Pens for Notebook Testing

review pens

All this week, I’ll be publishing reviews of an assortment of notebooks. I wanted to share all the pens I used in the writing tests. I tried to use a wide variety of pens from gel, ballpoint, rollerball, fountain and pencils.

They were all oddly color coordinated too so I thought they were photo worthy. What pens do you use to test out your new notebooks? Do you do writing samples on the first page, last page or just grab a pen and start writing and see what happens?

(Do you recognize all the pens in the photo?)

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8 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I love the assortment of pens and how color-coordinated they are! I’ve discovered a pattern in my accessories lately. Not so much my pens, but things like pen cases, clipboards, binders, notebooks, etc, are all turquoise and lime green.

    I’m definitely a grab a pen and start using the notebook kind of person. That might be why I have a couple of notebooks I’ve never even cracked open… Maybe if I tested a series of pens on the first page, I wouldn’t have that blank-page-fright. 😀

  2. If I did this I think I would use fountain pens with all nib sizes, markers with different wetness, pencils of different hard/softnesses, in some up or downward order. Then find at what point of each shows the characteristics from the other side of the paper. I like F/EFs the best but some EFs like the new Preppy 02 sometimes show thru a lot on the other side of the page only due to the sharpness of the point of the nib. For some uses that is not OK. Looking forward to your reviews however you do them.

  3. Perfect timing! I’m searching for a notebook with high quality paper that isn’t as slick as a Rhodia or Clairefontaine. I love both notebooks with some of my fountain pens, but they seem to slick for my new Lamy Studio. Can’t wait for the reviews.

  4. Well, yes I do test. On the last page. Did it on the first page a while, but this feels better somehow. I mostly test with all edc pens, in my case that’s more than what the average co-worker would use in a year. There are several types of ink (gel, fountain, fisher) and a pencil.

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