The Write Stuff – Choosing the Writing Instrument That’s Right for You

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

If you have to do any amount of writing for work, study, or in your home life then you are bound to have been dissatisfied with your pen at some point.

Either it’s just too ‘scratchy’ on the paper, or the tip has become all gummed up, or it’s leaked, or the ink didn’t dry quickly enough and it ended up smeared halfway across the page. Yes, I know, you probably should have been more patient and let it dry for longer, but who has the time to wait, right?

Whatever the issue, spending a few minutes thinking about what pen suits you, and what you are writing, is worthwhile.

So, what’s the deal?

Finding a pen that is right for your needs should be pretty easy. In today’s market, you have a much greater choice than was once the case.

If you’re looking for a cheap, effective, disposable option to fill up the stationery cupboard then you probably need look no further than a box of simple ballpoints (see below).

If the pen is for personal use, then it’s worth trying a few options. Many pens these days come in a variety of ergonomic designs, including cushioned gripping surfaces and nicely balanced weights to suit most writing styles.

Let’s run through a few types of pen. You are probably familiar with them, even if you don’t quite know the differences between them or maybe even what they’re called.

Ballpoint pens.

Ballpoints are the most common ‘stick’ pens on the market. Loads of people in the UK refer to these pens as the ‘Biro’, which is understandable (Lazlo Biro was the Hungarian inventor who developed the first ever ballpoint pen) but most stationers will list the pens as either ‘stick’ pens or, more commonly, ‘ballpoints’. They are inexpensive, usually disposable, and use an oil-based ink that dries quickly on the page. However, over time the ink can start to coagulate and collect dust in the tip of the pen, which creates gummed-up blobs. Because these pens are available so cheaply in large quantities, they are the usual ‘pen of choice’ for stationery cupboards in businesses and schools. A typical example would be the Bic Cristal pen – a pen that is so common it’s almost impossible for you not to be familiar with it.

Rollerball pens

Rollerballs. These pens use similar technology to the traditional ballpoint, but they typically have a finer tip (producing a thinner, neater, line when writing) and they use a water-based ink. The ink flow of a rollerball is therefore much more consistent than a ballpoint so it ‘skips’ less often when you are writing. You also need apply less pressure, so it can be much more comfortable to write with than the ballpoint. They do have a greater tendency to leak than ballpoint pens, however, so a rollerball is not a pen you would want to store in your shirt pocket. Also, the ink takes slightly longer to dry than the oil-based ink in a ball pen so, if you are left-handed, a rollerball may be a turn off for you, depending on your writing style.

Gel pens.

Well, the clue is in the name… these pens use a thick gel instead of an oil-based or water-based ink. The gel does have a shelf-life (it dries up after about three years, so an older gel pen may not work) but whilst they are working they are very nice to write with. They have an effortless ‘gliding’ feel to them as the pen slides across the page. However, these pens require you to be patient. The ‘ink’ takes a long time to dry so don’t go touching it too quickly afterwards, or you will end up with your writing smeared halfway across the page. Again, as with rollerballs, gel pens may not be great for left-handed writers.

Fountain pens.

The fountain pen is the oldest form of pen that is still commonplace in the market. Typically, these pens come with a selection of interchangeable nibs, making the fountain pen a versatile writing instrument that rewards practice with some truly excellent handwriting results. The application of different pressure whilst you’re writing can also result in different weights of line, making the fountain pen a more technically challenging instrument to use, but also one that can yield very good results. The downside of fountain pens in general is that, as mentioned it does take quite a bit of practice to use a fountain pen well, and they can have a tendency towards leaking too. However, it can be worth persevering and there are some fantastic relatively inexpensive fountain pens on the market – Lamy do a range of brightly coloured, modern, pens that are comparatively easy to get to grips with.

Felt tip pens.

