Finding a pen is like searching for a violin bow: you need not only find a tool that feels good in your hand, but also one which helps you express yourself.
Go to a local pen shop--one which still advertises that they repair old fountain pens and deals in antique pens. Ask questions (repair history, general background, etc) and write with pens from a number of manufacturers and ages. You'll find what feels good.
Also keep in mind that different pens have different uses:
Fountain pens are great for focused writing, but are only sometimes manageable for general paperwork (and impossible to use on multipart forms!). They flow effortlessly on good paper, but the nibs clog up on sub-20lb bond paper. I happen to like Parker and Waterman, but others like Omas and some (despite poorly manufactured threading on their screw-on nibs) like Mont Blanc. The old Parker Sonnet (before the large gold band) was a joy to write with for long periods. Just keep in mind that fountain pens take a while to get used to: they changed my handwriting from unreadble chickenscratch to elegant and stylistic scrawl in a couple of months. (I'm working on getting it to simply elegant, but I tend to code too much for that to happen).
Rollerballs get some of the flow of a fountain pen, and they do give you some flexibility on which papers you can use it on. I liked the Waterman Expert: thick, light, and stubby.
Ballpoints: well, they are good for multipart forms. Some (like the Uniballs) are good pens for simple everyday uses where you just don't want to whip out your pen. Like around those people you tend to walk away with your pens....
Ultimately, your choice is up to what feels good in your hand and what uses you intend to use the pen for. You may need more than one pen.
While it saddens me to see yet another monopolistic action from M$, several clients and friends could benefit from being able to run Linux & Solaris from their Windoze machines. It would certainly assist in my ability to educate them to the power of *nix. And that familiarity, eventually, would permit a not-insignificant percent of them to take the leap to Linux, especially since some of them are non-profits who are tired of paying ever more fees to the Empire. So go ahead, Redmond: integrate this new tool into Windows.
I'll stick with VMWare, however, so I can run Windoze inside of Linux and close any Xwindow showing the BSOD.;-)
It is hard to read what M$ intends to do by removing free TT fonts from public download, but I cannot see it as a good thing. Basically, M$ is creating a condition in which browsers running on *nix may not (at some point) be able to render Verdana, which is probably one of the most common fonts on the Web. If Verdana is not installed on (say) a Linux PC, all its browsers (Mozilla, Konquerer) will need to degrade to another alternative non-serif font, unless Verdana can be installed in some way or licensed for distribution with Linux distros.
Keep in mind that M$ commissioned one of the great designers (Matthew Carter,of Bitstream, now of the firm Carter and Cone) to design these TT fonts for onscreen legibility. It will not be easy to replace them (Verdana in particular) with another freely-available font.
However, the OSS community is is dire need of a set of fonts that compete with those available on the M$ platforms, both for on screen use and for printing, especially if it hopes to expand onto the office desktop.
Suggestion to the OSS community: have the emerging alliances between the various distros (e.g.,LSB) create a shared fund, used to commission someone to design a serif and non-serif font for general use on all platforms (including Linux). The goal should be to create a font as good or better than the ones that Matthew Carter designed. And give Matthew Carter first dibs on trying to best himself, thereby ensuring that whatever succeeds Verdana will be of the same style and eloquence as Verdana itself.
In the meantime, (and this may be flamebait) distros may wish pay the evil empire to license Verdana and Georgia for distribution with Linux.
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Go to a local pen shop--one which still advertises that they repair old fountain pens and deals in antique pens. Ask questions (repair history, general background, etc) and write with pens from a number of manufacturers and ages. You'll find what feels good.
Also keep in mind that different pens have different uses:
Fountain pens are great for focused writing, but are only sometimes manageable for general paperwork (and impossible to use on multipart forms!). They flow effortlessly on good paper, but the nibs clog up on sub-20lb bond paper. I happen to like Parker and Waterman, but others like Omas and some (despite poorly manufactured threading on their screw-on nibs) like Mont Blanc. The old Parker Sonnet (before the large gold band) was a joy to write with for long periods. Just keep in mind that fountain pens take a while to get used to: they changed my handwriting from unreadble chickenscratch to elegant and stylistic scrawl in a couple of months. (I'm working on getting it to simply elegant, but I tend to code too much for that to happen).
Rollerballs get some of the flow of a fountain pen, and they do give you some flexibility on which papers you can use it on. I liked the Waterman Expert: thick, light, and stubby.
Ballpoints: well, they are good for multipart forms. Some (like the Uniballs) are good pens for simple everyday uses where you just don't want to whip out your pen. Like around those people you tend to walk away with your pens....
Ultimately, your choice is up to what feels good in your hand and what uses you intend to use the pen for. You may need more than one pen.
While it saddens me to see yet another monopolistic action from M$, several clients and friends could benefit from being able to run Linux & Solaris from their Windoze machines. It would certainly assist in my ability to educate them to the power of *nix. And that familiarity, eventually, would permit a not-insignificant percent of them to take the leap to Linux, especially since some of them are non-profits who are tired of paying ever more fees to the Empire. So go ahead, Redmond: integrate this new tool into Windows.
;-)
I'll stick with VMWare, however, so I can run Windoze inside of Linux and close any Xwindow showing the BSOD.
It is hard to read what M$ intends to do by removing free TT fonts from public download, but I cannot see it as a good thing. Basically, M$ is creating a condition in which browsers running on *nix may not (at some point) be able to render Verdana, which is probably one of the most common fonts on the Web. If Verdana is not installed on (say) a Linux PC, all its browsers (Mozilla, Konquerer) will need to degrade to another alternative non-serif font, unless Verdana can be installed in some way or licensed for distribution with Linux distros.
Keep in mind that M$ commissioned one of the great designers (Matthew Carter,of Bitstream, now of the firm Carter and Cone) to design these TT fonts for onscreen legibility. It will not be easy to replace them (Verdana in particular) with another freely-available font.
However, the OSS community is is dire need of a set of fonts that compete with those available on the M$ platforms, both for on screen use and for printing, especially if it hopes to expand onto the office desktop.
Suggestion to the OSS community: have the emerging alliances between the various distros (e.g.,LSB) create a shared fund, used to commission someone to design a serif and non-serif font for general use on all platforms (including Linux). The goal should be to create a font as good or better than the ones that Matthew Carter designed. And give Matthew Carter first dibs on trying to best himself, thereby ensuring that whatever succeeds Verdana will be of the same style and eloquence as Verdana itself.
In the meantime, (and this may be flamebait) distros may wish pay the evil empire to license Verdana and Georgia for distribution with Linux.