You have heard about or used or come across several varieties and types of pens such as reed pen, quill pen, ink brush pen, dip pen, fountain pen, ballpoint pen, marker pen, rollerball pen, space pen, ruling pen, and gel pen etc. Each type of pen has its own characteristics and functioning. For example, reed pens and quill pens were used from ancient periods which you may not have seen in your era. The reed pans were made out of bamboo or reed with a split nib which allowed ink to the point of the reed pen. Similarly, the quill pens were made out a feather of birds preferably large birds which existed before the reed pens. So, you had varieties of pens beginning from reed and quill pens from the ancient civilizations to gel pens of the contemporary period. Some of the primitively used pens, as well as outdated pens such as fountain pens, are rare to be seen in the market whereas you can find many varieties of pens in the market particularly in specialized stores who keep almost all types of pens namely ballpoint gel pen at 123ink.ca.
The gel pens are a specific type of ballpoint pens that use the pigmented water-based gel as ink instead of traditional ink and used popularly for writing and illustrating. The Osaka-Japan based Sakura Colour Product Corporation was the first manufacturer of gel pen in theyear 1984. However, the “Gelly Roll” was the first gel type of pen which was introduced in the US market in late 1980.Soon after that, the Crayola flooded the market with gel pens aiming at the school children. The gel pens of Crayola wrote with fluorescent colours incorporating metallic sparkles.
The graphic architects, as well as artists, love to use gel pens because of its strong colour and extra control of ballpoint pens. Gel pens are popular because they write very smoothly as well as very good for drawing. In addition to this, the tip of gel pens does not wear down easily and last long. The gel pen writings do not fade over time and remain fresh with its colours.
The pigments used in the gel pens are commonly iron oxide or phthalocyanine which are usually mixed with water as well as biopolymers along with polyacrylate thickeners. Because of this mixture, the gel or the pigments is thicker than the ink and gives strong and bright colours.