Pens Pens & More Pens

All of my every day pens around the house have gradually disappeared over the last couple of months (I blame the college kid; when it comes to pens she never has any of her own -- but she always has at least three of mine) so I hit Office Depot to do a little cheapie/disposable pen shopping, and bought these:



I know, after my past, less than joyful experiences with InkJoy I should have skipped them, but they were on sale ($5.00) and I haven't tried this variety. The Uniball Vision Elite pack was a bit pricier at $11.99, but I like Uniball and I wanted to try them, too. The weirdest thing is I actually got the pack of Uniball BLX pens with black-infused color inks for free; when I checked my receipt I discovered that the clerk didn't ring them up.*

Anyway, here's how the pens write:



They're all good, but I like the Uniball BLX pens best. The black-infused ink looks really normal with the blue and red pens, but the green and purple are rather gothic:



I'm going to hide the ones I like and share the rest with the pen thieves. Should keep them from filching mine for another couple of weeks . . .

*This is the universe balancing things, I think; a few days ago I tried to use a coupon on some toner Office Depot e-mailed to me, and although it was perfectly valid they wouldn't honor it because the bar code wouldn't scan.

Joy, Not So Much

Writers are always searching for the perfect pen, so I was quite interested when my friend Jill told me about a lovely commercial she saw for InkJoy, Paper Mate's "revolutionary" new retractable ink pen that promises "effortless" writing. Evidently these pens are so wonderful they practically write by themselves (as they did in the commercial, Jill insisted.) Since I have yet to find an effortless inexpensive writing instrument, and the arthritis in my hands makes finding one a perpetual quest, I had to check them out.



I found two different eight-packs of InkJoy pens at my local CVS store; one set of all-black and another with multicolor inks. As you see here, I bought the latter on sale for $3.99 and brough them home to test drive them.

According to the little story on the back of the package, Paper Mate designed Inkjoy to start "quickly without dragging" and writing with these pens "requires minimal pressure from your hand, and delivers crisp, clean lines every time." They also note "We hope that you feel the joy whenever you write with an InkJoy pen." I'm always prepared for writing joy, so I opened the package and tried out all of the pens.



As soon as I took out the black InkJoy pen the metal clip fell off, which was not a promising beginning. I tried a couple of times to wedge the clip component back in place with no luck. Then I discovered a small ball of soft, waxy goop on the tip, aka the "tip seal" the package claimed preserved the freshness of the pen. Unfortunately this substance had partially melted into the end of the barrel and took me three tries to remove completely. This resulted in ink smeared on my fingertips, something I did not find especially joyful.

The ink did start immediately once I put pen to paper, and flowed a bit better than most ball point pens I've used. Whatever substance or chemical Paper Mate used to make this joyful ink flow has a distinct smell I noticed immediately, rather like ballpoint ink on steroids. Disclaimer: I have a pretty sensitive nose so the ink stink may not bother most people.



I tested the light blue InkJoy next on a pad of writing paper, and again the waxy tip seal ball had partially melted into the barrel and took three tries to remove (wrestling with these tips seals obliged me to stop writing and go wash the ink off my hands several times, also not particularly joy-inspiring.) The ink of the light blue pen had the strongest smell, and the color itself was odd and a bit too light to be practical for writing purposes.



I then put all the pens to the ultimate test by using each in my current Moleskin writing journal. I love Moleskin journals, as they're beautifully made and have perfectly smooth pages, but the narrowness of the lines make them a challenge for me to write in. The ink continued to flow well from all the pens, with some globiness here and there. Pen weight and grip comfort does factor in when you're writing, and the lightness of the barrels and the plastic guards above the pen tips (if these are supposed to provide comfort, they're a total fail) didn't really help in that department at all.