There are a bunch of different felt tips on the market, most of which are a sort of halfway house between a stick pen and a marker pen (so not something you would normally use for writing). They can be good for bigger, bolder pieces of writing, but not on a lighter weight or matte paper because the ink will tend to ‘bleed’ on the paper. If you want to write on unusual surfaces (i.e. – not paper) then you could do worse than choose a felt tip pen like the world-famous Sharpie – a brand that has become almost synonymous with ‘permanent marker’, and is rightly lauded for its ability to write on almost anything.

Fineliners.

Fineliners are pens that are worth a mention because, although they are intended for use with graphic design or drawing, a lot of people favour them for writing too. Fineliners have a fine fibre or plastic tip and a long metal-clad nib, and they use dye-based inks. The inks are not always permanent, so if you want your writing to last then it’s worth checking that the ones you are buying use lightfast and waterproof pigments.

Hang on, aren’t posh pens kind of expensive?

Sure, you can spend anything from a few pence to a few hundred pounds on a writing instrument and whilst you might not be in the market for a high-end pen, you might want to consider giving a refillable pen a go. It means you have a pen that you get to know well and that you love writing with, and for from being expensive it’s actually cheaper in the long run.

Fountain pens are the most obvious example of refillable pens. Most of the modern ones come with plastic ink cartridges, although you can also still get the old-fashioned type that have a reservoir that you fill from an ink bottle.

But it’s not only fountain pens that are refillable. The more expensive gel pens, ballpoints, and rollerballs are also reusable rather than disposable. And here’s the thing. Refill sticks or cartridges use up fewer resources than a disposable pen so, not only will you have a nicer writing experience but also, it’s a bit better for the environment too.

Thanks for reading, and if you think that this information will be of use to someone else you know, please don’t hesitate to share it.

Inkjet vs. Laser – Battle of The Printers

Things to Consider When Choosing a New Printer

It used to be so easy – laser printers were ‘business’ machines and inkjet printers were domestic machines.

These days, it’s more confusing with new innovations in technology making the decision a whole lot harder than was once the case.

In simple terms, the difference in the basic technology is still easy to understand:

·       Inkjet printers use liquid ink which is sprayed through microscopic nozzles on to the paper.

·       Laser printers use a toner cartridge (which is filled with a very fine powder) and a heated fuser.

So, with the technology being so obviously differentiated, making a choice between the two types of printer ought to be straightforward:

·       Laser printers have always tended to be more expensive than inkjet, but they have typically been faster (once they have warmed up), and have a higher output per cartridge. If you needed something fast that could handle heavy office workloads, you bought a laser. Hence, they have traditionally been the choice of business.

·       Meanwhile, if you wanted high-quality, affordable colour printing for the home or professional quality photo prints, you went for down the inkjet route.

So far, so simple.

But things have changed:

Colour laser printers have now started to retail at prices tempting to home users, while business inkjets have been taking strides forward in development so that they are becoming more of a credible business choice.

The last couple of years have seen the evolution of a new breed of inkjets that are faster than their ancestors, and more ecologically friendly than their toner-consuming laser cousins.

So, what’s the real story?

Both Inkjet and Laser printers still have advantages and disadvantages, although it is fair to say that improvements to the core technology are helping both types of printer to push past their limitations. There are five main things you need to consider when you are looking at choosing your next printer:

1.       Speed

2.       Quality

3.       Durability

4.       Costs

5.       Networking and security

1.       The Fast and the Furious. Time is money; speed is important.

It has traditionally been the case that laser printers were the fastest kids on the block, but inkjets are the new boy-racers.

Not so long ago, inkjet printers topped out at around 30ppm (pages per minute) in black-and-white and only 10ppm in colour. Yep – the printer equivalent of a Granny in a Honda doing 50mph in the slow lane. Meanwhile, laser printers were routinely hitting speeds of up to 40ppm, irrespective of whether it was printing in black and white or colour. Ferrari territory.

Now, though, laser printers are hitting speeds of 60, and even 70ppm. You might think that this would be like the lasers simply upgrading from sports car to supercar; widening the performance gap between the two types of machine and leaving the inkjets in the dust.

