can get to the refill by unscrewing the body. usually somewhere at the grip. when ball-tipped pens have non-proprietary refills, you can swap that sucker with any number of other cool pen bodies that might fit your hand and writing style better. for me, some days I want a lightweight pen, other days I want a heavy one. knowing what kind of pen bodies help you best with which kind of symptoms can be a huge game changer, and of course you want to make sure the thing writes well too.
there are also a bunch of fancy adjustable pen bodies these days designed to take a bunch of different ball-tipped refills, including proprietary ones. like bigidesign pen bodies that can take hundreds of different pen refills. adjustable ball-tipped pen bodies are typically a lot more expensive than more traditional ball-tipped pen bodies. if you want to try a ton of different refills and know exactly what kind of pen body you like, adjustable pen bodies can be a lifelong companion, since a lot of them come in really cool sturdy metal. but you can also just figure out what refill style you like and get much cheaper compatible pen bodies without having to navigate adjusting it.
anyway, uni jetstream lite touch (and again remember the lite touch!) as stocked on jetpens currently comes in a widely compatible bigger style (one refill per pen body) and a smaller multi-pen style (using a bunch of colors in one pen), in 0.7mm and 0.5mm. you say you usually use gel pens in 0.7mm, so a quick note here: ballpoint pens typically write a bit thinner than gel pens of the same size. a ballpoint in 0.7mm typically writes thinner than a gel pen in 0.7mm and if that sounds frustrating oh baby yeah it is.
so you would probably have a nice time testing out both the 0.7mm and 0.5mm uni jetstream lite touch! the original uni jetstream comes in more sizes and bodies but it genuinely is just not good enough to universally recommend as the answer to, "what if you could only use one pen model for the rest of your life"
uni-ball could execute the original jetstream and replace it with the lite touch and almost nobody woudl bat an eye
one of the reasons I really like jetpens is their compatibility page. if none of the uni jetstream lite touch bodies really speak to you, you can check out their compatibility chart for the full-sized lite touch refills and for the multi-pen lite touch refills and then just slap them in there. these are not comprehensive lists since jetpens tragically does not stock every pen in the world. but regardless of where you buy your stationery from, the information on US-based jetpens has can be used to find whatever you need from any other retailer that happens to carry the uni jetstream lite touch. or any other pen. I really like their data and testing. thank you jetpens
the lite touch is a much newer pen than the original uni jetstream, so depending on where you are in the world, it can be damn near impossible to find the uni jetstream lite touch in a physical store. you probably want to be buying online to avoid accidentally getting the original, shittier uni jetstream. unfortunately the original uni jetstream currently comes in a lot more sizes and body types and refill types than the objectively better lite touch, but hopefully uni ball will hear my cries and grant our planet the lite touch in sizes smaller than 0.5mm, heavier body types, more ink colors, and better multi-pen bodies.
somebody who read this far might be thinking, "holy fuck rune! this pen sounds like an epic win! how many fortnite dollars does this diamond minecraft level gamer pen cost?" (or whatever kids say these days I never played minecraft)
from jetpens, the uni jetstream lite touch costs....!
$2.95 USD. three whole united states buckaroonies. you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere and even in big office bundles. and unlike the pilot kakuno fountain pen (~$10 USD) you probably do not need to buy new paper or anything, since the uni jetstream lite touch hybrid ballpoint ink writes on basically anything with virtually no pressure. the pilot kakuno is absolutely the best starter fountain pen, pilot namiki ink cartridges do write on a ton of types of paper, you have access to way more types of inks and colors than a hybrid ballpoint, and the ergonomics might be even better than the uni jetstream lite touch.
but if you just want one easy pen that does it all, without ever having to fuck around with it, buy new paper, or learn how to use a new type of pen:
uni jetstream lite touch.
final answer. remember to get the lite touch version specifically!