I stopped using the InkJoy pens to switch to my Platinum Koi fountain pen, which is the most effortless pen I own, to compare the feel. The difference between InkJoy and my Koi in writing ease were pretty startling; the cramp that was beginning to set into my hand disappeared with the Koi, along with a lot of my tension. Disclaimer: the Koi has been my most faithful, dependable writing instrument for the last ten years; it has among other superb features a 14k gold nib, and a new one retails for about $300.00, so a 50₵ ball point really hasn't a hope in heaven of competing with it.



The colors of the ink were hit-and-miss for me. I liked the black and dark blue, which were the basic standard color of all ball point pens, but the other colors not so much. The red pen was not really red but more like a dark fuschia, which annoyed the hell out of me. I want red, not dark pink. The orange pen's ink was so light it rendered what I wrote almost unreadable. I then tried a smear test, and discovered the ink doesn't dry instantly. If you don't want to smear what you've written, you have to wait about five seconds for InkJoy to dry.

At no time during my testing of InkJoy did I experience a single moment of joy. Lots of annoyance, yes, a couple of moments of real aggravation, yes, but actual joy, nada.

I took apart the orange pen to look for the revolutionary ink technology I'd been promised, but found the components to be identical to any disposable ball point pen. Since InkJoy didn't deliver on most of Paper Mate's promises -- I think the pens really only provide decent ink flow, assuming you can get the tip seals off without tearing out your hair -- and you can usually find much bigger packs of ballpoint pens at your neighborhood dollar store, I can't recommend them as a good buy.

Smart Pens

It seems as if technology will soon make the pen as extinct as the e-mail did the letter, but maybe not. There are still people who prefer to write by hand, and certainly plenty of places where it's not convenient or permitted to take a laptop. With all the gadgets we have to carry, portability and multifuction capability is becoming an issue.

Digital "smart" pens may not be as sexy as the iPod or Chocolate, but they've come along nicely in the five years since Wired reported on the hunt for markets for the new technology (created by Anoto, a Swedish company.)

Sony Ericsson's CHA-30 ChatPen is a fully integrated digital pen that allows you to send handwritten e-mails, doodles and more. According to one article I read, smart pens like this one are being used to post entries to weblogs. On the other hand, PLANon's DocuPen is not a pen, but a pen-sized handheld scanner with many nifty features. I can't lug my scanner to the library, but I could definitely take this one with me.

Back in 2005 I included the Logitech IO in a pen ten list I wrote, but with the IO2 the company is offering a variety of software, specialty digital paper and other bells and whistles. For portable multifunction pens, I still think nothing beats Brando's USB MP3 Pen + FM Radio + Voice Recorder (try fitting separate devices that perform the same functions in your shirt pocket.)

One that may be perfect for the old-fashioned wroter, the Nokia Digital Pen SU-1B will remember up to 100 pages of handwritten notes for you. No more worrying about losing your notes in the shuffle, either -- you can store them on your PC in their orginal form (nice if you draw schematics or maps.) If you enjoy writing in bookstores and cafes but need a wireless connection for your laptop, Informatica's Wi-Fi Pen detects wireless internet signals and writes, too.

The smart pen has yet to make a significant impact on the publishing industry, but the potential is there. For writers, smart pens are the obvious bridge between the legal pad and the computer. Editors might someday might use a smart pen to add editing marks to an electronic manuscript and send revisions only via e-mail (no paper involved, so we'd save a few forests that way.) Agents negotiating deals with publishers could keep their authors in the loop during the meetings by writing their notes with a smart pen and transmitting the data simultaneously to the author and receiving their feedback just as quickly.

More is on the way. Companies like Fruits and Maxell are continuing to develop new applications for the Anoto technology. Digital paper is still in its infancy; it might become the bridge between the traditional print and electronic novel (I'm thinking of paper or paper-like pages implanted with programmable text. You'd have the feel of a book but you could change the story to whatever you want to read by downloading a new text.)

Speaking for the handicapped writers out here, I'd like to see a pen built along the lines of an optical mouse (or one that is operated by one.) People who can't hold pens or who can't write legibly with one can usually still roll a mouse.

What sort of functions would you like to see in the next generation of smart pens?