Nope.

The new generation of inkjet printers now have print heads that span the entire width of an A4 page, and they can spew out pages at a ridiculous speed; up to 75ppm, which matches and even beats some of the fastest laser printers, and turning preconceptions on their heads. Granny just overtook Vin Diesel doing 120mph in the outside lane.

2.       Quality is king

In many cases a good quality laser printer will still have the edge when it comes to clean, crisp black text and colour graphics for most business documents.

However, whilst not quite stealing a march on the lasers just yet, inkjets have improved dramatically. Inkjet text reproduction is now easily good enough for all internal documents and even most external use.

Add to that, inkjets almost universally produce the best results when printing photos, and you can see that the newer generation of inkjet printers are very much a contender when it comes to selecting a credible business machine. 

3.       Durability – your business needs a workhorse

This is where laser printers have always smashed it out of the park. They are built to handle enormous workloads of anywhere between 2000 and 20000 pages.

Even with the new generation of inkjets, they still wimp out after a monthly workload exceeding the range of 1500 to 5000 pages (depending on model).

But, you know what? 1500 – 5000 pages is a lot.

In fact, it’s probably going to be perfectly adequate for most smaller SMEs (where an average print job is around four pages) or small departments in large businesses. So, even on the durability front, don’t count out the inkjet just yet.

4.       Money, money, money. How much does it cost?

In printer lore passed down from days of yore, we know that lasers are expensive to buy but cheap to run, while inkjets are cheap upfront but cost you more in the consumables, with a laser toner cartridge churning out thousands of prints, and an inkjet cartridge running out every five minutes.

But, as with so much else in this brave new world of printing devices, this conventional wisdom is no longer reliable.

On the one hand, lasers are getting cheaper to buy up front. Budget models are coming with smaller starter cartridges that run out fairly quickly, though the standard or super-sized cartridges will still have impressive lifespans. In toner alone, expect the cost per page to come in at around 2p for a black-and-white page and 5p to 10p for a colour page.

On the other hand, business inkjets are getting their own costs per page right down, to the extent that some models can now produce prints for around 1p per page for black-and-white to 5p per page for colour. Meanwhile, extra-large cartridges have hit the market and so too have clever innovations like Epson’s Ecotank range. This means a lot of newer inkjets are able to print over 9000 pages (black) or 6500 pages (colour).

It’s only fair to note that there are other costs to consider.

Laser printers still deliver excellent results even on plain paper (although smoother paper will always produce even better results), so there’s no need to splash out on dearer paper.  

Having said that, inkjet paper is no longer so much more expensive, and inkjets usually consume less power than lasers, so they are cheaper (and more ecologically friendly) to run in terms of power consumption.

Combine that with a lower purchase cost, and there’s definite scope to save your business money.

5.       Networking and Security – plug in, baby

It is still true that the top-end enterprise level laser printers offer more management tools, plus support for more high-end networking (e.g. Gigabit Ethernet and IPSec).

But even in this area, inkjets are coming into their own. An increasing number of office inkjet printers have the same or similar embedded management features that laser printers have, plus document security features that you normally only get with MPS (managed print services solutions), such as secure pull-printing, where jobs are held in a queue until released at the printer with a PIN code.

Not only that, but also the new generation of inkjets come with wireless and cloud-printing features that enable the printer to work with a wider range of devices or take print jobs from remote locations.

So, a laser might offer more management and security features at the top end of the market but a business inkjet can still give you all the tools most businesses need.

What’s the bottom line?

It’s no longer a straightforward decision of ‘laser for business’ and ‘inkjet for home’. But that’s a good thing.

As technology has evolved, the range of functions and applications available across a wide range of different machines means that your business can now take advantage of the features it needs at a price that is competitive. Combine a smart printer choice with a MPS solution, and you will be optimising your efficiency in terms of your business expenditure and your operational effectiveness. 

Thanks for reading, and if you think that this information will be of use to someone else you know, please don’t hesitate to share it.