Gel Pens - Putting life in life!

They say that a pen is mightier than the sword! And I always wonder which one of them is the mightiest!! The world is full of different types of pens - different colours, different shapes, different sizes, different technologies.

Each literate mortal who uses a pen, has their own preference. Someone likes the fountain pen, because of the finesse and style it exudes. Some prefer the ball point pen for their convenience and affordability and some like me are hardcore gel pen fanatics.

Gel pens make your writing feel like it's wearing skates on an ice skating rink. Your signature lopes and glides on to the page with grace, never blotching or snagging. With most of us chained to keyboards, gel pens remind us of the tactile joys of hand-writing. They make us want to keep adding noughts to that cheque, kisses to that card.

Gel pens were introduced in the mid 80’s in Japan. The pens soon became popular among graphic artists and architects, who could use the control of a ballpoint pen while getting the brilliant colors of a marker. The general design of a gel pen is similar to that of a regular rollerball pen, with a barrel containing the writing mechanism and a cap, and a reservoir filled with ink. The barrels can be created in many different sizes and designs; some have finger grips of rubber or plastic. The size of the nib or pen tip ranges from 0.18 mm to 1.5 mm.

Quality gel pens allow for smooth writing as opposed to felt-tip pens which can drag as you write. With gel pens, you can control the ink flow with the roller type tip as you write for consistent quality.

Gel pens are also easy to maintain. They do not require being stored vertically or horizontally as do other pens. One thing to keep in mind when putting your gel pens away is to keep the cap on when not in use and if you keep them in pen cups, try not to drop it into the cup. This can cause shock to the gel inside by disturbing the pen’s vacuum and is commonly known as “ink drop”. If you do store your gel pens in a cup just make sure to place it in gently and you will be able to use the pens even longer.

Years of research has been put in by the leading manufacturers, to provide authors, students, executives and artists with superior gel pens in every color you can imagine. Companies like Elkos Pens & Add Gel have heavily invested in Technology to keep ahead of the market in regularly churning out the latest models in Gel Pens which provide the user an experience that simply lingers on.

Gel Pens– The Right Pen to Develop your Cursive Penmanship

Gel pens offer a myriad of benefits compared to other pens and paint markers, plus they offer an economical alternative to the conventional dip pen and ink envelopes while delivering a beautiful, distinct look. This makes it one of the best pens for people looking to bring back cursive penmanship.

A brief history of cursive penmanship

Ever since the invention of written text, there has been a group of individuals who took more interest in the art of handwriting – like penmen and scribes. Additionally, every age has introduced its own distinct handwriting style. The Monks, for instance, created the Carolingian script in the 8th century, with its bold, easy-to-read words.

The legibility of the Carolingian script let to the invention of the more indecipherable “black letter” script during medieval times. Afterwards, the Italic script was born – a variation of the Carolingian script where the renaissance scribes and writers in Italy slanted and connected some of the letters with lines to make it more ornate.

Other styles of handwriting emerged, including:

Copperplate – an ornate style that incorporates different kinds of loops and capital letters with distinct flourishes developed in the 16th century.

Spencerian Script – developed in the 19th century to provide a more systematic way of teaching handwriting as literacy levels in America rose

The Palmer modification of the Spencerian Script to make the writing less tiring, and more efficient and practical for the increasing amount of bureaucratic paperwork faced by accountants, businessmen, and bookkeepers in early and mid-twentieth century

D’Nealian script – developed by Donald Thurber in the 1970s to help children transit from manuscript writing (block letter) to cursive

Teachers in schools across America dedicated a great amount of time to penmanship, up until the 1990s when computers started to become popular. Today, many schools don’t even teach cursive handwriting, as children have to spend more time preparing for standardized tests.

So, why should cursive handwriting be re-introduced?

While people are increasingly relying on their digital devices – computers, laptops, and tablets – for all their communication needs, there are still a few reasons why people should not completely abandon old-fashioned cursive handwriting, and possibly try to improve their penmanship. Here are a few good reasons:

Writing by hand makes you smarter – Studies show that writing things by hand, or manually manipulating and drawing out 2D shapes (or letter) aids in learning comprehension. Writing facilitates letter recognition during early childhood, and activates brain regions associated with language, thinking, and working memory.

Helps with knowledge integration – Cursive writing helps to train young brains to integrate visual and tactile information, as well as fine motor dexterity.

You learn better when writing down – since writing is slow, you cannot note down everything you hear. So, you have to be attentive, summarize, paraphrase, use keywords, and even ask questions for clarification, which stimulates your Reticular Activating System (RAS).

May be beneficial for individuals with special needs – studies show that cursive is a good exercise for using kinesthetic skills

Keeps your brain active in old age – handwriting provides great cognitive exercise, reducing the rate of cognitive decline.

Cursive writing is also easy on your hand, convenient, and simple, as it does not require an extra source of power. If you’re going to improve your cursive penmanship, you need some guidance, a notebook, and a pen – preferably a gel pen.

Gel pens have fine tips that create fine, controlled lines, work well on smooth materials, and are less likely to bleed through to the other side of your papers. When using Elkos gel pens, you have a selection of pen colors to choose from, plus they’ve long lasting refill and feather-flow system with Japanese ink.

Elkos Pens are one of the leading global manufacturers of gel pens. If you would like further information on gel pens manufactured by Elkos Pens, visit our website at: http://www.elkospens.com/gel-pen.html

Common Challenges of Gel Pens and How to Overcome Them

Gel pens are great for artwork, but like many other things, there are a few complaints. Some people claim that their pens skip a lot and don’t make nice lines, or they are not visible enough, and attribute the inconsistency to a poor brand. What they don’t realize is that good results can only be achieved under certain circumstances:

Faded lines are influenced by the surface. The darker the surface you are working on, the better and shinier the drawing will be. Generally, drawing over too transparent watercolor layers will make the lines less visible, and cause you to riffle the paper.

Skipping is a common occurrence among most types of pens, including gel pens.It will definitely happen. So, when it does, carefully overdraw the riffle to make your line continuous. Before starting the painting, it is recommended that you scribble on a piece of paper to get the ink flowing.

When you experience too little or too much ink, it is probably because you changing the drawing direction too frequently. Gel pens don’t like this. The best way to draw a continuous line is to move the pen in one direction, and then clean the nib before starting another line. Changing the direction causes skips, while drawing too many lines in the same direction without cleaning the nib causes ink blobs.

A new pen usually works well with few or no skips. But the more it is used, the tougher it gets to work with it. It can be very frustrating to have a pen with just a little ink left, and the nib is barely able to let any ink out. To avoid such challenges, you should consider having a few nibs at hand when working on an important painting to ensure that you see it through with minimal challenges.

Now that you know how to use your gel pens, all that is left is to get a reliable vendor to buy from. Elkos Pens are one of the leading global manufacturers of gel pens, and provide a wide variety of colors and sizes to suit your art needs.